Outside the convention: truth testimony, violence, rudeness and inconvenience

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People from all across the country met on the Republican National Convention’s opening night — and not just inside Xcel Energy Center.The 2008 National Truth Commission heard testimony at a September 1 hearing held at Christ Lutheran Church in St. Paul, located a few blocks away from the convention site. Many testified, accusing the U.S. government of human rights violations in health care and housing. “People are suffering and people are in pain,” declared Ajamu Baraka of the U.S. Human Rights Network. “We have a system and a government that does not recognize the fundamental humanity of people who are poor and working class.”
“The [federal] government can spend millions on a war but can’t take care of its people,” said Carol Sawall-Smith of Chicago. Continue Reading

‘We are numb to war’: brother of young woman arrested in preemptive raids speaks out

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Police would like to to paint 23-year-old Monica Bicking, whose home was raided on Saturday, August 30, as part of a preemptive strike against RNC protesters, as a “terrorist.” But her brother, Ian Bicking, has come out to speak in support of his sister, whom he says was arrested in an attempt to preemptively suppress the protests at the Republican National Convention. “That war is still with us,” he writes on his blog, “and is still the most significant motivation for the RNC protests…I don’t have any third path to offer, but I just want to make it clear: none of us know what is best to do, none of us have figured out the way to effect change. People complain protest doesn’t work. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but frankly most things don’t work. Doing nothing definitely doesn’t work, and frankly that’s what most of us are doing. Continue Reading

KSTP’s ‘rare’ endorsement of RNC cops came from top GOP donor, station owner

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While KSTP-TV started out its editorial September 7 with a disclaimer, it didn’t end up with one. “It is rare when KSTP decides to take an editorial position,” began anchor Jessica Miles, but that’s exactly what the station did today in praising law enforcement for its job in policing the Republican National Convention and related protests. Undisclosed is that the opinion, attributed to the station’s owner, comes from one Stanley Hubbard, the state’s biggest Republican donor and a personal contributor to the Republican convention. According to Miles, KSTP staffers who witnessed police working the RNC said they were “calm and professional and measured when faced with protesters”; she added that that they were “well trained and prepared to do a tough job.” The editorial concludes:
So it is the opinion of the owners of KSTP that we owe a debt of gratitude to all the police officers on duty during the Republican National Convention. Congratulations and thank you to the men and women in uniform. Continue Reading

Baghdad on the Mississippi

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by Eleanor Arnason • I found a piece by Ray McGovern in Common Dreams on police action in St. Paul.

This sounds as nasty as I had feared: police spies and infiltrators and police preemptive strikes against people doing nothing illegal.

The St. Paul City Council? Only one member had the courage to speak out — Councilman Dave Thune, who was particularly enraged that Sheriff Fletcher took action within St. Paul city limits:

Continue Reading

Medics say police targeted them at RNC protests

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In the course of providing basic first aid to more than 1,000 protesters during the Republican National Convention, at least 27 street medics were arrested. The North Star Health Collective contends that police not only ignored the red crosses and other insignias medics displayed but actually targeted them for arrest. (In today’s Star Tribune (9/9/08), columnist Nick Coleman writes about Colin Dunn, a medic arrested while treating the wounded.)
In this Minnesota Independent video, four volunteers at a North Star Health Collective post-RNC press conference assail law enforcement agents’ treatment of volunteer medical personnel during the RNC protests and explain how projectile weapons that police shot into crowds can injure people – and can even kill. Continue Reading

March organizers failed to protect message

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I was at the March on the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul that took place Monday Sept 1 and was overwhelmed by the passion, the excitement, the vibrancy of the peaceful participants. I was particularly pleased to see the interaction between marchers: Somali immigrants protesting against the US-supported Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, and Palestinian marchers denouncing the occupation of Palestine and Iraq mingled with socialists, environmentalists, and with pro-immigrant Latino activists. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading

One server’s tale of the Republican National Convention

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Joy Anderson has always been skeptical of Republican priorities and policies, but her views were confirmed after a week as a banquet server for the Republican National Convention.Anderson said she was busy round-the-clock this week at numerous lavish receptions and late-night parties in downtown Minneapolis. Her main job was making sure the food never ran out at the bountiful buffets held for Republican delegates by Wal-Mart, Blue Cross Blue Shield and many other members of the Fortune 500. Ironically, no forks could be provided. (“That would imply the food was a meal, which would be a violation of federal law” against corporate lobbying, Anderson explained). But that didn’t stop the delegates from piling their plates high and continuing the corporate-funded eating and drinking into the wee hours of every morning. Continue Reading

“This is their future”

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Solomon, age four, and little brother Isaac, age nine months, came to the Labor Day anti-war march with their parents, Mia Witheiser and Brian Fisher. “I feel they need to know this is their right as Americans … to come here,” said Witheiser. “We teach preschoolers to resolve conflict — it’s ridiculous that wars still exist in the 21st century.” The Maplewood couple talked about the importance of the rights of citizens, the right to assemble and the right of free speech. Continue Reading

Crowd control at the RNC: Fifty million unanswered questions

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The RNC is over, and it’s not just Sarah Palin exhaling relief. The mayors of each twin city have issued their unanimous judgment of law enforcement actions during the daily protest rallies and marches of the RNC. Their one-word summary: Convention police showed “restraint.”
Advocates for the hundreds, perhaps thousands of protesters (and a few journalists) who were pepper sprayed, maced, smoke-bombed, shoved, shot at (with non-lethal “impact rounds”), dispersed, cited, and detained have issued their own consensus message: See you in court. The City of St. Paul had $50 million in federal money to spend on security for the RNC. Continue Reading