So, I’ve been planning for a while to make a post about all the things going on around the RNC here in the Twin Cities. I’ve generally got so much that I’m not really sure how to organize it all, plus I’m working on going to some of it to avoid the reporting over experiencing trap. So, in no particular order:
I just got back from the Liberty Parade downtown, I’m pretty sure there were more cops there than floats. On the up side, nearly all of them were wearing the normal blue uniforms instead of the all-black-storm-trooper-please-please-riot-so-we-can-beat-someone-up uniforms.
There have been a number of raids going on this weekend around town (as predicted here) that from the reports seem to be of widely varying degrees of legitimacy and legality. A few apparently had no search warrants, one of the search warrants was for the wrong address, they broke down doors with battering rams rather than knocking or presenting the warrant, several were out of jurisdiction, and there have been a lot of “questionable” traffic stops- one of which that I head of involved a riot gear clad SWAT team.
It’s hard to tell how much of this will prevent things from going badly, and how much it will incite just that. I’d rather the crowd of 50,000 expected protesters be peaceful, and then have 20 people doing stupid, illegal things that the police and the crowd both recognize are wrong and arrest them, rather than questionably (quite possibly illegally) arresting those 20 before hand and have all 50,000 expected protesters see the police as antagonistic before they even start gathering.
On the bus back from the parade I was talking to a quite elderly woman who is a delegate to the convention, even she saw the police raids (one of which the illegal substance they were searching for was paint, in case some one would throw paint on an officer) as antagonistic, and a bad idea.
Granted, one of the groups the police have been targeting does probably have it coming. That’s not to say I support the police conducting raids without warrants, or the rather violent manner it sounds like they’ve been carrying them out. But really, the RNC Welcoming Committee has it coming. Their plan, from their own website:
On the first day of the convention, participants will employ a three-tiered direct action strategy to disrupt the RNC. The tiers are organized in order of priority according to the number of participants; if a small number of participants show up, only the first tier will be carried out, but if the numbers are on hand, all three tiers will be in effect.
Tier One: Establish 15-20 blockades, utilizing a diversity of tactics, creating an inner and outer ring around St. Paul’s Excel Center, where the RNC is to take place.Tier Two: Immobilize the delegates’ transportation infrastructure, including the busses that are to convey them.
Tier Three: Block the five western bridges connecting the Twin Cities.
and:
Transportation Troubles – This includes blockades downtown (at key intersections), on bridges (10 bridges over the Mississippi River in the metro area), and other sporadic and strategic targets (busses, hotel and airport shuttles etc).
Sorry folks, that ain’t freedom of speech. It doesn’t even qualify as civil disobedience, because it’s not civil, and it isn’t disobeying one law in protest of that law. Beyond that, when writing up your plans for illegal activities and posting them in the Internet, at least spell check them. Buses does not have a double “s” in the middle of it. It’s not that hard.
On the total opposite side of things, the police have also been harassing non-violent journalist, confiscating their equipment, and making up charges after the fact:
The Minnesota Independent has been doing a very good job of covering the various raids, press conferences, and such.
To add to the fun, apparently the police can detain anyone, for any reason, without charges for 36 hours, not counting weekends or holidays. So, anyone who the police detain from Friday at 5:00pm on can be held until Wednesday without charges.
Back in February, the St Paul police ordered 230 brand new Tasers, that would arrive, you guessed it, right before the RNC, but I’m sure the officers will have plenty of time to learn how to use them safely. What’s that? Tasers aren’t really safe no matter how you use them and police average killing one person each week using them? Oh.
Well, I’m sure our police will take after those in Denver and be perfectly rational, present only to serve and protect… or, you know, to serve and slam unarmed women to the ground and then abduct them:
But at least the press will be allowed to document any human rights abuses that do happen, and by “allowed to document any human rights abuses”, I obviously mean, be escorted away and clear of the area before the police attack the protesters:
That particular incident has been pretty well documented, though I’ve never been entirely clear as to how legally the protesters were acting. Either way, as an officer, if you’re not going to break the law yourself, screaming at the press and escorting them off isn’t a good way to keep a positive image.
