By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted September 1, 2008.
In the run-up to the Republican convention, Minnesota police launched a series of preemptive raids to intimidate protesters and quash dissent.
"St. Paul is a free country!" cried a resident of Iglehart Avenue, a neighborhood street in St. Paul, Minn., as she watched her next-door neighbor's house being overtaken by police officers on Saturday afternoon. Just one in a series of house raids over a 24-hour period the weekend before the Republican National Convention, St. Paul police surrounded the private home with weapons drawn, detaining people in the backyard, while journalists, activists and neighbors -- including several children -- looked on.
Their crime? None whatsoever. No one was trespassing or engaging in acts of civil disobedience. Instead, members of I-Witness Video, a New York-based media watchdog group that records police activity in order to protect civil liberties, were holding an organizing meeting at 949 Iglehart, the home of St. Paul resident Mike Whalen, when armed police officers arrived in the early afternoon and ordered their surrender.
Among them was Eileen Clancy, founder of I-Witness Video, as well as a producer with Democracy Now! DN! host Amy Goodman and her staff had just arrived at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport when they received word that producer Elizabeth Press was in the house and being threatened with arrest.
Full story here http://www.alternet.org/rights/97110/rnc_r...deo_activists_/
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#1
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Posted September 02 2008 - 04:22 PM
Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side.
#2
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Posted September 03 2008 - 02:12 AM
That is absolutely incredible! Has it occurred to anyone that under the "new" laws inacted sice 911 these people could have been termed "terrorists" and shiped off to prison camps in another country and denied Due Process! After local arrests the FBI could have taken charge of those arrested thus removing these individuals from local authorities!
I've never been a big fan of Bob Barr but, credit where credit is due.....he outlined just how these new laws could be applied to any ordinary citizen!
As a people we are only "trusting" that these laws won't be used against us...but never forget for a moment that they CAN!!!
I've never been a big fan of Bob Barr but, credit where credit is due.....he outlined just how these new laws could be applied to any ordinary citizen!
As a people we are only "trusting" that these laws won't be used against us...but never forget for a moment that they CAN!!!
