Anarchist Protest At Republican Convention Gets Violent

MINNEAPOLIS -- Police arrested protesters near the St. Paul convention site this afternoon and blocked off pedestrian and car traffic into the city center for at least an hour.

While the remains of a peaceful protest parade swirled around one closed road after another, growing increasingly frustrated that they weren't able to get back to their houses and cars, one officer told me that "anarchists" a few blocks away had been causing trouble -- throwing bricks and breaking people's property.

Another reporter confirmed there had been a violent demonstration comprised primarily of young, shirtless men with bandanas over their faces. The reporter had observed a neatly stacked pile of bricks and some broken glass.

By the time I was able to show my press badge to get past the line of armed guards, two protesters were face down on the street with their hands tied behind their back, and another two were sitting against a brick wall. About a dozen police officers, some in riot gear, waited with them until an ambulance arrived. Up and down the streets -- virtually deserted except for media -- groups of other uniformed officers, presumably on stand-by, waited to learn what was next.

The arrests and intense police response, reported as including bikes and horses, seemed yet another upset to the Republican convention. In addition to the impending hurricane on the Gulf Coast, the disrupted schedule of speakers, and the potential imbroglio of Palin's pregnant daughter, the trouble downtown does not add any good news for the Republicans. Judging by the muttering of the hundreds of people who were unable to get downtown this afternoon, it doesn't endear them to the locals either.

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Comments

[het638]

Any news on the arrests of journalists?
Journalists including the distinguished Amy Goodman have been detained according to reports.

If this is the case, then this is worse than putting protesters in a pen at the DNC.

[JBS]

Breaking news from Washington Post ... the anarchist rioters have just been identified:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31074-2005Jan23.html

[indyleftist]

I love how the republicans can't get real protesters and have to get paid staffers to do it

[Tyger79]

Violent? Really? I see some broken windows, and some cars damaged, but I don't see violence. Unless of course you see property as important as people, and their for equate the destruction either with one another. I think one would have to a lot of self-loathing inside in order to do that.

If you want to look for violence, I do see a lot of cops and feds raiding peaceful homes with assault rifles and batons. I do see people like Amy Goodman getting arrested for asking a question to a police officer. I do understand those officers to be agents of a police state that treats both, people taking direct action, and those participating in journalistic endeavors as enemies of the state. That state being one that has killed over 1 million Iraqis in the last 5 years, and far more than that since the early 90's. Any of that seem violent to you?

[missviv]

Tyger70, for that comment alone I would love to shake your hand. Thank god there are sane people left in this world.

[silvercreeklady]

They protest violence by being violent???? Whats wrong with this picture?

[Tyger79]

It takes real self-loathing to equate the smashing of a cop car window, and the deaths of over 2 million civilians in Iraq over the last 16 years.

[V4Vendetta]

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was arrested as well. So accredited journalists are fair game now? What is the USA turning into?!!

[Chicago1968]

it didn't happen

[Gidster]

And your reasons for saying this are?

[M.S. Bellows, Jr. - Huffpost Blogger]

Kelly: good reporting! Also note Glenn Greenwald's and Jane Hamsher's pieces on the St. Paul police's preemptive raids on progressive groups before the Convention even started, with the apparent intent of keeping even peaceful protests from happening (and keeping a group that merely videotapes police-protestor interactions from being able to do so). http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/index.html?source=newsletter