Ramsey County Sheriff issues statement on raid (RNC Welcoming Committee Convergence Center)

[The Sushi Bandit]

Source: Minnesota Independent

The following statement was issued by the Ramsey County Sheriffs Department in regards to last nights raid on the RNC Welcoming Committee’s convergence space in downtown St. Paul:

On August 29, 2008 at 9:15 pm the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the St. Paul Police Department, executed a search warrant at 627 Smith Ave So. Numerous items were recovered. No persons were arrested. The search warrant was a part of an ongoing investigation regarding serious criminal acts.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher stated, “This investigation pertains to actions of the RNC Welcoming Committee. The “Welcoming Committee” is a criminal enterprise made up of 35 self- described anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention. These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses, breaching venue security and injuring police officers. They have recruited assistance in their criminal conspiracy from other anarchists groups throughout the country. Through their plans and actions they have exhibited a blatant disregard for the law and the safety of others.”



Read more: http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/6232/ramsey-county-sheriff-issues-statement-on-raid#more-6232

[fascisthunter]

1. Is There Proof That There was a "Conspiracy"?

[C_U_L8R]

4. Proof? They don't need no steenkin' proof.

We handed them the power to do whatever they want to whomever they want.

[EFerrari]

11. They're throwing around the word "anarchists" just as they did in Denver

when these people are probably the same orgs that always protest just like they were in Denver. There are never as many anarchists as there are peace groups. It's bs.

[fascisthunter]

12. I Figured as Much

Just pointing out how there is NO PROOF.... the right wing are nothing but fascists who hate freedom. They prove it time and again...

And what a perfect example of how pathetically scared they are....

[EFerrari]

14. There ARE anarchists there but they are being fronted to create fear

among the ignorant.

We're going to learn exactly how screwed we are this summer. It won't be pretty. They're now doing to us what they've done in Iraq, then did to undocumented workers. I hope no one gets killed.

[Karenina]

35. "Insurgents," "Terrorists," "Fiery radicals"

You know the drill...

[bemildred]

38. "Militant anti-American cleric" is my favorite.

Gotta watch those fundy religious types unless they happen to believe in you.

[jwirr]

25. That is what I want to see.

[dflprincess]

49. I thought there was no such thing as conspiracies -

at least in the U.S. :sarcasm:

[grannie4peace]

2. so what did they recover????

[Tesla]

7. they are "enemy combatants"

probably bullet proof vests and signs

[fascisthunter]

9. You Mean like those Right Wingers who wanted to assassinate Obama

and yet the AG claims they were no threat?????

[The Sushi Bandit]

3. More here.....

But the raids drew immediate condemnation from activists and St. Paul City Councilman Dave Thune, whose district includes the former theater at 627 Smith Avenue South, which was rented by activists as a gathering space.

"This is not the way to start things off," Thune said Saturday morning. "This is sending the wrong message. Regardless of how you feel about these people...they had a right to be there."

At a news conference Saturday, Cheri Honkala of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, one of the protest groups, described the Friday raid and an earlier one Thursday that evicted a demonstrators’ camp on Harriet Island as "terrorism" intended to divert attention from issues the protest groups are raising and cast the news as police versus protestors.

"We will not be intimidated," Honkala said.

Thune was especially critical of Fletcher for taking action within St. Paul city limits and because the raid apparently did not yield any dangerous materials, such as Molotov cocktails, bombs or other devices.

"I’m really ticked off...the city is perfectly capable of taking care of things," Thune said. "If they had found anything that could have been used to commit a crime they would have arrested somebody."

Fletcher’s statement said that although no one was arrested in raid at Smith Avenue South in St. Paul, "numerous items were recovered."

The RNC Welcoming Committee denied criminal intent and described the police actions as "violence" that is a sign of more extreme police measures to come.

Three people were arrested and detained for probable cause conspiracy to commit a riot following a raid at 3240 17th Av. S. in Minneapolis.

Ten other people in the house were processed and released after about 90 minutes, said Bruce Nestor of the National Lawyers Guild.

Nestor said the warrant used to search the home was identical to two others for searches at homes on Harriet Avenue S. and 23rd Avenue S. in Minneapolis. The warrant also matches the one used to raid the former theater in St. Paul that is the organizing site of the RNC Welcoming Committee.

Nestor said he has not seen documents that support a reason for searching any of the locations, but that the warrant, signed by a judge on Friday, seeks multiple items, including electronics and mp3 players, rags, jars, Molotov cocktails, communication between RNC Welcoming Committee members, urine and feces.

The three arrested, two 23-year-old women and a 25-year-old man, could be held through the weekend, Nestor said. A judge will review their case within 48 hours. Nestor said the conspiracy to commit a riot charges are vague.

