Preemptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC

In the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the FBI-led Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited people to infiltrate vegan groups and other leftist organizations and report back about their activities. On May 21, the Minneapolis City Pages ran a recruiting story called "Moles Wanted." Law enforcement sought to preempt lawful protest against the policies of the Bush administration during the convention.

Since Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted preemptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the targeting of protesters by "teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets." Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene.

"I was personally present and saw officers with riot gear and assault rifles, pump action shotguns," said Bruce Nestor, the President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, who is representing several of the protesters. "The neighbor of one of the houses had a gun pointed in her face when she walked out on her back porch to see what was going on. There were children in all of these houses, and children were held at gunpoint."

The raids targeted members of "Food Not Bombs," an anti-war, anti-authoritarian protest group that provides free vegetarian meals every week in hundreds of cities all over the world. They served meals to rescue workers at the World Trade Center after 9/11 and to nearly 20 communities in the Gulf region following Hurricane Katrina.

Also targeted were members of I-Witness Video, a media watchdog group that monitors the police to protect civil liberties. The group worked with the National Lawyers Guild to gain the dismissal of charges or acquittals of about 400 of the 1,800 who were arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. Preemptive policing was used at that time as well. Police infiltrated protest groups in advance of the convention.

Nestor said that no violence or illegality has taken place to justify the arrests. "Seizing boxes of political literature shows the motive of these raids was political," he said.

Further evidence of the political nature of the police action was the boarding up of the Convergence Center, where protesters had gathered, for unspecified code violations. St. Paul City Council member David Thune said, "Normally we only board up buildings that are vacant and ramshackle." Thune and fellow City Council member Elizabeth Glidden decried "actions that appear excessive and create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation for those who wish to exercise their first amendment rights."

"So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protestors who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do," Greenwald wrote on Salon.

Preventive detention violates the Fourth Amendment, which requires that warrants be supported by probable cause. Protestors were charged with "conspiracy to commit riot," a rarely-used statute that is so vague, it is probably unconstitutional. Nestor said it "basically criminalizes political advocacy."

On Sunday, the National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police Brutality filed an emergency motion requesting an injunction to prevent police from seizing video equipment and cellular phones used to document their conduct.

During Monday's demonstration, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. At least 284 people were arrested, including Amy Goodman, the prominent host of Democracy Now!, as well as the show's producers, Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. "St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city to be," Greenwald wrote, "with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas cannisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations."

Bruce Nestor said the timing of the arrests was intended to stop protest activity, "to make people fearful of the protests, but also to discourage people from protesting," he told Amy Goodman. Nevertheless, 10,000 people, many opposed to the Iraq war, turned out to demonstrate on Monday. A legal team from the National Lawyers Guild has been working diligently to protect the constitutional rights of protestors.

Marjorie Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (with Kathleen Gilberd), which will be published this winter by PoliPointPress. Her articles are archived at www.marjoriecohn.com.

Comments

[smcilree]

Where is the coverage of these police tactics in the Mainstream Media? Even NPR has been ignoring the excesses of the police in St Paul. You'd think they would at least be covering the arrest and detention of fellow journalists.

[JoDeeVa]

In the Pacific-Northwest, the genesis of broad activism in the summer of 1999, leading into November's WTO protests in Seattle and continuiing into general unrest throughout the summer of 2001, led to my Eugene, Oregon neighborhood being "activist-central", thus also "police/FBI & mole central"...seeking collaborators in "domestic terrorism." Subsequently, EVERYONE was suspect by association and fodder for ongoing round-up, having a chilling effect on ANY kind of citizen activism, including peaceful protest, that has continued to this day. (Recent protest events have included local authorities acting in collusion with FPS/Department of Homeland Security, operating out of the Denver MegaCenter.) The actions I have seen in St. Paul are eerily reminiscent. Independent media, video-graphers and Foods Not Bombs targeted, "anarchists" labels bandied about, infiltration/ espionage, civil liberties ignored and oppression of dissent.

Whether you agree with activist actions or not, the debate should be on those actions of the authorities. Are we going to accept ANY means to an end?..Intimidation by government?; Excessive police force; Invasion of privacy?; Violation of due process?; Labelling of "domestic/­eco-terror­ists"; COINTRELPRO tactics? Activists are NOT terrorists! Some may use unconventional, even questionable methods, but to label all activism under the broad umbrella of "domestic-­terrorism" now sanctioned by the Patriot Act, does an injustice. One should question whether the intent, is indeed, to oppress any dissent, period!

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" MLK

[samp426]

Is anyone surprised that the Republicans would use these brutal, oppressive and illegal tactics to stifle dissent? Blame is going to conveniently be placed at the door of St Paul/Minn, but, no one's fooled.
The assault on liberty continues, fellow citizens.
Here's a big question: Why hasn't anyone at the Convention demanded an immediate cease and desist by the city? How do these people sleep at night?
And they call themselves patriots, public servants, defenders of the Constitution.
Bullshit.
Un-friggin­'-believab­le.
The Dems were in Colorado, for God's sake. Not exactly a bastion of liberalism. Here we are in Minneapolis, supposedly one of the centers of free thought and political liberties in the country, and this is the result?
I wouldn't go to Minnesota on a bet.
Garrison Keillor: Can't you do anything?
Where is my Country??? Where are it's principles???
Someone wake me from this damned nightmare!