Why your city should avoid the RNC!

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Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Indianapolis, & New Orleans are considering putting their names in the hosting hat for the 2012 RNC. Here in Saint Paul, Minnesota (pop. 250,000) we hosted the RNC, and we have some advice for those cities: DON’T DO IT!! You may ask, “Why not host the RNC?” Here are our top ten reasons. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. 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

Dissent and democracy

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Remember the Boston Tea Party? That was property damage, wasn’t it? All that tea overboard? 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

Putting it in perspective: U of M hockey riot worse than RNC

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by Eleanor Arnason, September 18, 2008 • I have been doing more research on the Internet. This is from the Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota student newspaper:

Autumn
Continue Reading

VOICES | Dissent under fire at the RNC

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“Our right to protest the government and its policies is not ‘suspicious behavior’; it’s Constitutionally protected speech.” Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office
I’ll admit it: since the Republican National Convention brought a militarized police occupation to St. Paul, Minnesota. I’ve been shell-shocked. It’s one thing to have predicted the dangers to our civil liberties since the September 11th attacks and quite another to see one’s prediction in action. For eyewitness accounts of the RNC protests, there are several local events:
The RNC Protests: What happened and what can we learn? Continue Reading

Cataloguing the RNC’s journalist detainees

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Of the 800-plus people who were arrested or detained in conjunction with RNC protests, a good chunk of them — 42, by our count — were members of the news media. Media
representatives in town to cover the events, from both big and small presses, were slapped with citations and pending charges ranging in severity, including unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, misdemeanor interference with a peace officer and felony to riot plus other riot pretenses. (Notably Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was jailed along with two of the show’s producers.) Many others who weren’t arrested or detained endured pepper-spray and other arms used for crowd-control. MnIndy has compiled a list of journalists who were detained or arrested, including some preemptively, culled from news reports and sources, including the Ramsey County sheriff’s department’s booking roster. 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

Somali community protests RNC

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Freedom of expression and the power to summon your government, the two most important principles of democracy is played out at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St Paul, Minnesota. Among an estimated 15,000 protesters that took to the streets of St Paul on Monday, September 1 was about 300 Somalis who were protesting against “the U.S. sanctioned Ethiopian occupation of Somalia.”
Many of them are American citizens but very recent immigrants who don’t speak English fluently. Regardless, they seemed to know and want to practice their rights under the constitution of the United State of America. Carrying the American flag along with the Somali flag, Somalis chanted and marched all through the marked route for the RNC rally. Other American’s joined the Somali contingent to show solidarity and understanding, more importantly to encourage them to participate democracy. Continue Reading

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