Twin Cities' Mayors Prepare For GOP Convention

The following piece was produced by the Huffington Post's OffTheBus.

The UpTake contributed video for this piece.

Saint Paul-Minneapolis - If you long to wake up in a city that never sleeps, then Saint Paul and Minnneapolis are definitely not your kind of towns.

Around here, people put the cat out and go to bed early. Life is quiet. Political discourse is by-and-large civil. But the prospect of hosting next September's Republican National Convention complete with confetti and balloon drops and conga lines in the aisles at the Xcel Energy Center is beginning to make people nervous.

So, too, is the very real possibility that convention-related protests and demonstrations will lead to violent confrontation on some of the most orderly and civil streets in America. Add the major inconvenience that hosting the convention will cause local residents and you have a political powder keg situated 60 days ahead of the general election.

Locally, the political instructions couldn't be more clear: "Handle With Care." The situation is especially delicate for R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman, the Democratic mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul respectively.

For Rybak and Coleman, there's an opportunity in that powder keg. Handle the RNC right, and good things will almost certainly follow. The governorship is a possibility. There might even be a senate seat available some day. After all, Hubert Humphrey was mayor of Minnneapolis. And Saint Paul was once led by a young Democrat named Norm Coleman).

How to play it...

Hmmm...

How to play it...

How to play gracious host to people from the other side of the aisle? How to cheerlead the positive aspects of the event? How to cope with the prospect of all those protesters at the same time?

Coleman (no relation to Senator Coleman) sees the convention as, "A wonderful opportunity to gain international exposure for the region.

"...We've got 15,000 media people from all over the world coming to town to cover the convention... people who don't spend a lot of time in Minnesota... As long as it's well-managed, it'll be a wonderful opportunity."

Being a gracious host and cheerleading comes just as easily to Minneapolis' Rybak.

"The convention will let us showcase this region," Rybak enthuses "... It'll pump millions of dollars into the local economy..."

He can map the route those millions will take from the Republicans and media types through the hospitality industry through the pockets of working class people and into the local economy. An adroit segue later, he can describe a series of convention-oriented programs and exhibits - bread and circuses for local folks - something to take their minds off the inconvenience.

Across the Mississippi in Saint Paul, Coleman agrees. "It will be a front row seat for democracy - a great 'teachable moment' for the kids of Saint Paul."

No doubt about it. For the Democratic mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the glass is more than half full, where the Republican Convention is concerned. For others, though, the outlook is not quite as rosy. Indeed, many people expect violent confrontation between law enforcement and protesters.

"It's going to be icky," one middle-aged, left-leaning Minnneapolis resident opined recently. "You don't want to go over there and demonstrate, but they're the Republicans, for God's sake. They started the war..."

And Saint Paul can expect demonstrators from all over the world, not just Minneapolis.

This summer, a number of groups came to town for a protest planning event called "pReNC" sponsored by a local anarchist group called The RNC Welcoming Committee. Some of the out of towners joined the monthly (and usually-peaceful) Critical Mass bike rally. A confrontation between anarchists Minneapolis police ensued. There were 19 arrests, tasers and pepper spray - a whiff of what may well come to Saint Paul's streets next September.

As for numbers of protesters to expect, authorities - including both mayors - say it's too early to tell. A number of variables, including progress (or lack of progress) in Iraq, will help determine the size and mood of the crowds.

"We expect it will be more than a few," says Coleman wryly.

If violent confrontation is poison, authorities are counting on a good, strong dose of security planning to be the antidote. Federal, state and local agencies are hard at work doing just that.

Agencies involved in planning include the FBI and Secret Service at the Federal level, with the Secret Service taking the lead and having responsibility for security inside the convention venue. The Saint Paul police will be the lead local agency outside the convention, with other agencies, including Minneapolis and suburban police, the Minnesota State Patrol, and agencies and resources from elsewhere in the state working under Saint Paul police supervision within the city during the event.

Coleman reports that planning groups have studied successes and failures from past conventions and similar events. There were relatively few arrests at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston, for example. How might Saint Paul duplicate that? And what can be learned from the way agencies handled (or failed to handle) protestors at the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in 1999?

Both mayors say that Saint Paul and Minnneapolis will learn from the past, and shape a security effort that reflects the spirit of the communities.

Will there be First Amendment Zones?

"Saint Paul is a free speech zone," says Coleman. "We're going to try to be as open and accommodating as possible. It's part of the democratic process to have folks expressing their opposition...

