Twenty-seven people arrested at the Republican National Convention last September filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Tuesday morning against the city of St. Paul for what the plaintiffs allege was a violation of their First and Fourth Amendment rights.On September 1, 2008, St. Paul police directed about 200 people — some protesters and others trying to access a free concert on Harriet Island — onto a piece of parkland along Shepard Road by the Mississippi River. Riot police arrested the entire group and detained many.The suit filed Tuesday states police arrested and jailed them without probable cause. Bob Kolstad, the attorney representing all 27 plaintiffs, said he hopes for the suit to gain class action status within a few months.If certified as a class-action suit, all 200 people arrested will be plaintiffs in the suit against the city.One of the people in the suit, Vain Mainstream, was arrested and detained for three days by St. Continue Reading
It’s been a year since the Republican National Convention descended on St. Paul, bringing with it hordes of protesters and police whose clashes erupted into several incidents still working their way through the courts.From criminal charges filed against activists arrested before the RNC to civil suits seeking damages for excessive police force, and a variety of circumstances in between, a log-jammed legal system is still working toward justice in many RNC-related cases. As far as what, exactly, justice means in these cases – that all depends on who you ask. Originally, this story was meant to include several officials’ reflects on last year’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, St. Continue Reading
It Happened Here is a montage of photographs with stories that compose a little movie of my experience of the Republican National Convention. I was lying down watching the early evening news on the fourth day of the convention. Channel Five was live, reporting “all was quiet in St. Paul”. The window was open. Continue Reading
To commemorate the anniversary of last year’s RNC protests, a group of activists staged “present day interventions and public interactions” in the context of a big-urban-game which took place throughout St. Paul on Saturday. Text by Sheila Regan, photos and captions by Alan Wilfahrt Kit bag with supplies: Each team received a back pack with supplies and numbered envelopes to be opened after text messages were exchanged indicating specific criteria were met. The game, Re:Activism was designed by Prototyping, Evaluation, Teaching and Learning (PET) LAB (http://cdtproto.parsons.edu/cdt_new/petlab.dev/node/4), a joint project of Games for Change (http://www.gamesforchange.org/newindex) and Parsons The New School for Design (http://www.parsons.newschool.edu/) in New York City. According to PETLAB’s website, its mission is to create “a place for testing prototyping methods and the process of collaborative design with organizations interested in using games as a form of public interest engagement.” Challenges in envelope for designated site: Clues were given for each site located on the map, keys were obtained at the site from those clues, text messaging the key back to Central, the next numbered envelope was text messaged back, the envelope had challenges, completion of the two (optional) challenges resulted in points being awarded Re:Activism, which premiered last year at the Come Out and Play Festival in New York City, works by having the participants complete challenges by using activist tactics to score points. Following the game’s premier, PETLab has created kits for activists in other cities to download and try out. Team plans: The teams’ strategic decisions on the route set them of on their paths. Nikki Schultz, one of one of the three activists responsible for organizing Re:Activism Twin Cities (http://reactivismtc.tumblr.com/), said she heard about the game from a friend of hers who was involved in the original New York version. Schultz said PETLAB was helpful in providing templates to use as a blueprint, and were excited about another city taking the idea of the game and personalizing it in a specific context. Schultz and two other local organizers, who asked to remain anonymous, were looking for “a way to commemorate what happened in St. Paul last year in a more fun and positive way,” Schultz said. Text messaging when keys on site are detected: Communication with Central via text messaging. Continue Reading
On September 4 last year, I found myself in a jail cell on the last night of the Republican National Convention. I was one of many protesters, journalists, observers and medics who were arrested that night. It sucked. I hope I’ll never get arrested again, but at the time, I wasn’t surprised that it happened. I was reporting for the TC Daily Planet for much of that week, and the whole city seemed to have departed into a surreal fake war scenario, where everyone was shouting at each other, tear gas was going off right and left, and everyone in general was in a frenzy. Continue Reading
Gov. Pawlenty isn’t the only one feeling a chill at the one-year anniversary of events around the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The RNC cast a few odd shadows at a forum for candidates seeking to replace Pawlenty in Minneapolis this morning. First there was the little clutch of protesters huddling in the rain under an awning outside Mercado Central, where Minneapolis City Council Member Gary Schiff (Ward 9) hosted seven DFL candidates or could-be candidates at his regular “Breakfast with Gary” meeting. A big banner reading “Dissent is not a crime/RNC8″ was hoisted merely on word that Ramsey County Attorney (and DFL gubernatorial candidate) Susan Gaertner had been invited to the event. Continue Reading
Walking around St. Paul this summer, it’s hard to imagine that almost a year ago the city was filled with tear gas smoke, miles of security fences, cops dressed in riot gear, and tens of thousands of protesters during the Republican National Convention. While most of the charges against protesters, journalists, and observers have been dropped, some of those arrested on RNC-related charges find their cases still in process. We decided to do a roundup of the numbers of arrests, charges, and convictions for RNC-related cases on the local, state, and federal level. Here’s what we came up with. Continue Reading
Almost a year after the “RNC 8” were arrested based on conspiracy charges about their alleged plans to disrupt the RNC, they were scheduled to appear before Judge Teresa Warner on August 19 for a scheduling hearing. Then, once again, the hearing was postponed. The scheduling hearing, whenever it is finally held, will deal with a host of issues including whether the Eight can be tried in one trial, whether the prosecutors have furnished defense attorneys with all the evidence requested in discovery motions, and whether the defendants can be tried for actions that were done by other people after the defendants were already locked up in jail. The eight defendants from the RNC Welcoming Committee, an anarchist/anti-authoritarian group, are Luce Guillen Givins, Max Specktor, Nathanael Secor, Eryn Trimmer, Monica Bicking, Erik Oseland, Robert Czernik and Garrett Fitzgerald. All were arrested during the weekend before the RNC started last September. Continue Reading
The Republican National Convention came to St. Paul last year, September 1-4, but its effects began long before September 1 and still continue. Our RNC page has the archive of RNC articles. We will add this year’s retrospective articles to the page. We invite you to add your comments, memories, and reflections. Continue Reading
The Des Moines Register obtained confidential documents last week that show a Ramsey County deputy traveled to Iowa to infiltrate groups protesting the Republican National Convention. The deputy was working for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office as well as the FBI. The document lists physical descriptions, phone numbers and other identifying information about activists in Iowa City. Despite the infiltration, only one Iowa protester was arrested, activists say, and those charges were later dropped. At least three other people connected to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office were involved in infiltrating groups in Minnesota. Continue Reading