And while we’re on screaming at the press and escorting them off, AT&T, the telecom giant, just happened to throw a little party for the Democrats that voted for the latest FISA bill, you know, the one that granted AT&T, the telecom giant, retroactive immunity for illegally monitor and recording your phone calls. But it would seem they didn’t care to have anyone know who was actually there.
There should be a transition here from the very serious bits above to the more humorous bits that follow. There isn’t. Deal with it.
The Daily Show is going to be in the Twin Cities, and has purchased a billboard that sums things up pretty well, it’s located right by the airport, where many of the delegates will be flying in. I would assume the people on the right hand portion of the billboard are gazing pretty much directly at the landing planes there.
A local restaurant, Chino Latino, also has a pretty good one.
The Ron Paul folks have also put up some ads around town, the one reading “We’re being taxed to blow up bridges in Iraq and rebuild them, while ours are falling down.” is located here. The 35W bridge that collapsed is just to the Northeast, about a half of a mile away. The group that set those up has a website here. More pictures here.
There is a great pair of “leaked itineraries” from the DNC and RNC here. Really, just about worth their own post, but I thought I’d lump them in since I’m on the topic.
Oh, and Sarah Palin is the Governor of Alaska and now McCain’s running mate. Alaska wasn’t even a yet state when McCain was born. In fact, McCain was 22 years old when Alaska was admitted to the Union. And his running mate is it’s govenor, just saying. In fact, this is what the US flag looked like for the first 22 years of McCain’s life. Note that it only has 48 stars. Hawaii is also younger than he is.
Another total lack of transition here.
Needless to say, there will be lots and lots and lots of things going on around town. I have no intentions of covering all of them, but here’s a list. A few of the more notable ones:
http://www.marchonrnc.org/ – They’re expecting roughly 50,000 people to march from the State Capitol to the Excel Center (where the convention is).
http://www.rallyfortherepublic.com/ – Over 10,000 people gathering in the Target Center for Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic.
The Unconvention will be having all sorts of things going on.
Truckers will be circling the convention. Not entirely sure how driving in a circle to protest high gas prices works, but an interesting approach none the less.
Amnesty International will be setting up a life sized Guantanamo Bay prison cell.
The take back labor day festival will be within earshot of the convetion.
Civic Fest will be going on, which for the most part sounds like the profoundly boring, family outing, version of things.
Rage Against the Machine will be having a couple concerts here. They don’t have a particularly good history when it comes to the RNC, police, and that whole “order” thing.
To round out this already excessively long post, it also seems odd to host the RNC in the Twin Cities. They glow bright blue on election maps. There’s a little fringe of red out in the rich suburbs, but mostly Chernoble style blue. The local Republican party jokes that if they get 52% of the vote in any election they consider it a landslide, except that they’re not really joking. In one of the last elections cycles, there were 2 Democrats running and 1 Republican, thereby completely spiting the Democratic vote. The Republican still lost. I can’t find the quote now, but when the mayor of Minneapolis was asked if he thought the police would be too rough on protesters, he said he hoped not, after all, his wife and kids would be over protesting, and he would be too if his schedule wasn’t too full.
And while I’m at it, a variety of evangelicals were praying for there to be torrential rains during Obama’s outdoor Democratic Nomination Acceptance speech, because Obama doesn’t hate abortion and gay marriage as much as they would like him to. So, obviously, god should micromanage the weather and national politics by smiting Obama with thunderstorms.
I’d just like to point out here that it was about 68 degrees and clear, with a light breeze for Obama’s speech. For the Minnesota State Republican convention, it rained the whole time (except when Dr. Paul spoke outside, for which it was clear and sunny for about 2 hours). It then hailed while we electing delegates from Minnesota to the RNC.
There is now also a category 3 hurricane about to slam the Gulf coast one the first day of the RNC. Just saying.
