Protests planned for RNC protester trials starting today

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Trials beginning today for protesters at September’s Republican National Convention will themselves be protested in a variety of ways over the next few days. A new coalition called Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure — or CRASS – plans to pack courtrooms with supporters and rally against St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman today. CRASS has also called for a two-day call-in on Tuesday and Wednesday to Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner — whose gubernatorial campaign fund-raiser the group protested earlier this month — to demand that she drop charges against the RNC8, eight arrestees facing felony charges whose next consolidated court date is Wednesday afternoon. var mnindyHeadline = “MORE FROM”; var mnindyHeadline2 = “Michigan Messenger”; Details after the jump, including the names of those whose trials start this week. Continue Reading

RNC 8 protests Susan Gaertner

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On Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner’s birthday Tuesday evening, she held her first fundraiser for her 2010 gubernatorial bid.Outside, the RNC 8 — a group prosecuted by Gaertner’s office for conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism — and the Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure, formed in response to mass protester arrests at the Republican National Convention. They sang, danced and spoke against Gaertner’s campaign. A police presence grew to more than 20 as the crowd of protesters swelled to about 100. Police twice threatened to arrest the protesters for unlawful assembly if they didn’t clear sidewalks, but the crowd stayed mobile. Eventually, tensions between the crowd and police dissipated, though police stayed stationed at the building’s entrance. Continue Reading

Feeding people, activism and arrests connect RNC 8’s Nathanael Secor and Robert Czernik

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Just before 8 a.m. on August 30, Jean Johnstad was sitting on her porch in south Minneapolis having her morning coffee. She was still in her bathrobe, enjoying a peaceful Saturday morning. Suddenly, the quiet was broken by a commotion and raised male voices coming from the street behind the garage. She peeked around the corner of a garage and saw police in SWAT team gear with their guns drawn in front of the Food Not Bombs house at 2301 S. 23rd Ave. “I thought, ‘Whoa!’” said Johnstad. Continue Reading

CRASS press conference looks for RNC victims in St. Paul

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On Thursday, the Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure (CRASS) held a press conference at the state capitol echoing Saint Paul Police Chief John Harrington and Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher’s request for assistance in locating victims and suspects of RNC-related violence. “Throughout the RNC,” CRASS’s press release stated, “unidentified individuals terrorized hundreds of activists, journalists, medics, legal observers and bystanders. The perpetrators of these brutal assaults were heavily armed, masked and generally dressed in black.”
Referring to the Saint Paul Police officers dressed in riot gear during the RNC, members of CRASS called the behavior of these officers unacceptable, and said the perpetrators should go to court. They also called for the release of the 6,000 hours of RNC surveillance camera video footage that the City of St. Paul has refused to release in response to requests under the MN Data Practices Act. Continue Reading

RNC Commission hears public testimony

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The presence of police in riot gear intimidated citizens, and created the feeling of a police state at the September Republican National Convention (RNC), according to testimony at a public hearing in St. Paul on November 6. Approximately a dozen St Paul residents testified about their RNC experiences before a commission led by co-chairs Tom Heffelfinger and Andy Luger. The seven-member commission was convened by the City of St. Paul to investigate RNC security and planning, Heffelfinger pointed out, and is not focusing on individual instances of police or citizen misconduct. Continue Reading

Lights, cameras — but no action for St. Paul police

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The official story is that anyone can walk into St. Paul police headquarters and view the footage from the 100-plus cameras monitoring downtown and the Central Corridor for crime. The official story also says that the cameras are monitored by police in the Western District station (on Hamline Avenue) and in the central St. Paul police headquarters. Actually, on a recent day, no one seemed to be watching and the public monitor did not work at all.Where’s the video?by Sheila Regan, TC Daily PlanetI went to Police Headquarters today (October 29) and asked at the front desk if I could see the “viewing station.” Continue Reading

The war at home

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In an interview during his recent visit to Minnesota, former Chicago Eight defendant Tom Hayden talked about the current practice of designating national conventions and other meetings as “national special security events.” Hayden, who served in the California legislature from 1982-2000, criticized massive federal funding of local police departments for such events, and called the arrests of the RNC Eight in Minnesota “a by-product of the perceived necessity of the war on terrorism.” Chicago Eight and the RNC EightIn 1968, anti-war protesters filled the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Law enforcement hardliners publicly warned before the convention that outsiders would come into the city and destroy it. Undercover police agents infiltrated the ranks of protesters and participated in planning and protests. Continue Reading

Mayhem and the mainstream media

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by Mary Turck, 10/2/08 • The media’s job is to report the news, and that includes reporting inconvenient facts that contradict the “official stories” about the RNC.

This article was submitted to the Star Tribune in early October, in the vain hope that they would respond to the challenge made. Continue Reading

Pre-RNC raid in Seward targeted “Food Not Bombs” house

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The “Food Not Bombs” (FNB) house at 2301 23rd Ave. S was the site of one of three pre-RNC raids that took place simultaneously at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30. Nathanael David Secor, 26, of Minneapolis, was arrested during the raid and charged in Ramsey County District Court with conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism. The charges, filed on Sept. Continue Reading

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