"I just want to make sure people are safe - that people have a good time. That goes for people attending the official convention - and the unofficial one too."

There are ten months remaining until The Republicans and their entourage of protesters and demonstrators converge on Saint Paul and Minneapolis. When local folks put the cat out and go to bed tonight, they can rest assured that two young mayors, their staffs and their law enforcement agencies are working hard to make sure everything goes right.

Comments

[MNObserver]

Listen2me, interesting points, except that the main site for the convention isn't Chuck Stenvig's Minneapolis of the 1960's, it's the Saint Paul of Chris Coleman in 2007.

Commitment to allowing safe protests within eyesight and earshot of the Xcel Center have been the stuff of planning for months now on both sides of the river.

[TommyMcCarthy]

Sign on I-90 near the twin cities:
Food Gas Lodging CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTRE
Next 7 Exits

[Listen2me]

My addendum comment has been pending so long that I wonder if you question my factual assertions--though that never keeps the trolls off the posts, does it?

The Lincoln Steffens reports on Mpls police corruption are classics in journalistic literature. Look them up in an encyclopedia---don't rely on Wickipedia (notoriously inaccurate!!)

the MPD fatal ambush of striking Teamsters is likewise well documented in Minnesota state histories and in labor history.

HHH's role in "cleaning up" Mpls PD is touted by his biographers; but the career of his "fixer," Fred Gates, speaks a different story, as referenced by Eugene McCarthy, for instance, in his memoir "Up Until Now."

The 1960's raid by MPD on an anti-war assembly in a private house, and the criminal charges against the citizens, was noted in an obituary recently in a Twin Cities newspaper; doubtless there were contemporary news reports.

The career of Mayor Chuck Stenvig is a matter of public record. The interpretation of his platform was of course my own opinion--but accurate, ask anyone here.

Mpls pay-outs for police brutality have been documented in City Pages, local alternative weekly, for years---until a change of ownership silenced its crusading editor.

There you have it.

[Listen2me]

Addendum to previous comment: the Minneapolis police department is one of the most politicized (fascist) and corrupt and violent in the country, especially for a small city such as Minneapolis.

This has been true for a hundred years---read Lincoln Steffens' "Shame of the Cities" or the same story in his famous "Autobiography."

In the 20's and 30's, the MPD was a tool of the union-busting Citizens' Alliance, culminating in a shooting ambush against striking Teamsters. Hubert Humphrey was elected Mayor in the '40's on a platform of cleaning up police corruption, but soon came to an accommodation or modus vivendi, leaving most of the local mobsters alone.

By the 1960's the force was a kind of John Bircher-Ku Klux sinecure. Their moment of glory was busting into a professor's home and arresting two dozen people meeting there to discuss the Vietnam War--all charged with being in a "disorderly house."

Berserk cop Chuck Stenvig was elected as Mayor on the anti-hippie, anti-black sentiment of those years; and ever since, the police union has pretty much dictated politics in Minneapolis. The city pays record amounts in settlement of police brutality lawsuits, but no cop is ever actually punished, much less charged with any crime other than marijuana possession. THAT they won't tolerate.

Mpls. PD is having wet-dreams about stomping the protesters next summer. Don't go there without health insurance.

[Listen2me]

The only menace to the safety of the Thug delegates will be the airport police and Dick Cheney's trigger finger.

But the Republican sheriffs of Hennepin and Ramsey counties (where Mpls and St. Paul are located) are determined to bust heads and trample civil liberty next summer. The Hennepin sheriff has his own higher office ambitions, and in both cities the sheriffs would love to embarrass the mayors.

The St. Paul city Police Dept is already dicking around and refusing to issue permits for marches and demonstrations. A very bad omen.

The DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) mayors will end up with egg on their faces, at the very least. One of the mayors told me personally (before the decision was made) that there was no chance the GOP would pick the twin cities. I guess he didn't know about the airport magnet. The Mayors really wanted the Democratic Convo---but that went to non-union city, Denver, instead.

The Thugs will be met with sullen hostility if not with big protests . . . unless they nominate Ron Paul. THEN WE'LL ALL HAVE A PARTY!

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

I can't wait to watch the GOP watch all the hospitality workers eat cake!

[SensibleAmerican]

All the restrooms at the airport are being redesigned to accomodate a "wide stance"!!!

The Republican convention is where apparently more gay republicans will come out of the closet and the evangelicals will sing in unison: "halleluiah"!!!