"This is a charge that police use for preventive detention," he said. "It requires that no actual criminal act be committed and borders on criminalizing political advocacy."

Nestor did not know whether the three were members of the RNC Welcoming Committee.

Meanwhile, the group decried the Friday night raid on their organizing site as unwarranted, as evidenced by the lack of arrests after at least 50 people were detained. The group decried law enforcement’s tactics, particularly because children and the elderly were present while the group was watching films and sharing food before the doors were broken down.

"The police may claim that the raid was executed according to protocol - however, the violence inherent in this action may only be a hint of the violence to be expected on Monday and beyond, and is only a hint at the violence perpetrated daily by the police," the group’s statement read.

"(By) Looking for items found in any Twin Cities house like jars, paint, and rags, this attempt to portray us as criminals and destroy our credibility has already backfired as evidenced by the masses who have come to support us." the RNC Welcoming Committee said in a statement late Friday.

An attorney for protesters said Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies and St. Paul police officers handcuffed at least 50 people and made them lie on the ground for an extended period. The raid happened Friday night around 9 p.m. at the former Smith Theater on St. Paul’s west side.

Thune estimates that about 100 people were in the theater and detained. He said deputies knocked down the door using a police battering ram and then deputies went in with guns drawn, forcing people to the ground.

The group says they are now accused of a fire code violation and the theater was boarded shut on orders of Fletcher. This last action also upset Thune, who said the sheriff had no authority to order city staff to keep people out of a building.

Thune said he would be working with city officials today to re-open the building. Demonstrators said later Saturday that the building was being re-opened.

[stillcool]

6. thanks...

this is way more important then what's her name.

[Peace Patriot]

48. They battered down the door, and came in with guns drawn?! WTF? Are they crazy?

This is so excessive as to be beyond belief! It is "Fallujah" come home to Minneapolis.

If they had warrants, why didn't they knock on the fucking door? They think Al Qaeda is in there, or what? Al Capone?

Jeez, these people--terrorizing old grannies and kids painting signs, and friendly college kids known around the neighborhood!

It's both bizarre and sickening. Battering down the door?!

[stillcool]

5. Oh man...

here we go..

[Tesla]

10. Oh look here are some "terrorists" with paint , jars and rags

[avaistheone1]

30. Be afraid. Be very afraid.... these ones had duct tape and plastic buckets too.

All the stuff they listed is typical home improvement material that could be found in many if not most American homes.

Is this not the stuff that most of us purchase at Home Depot and Lowes?

These types of police actions need to be stopped and the police need to be firmly prosecuted.

ENOUGH!

[CherokeeDem]

8. Did They Detain Anyone?????

I love how they are going to do accuse this group of all of this but don't even detain them. Look, I don't wish to see criminal acts committed...but I would like to see the proof the police have that this group was actually going to try and injure police officers among the other charges. Also note the reference to the fact that this group is being supported by "other anarchists groups throughout the country"; nothing like indicting them all at one time.

[mike_c]

13. they're all dangerous anarchists-- boy, that sounds familiar....

"Airstrikes destroyed the compound and 57 terrorists were killed."

"A raid by U.S. forces apprehended 42 terrorists and insurgents."

"The “Welcoming Committee” is a criminal enterprise made up of 35 self- described anarchists...."

[EFerrari]

15. They're alleging a conspiracy by anarchists, mike!

:rofl:

[mike_c]

16. yup-- for pity's sake....

:hi:

[Demeter]

17. CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? Says Who?

I never heard of them until this week. No rape, murder, torture, fraud, undeclared wars in 3rd world countries, arson, theft, or civil rights violations. Where's the Criminal in this so-called criminal enterprise?

Are they confusing modern political movement with 19th century latter-day freeedom fighters?

Or is it a clear case of shit for brains?

[EFerrari]

18. The Bush Justice Department is itself a criminal enterprise

and it's going to take YEARS to clean it up.

[Demeter]

19. Amen to That! Fitzgerald for Attorney General!

[coalition_unwilling]

20. Someone in the Twin Cities needs to

call out that fuckwad Bob Fletcher.

Possible to launch a recall for this obscene waste of taxpayer money?

[coalition_unwilling]

21. Lies and propaganda. -n\t

[starroute]

22. And that doesn't explain the raids on Food Not Bombs

There really are a few anarchists out there, and they really have threatened to block bridges leading to the convention -- but that's about as far as it gets. The rest is pure insanity on the cops' part.

(Glenn Greenwald, so you've got to click through the Salon ad.)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html

Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.

Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly. . . .

Several of those who were arrested are being represented by Bruce Nestor, the President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild. Nestor said that last night's raid involved a meeting of a group calling itself the "RNC Welcoming Committee", and that this morning's raids appeared to target members of "Food Not Bombs," which he described as an anti-war, anti-authoritarian protest group. There was not a single act of violence or illegality that has taken place, Nestor said. Instead, the raids were purely anticipatory in nature, and clearly designed to frighten people contemplating taking part in any unauthorized protests.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Not_Bombs

Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, serving free vegan and vegetarian food to others. Food Not Bombs' ideology is that myriad corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance. To demonstrate this (and to reduce costs), a large amount of the food served by the group is surplus food from grocery stores, bakeries and markets that would otherwise go to waste. . . .

The central beliefs of the group are:

* If governments and corporations around the world spent as much time and energy on feeding people as they do on war, no one would go hungry.
* There is enough food in the world to feed everyone, but so much of it goes to waste needlessly, as a direct result of capitalism and militarism.
* Vegan food is both healthy and nonviolent.

Food Not Bombs works to call attention to poverty and homelessness in society by sharing food in public places and facilitating gatherings of poor and homeless people.


(When they came for the vegans, I said nothing because I was not a vegan...)

[coalition_unwilling]

40. This is what a police state looks like. The

Greenwald article should be required reading for anyone still defending the conduct of "law enforcement"(in quotes bc it's an open question what law, if any, they are enforcing other than the brute law of the jungle . . . no disrespect to jungles).

Wake up and smell the fascism!

[hootinholler]

23. Sounds like planned civil disobedience to me.

So organizing (I use the term lightly, these are anarchists) to commit misdemeanor civil disobedience warrants this sort of crackdown? What next thought crimes?

-Hoot

[jberryhill]

24. This probably didn't help

Their video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njxmbOitsb8

Using a molotov cocktail to start a barbecue is cute (start at 1:10), but it provided a basis for the warrant.

[Beam Me Up]

28. Does anyone remember the underground press in Chicago '68?

I was there. Most of the specific details now evade me. However, I recall underground press articles on such things as YIPPIES hiring on as taxi drivers so if they picked up a Democrat deli gate they could, essentially, kidnap them and drive them away from the convention. I remember stories about hiring on as kitchen help for the hotels to put ground glass in the meals. There was also the threat of putting LSD in the city drinking water.

My personal position on most of this is that it was cointelpro. It was presented as underground humor but the seeming threat was taken very seriously by Mayor Daily and the Chicago police department. These were some of the things that were used to 'justify' the police riots outside the convention.

Young people may think they're being humorous -- authorities then use that for their own purposes under the guise of maintaining law and order. I still question where those Chicago '68 stories came from -- whose bright idea they were.

[EFerrari]

29. The video is clearly advocating for peace over violence. n/t

[Beam Me Up]

39. You and I both know that. n/t

[avaistheone1]

36. I don't know the answer. But if you read Tom Hayden's writings you may find your answer.

You may want to see if you can find an email for him.

COINTELPRO was pure evil.

[avaistheone1]

34. I don't understand why.

This video is not advocating violence against anyone or anything.


I have to admit the video is pretty clever and good theater, but advocating violence - no way.

[jberryhill]

47. I agree with you

Not everyone is going to see it the same way.

[jwirr]

27. Preemptive strikes against citizens - the Republican Way.

[JDPriestly]

31. Unless they have some pretty good evidence, I would guess that this

MIGHT qualify as prior restraint of the exercise of free speech.

[bemildred]

26. Prior constraint.

This is harassment and intimidation.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

[Joanne98]

32. Bush is a criminal enterprise. Sue these bastards.

[avaistheone1]

44. The Bush folks are folks who really deal in conspiracy.

They lose a year of government email, they stonewall, and don't show up for subpoenas.

Funny how the law is so ineffectively and selectively enforced in the Bush/Cheney regime.

[Better Believe It]

33. And What Is The Response Of The Minnesota Democratic Party & Leaders To This Outrage?

I'm listening.

[downindixie]

37. What if they wait

until convention start and all the police are there and then attack the police station.I remember in the sixties they would take m-80's dip them in glue then roll them around in bb's it was like mini handgrenades.

[NeoConsSuck]

46. Whaaat?

besides dreaming of this in your right wing imagination, can you provide some verifiable proof?

I'll let you start off easy: Who is 'they'?

[High Plains]

41. Gotta love the ad at the bottom of this thread:

Become a cop, become a "community hero."

Adbot doesn't know the meaning of irony.

[High Plains]

42. Planning civil disobedience = criminal conspiracy?

[coalition_unwilling]

43. Please read Greenwald's piece in "Salon." You

will find a direct link upthread in post 22.

[Ian David]

45. Finally! SOMETHING that Anarchists are good for! Bait! Sacrificial lambs! Stalking Horses!

Let the cops use their excessive and brutal intimidation tactics on the Anarchists, to gain sympathy for the legitimate protesters.