Class-action lawsuit filed over mass arrest on first day of RNC

[babylonsister]

Class-action lawsuit filed over mass arrest on first day of RNC
By Paul Demko 9/1/09 3:55 PM



Vain Mainstream just wanted to go to work. The 23-year-old Minneapolis resident was employed by Avalon Security on the opening day of the Republican National Convention last September. His assignment: to keep watch over a parking lot in downtown St. Paul and make sure that the thousands of protesters coursing through the streets of the city didn’t do any damage.

“I was notorious for being late,” Mainstream recalls. “So I figured I better show up early and find the best way to get to work.”

But as Mainstream headed down Shepard Road along the Mississippi River on his way to work, he suddenly found himself surrounded by dozens of police officers. Some were clad head-to-toe in riot gear. Others were on bikes or horses. Next thing Mainstream knew the cops were announcing that everyone in the riverfront park was under arrest.

Mainstream was transported to the Ramsey County Jail, where he was held for almost three days. He was initially charged with unlawful assembly and felony conspiracy to riot, but the charges were eventually dropped.

“What baffles me about the whole thing is I was working for the man,” Mainstream says. “I was supposed to be keeping protesters off the street and I was arrested as one.”

Mainstream is one of 27 plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Tuesday charging that the St. Paul Police Department violated their constitutional rights on the opening day of the convention. The lawsuit alleges that police officers illegally detained more than 200 people and suppressed their free speech rights. The case is intended to be a class action on behalf of everyone arrested along Shepard Road and was filed on the one-year anniversary of the opening of the convention.

“The city has admitted that people were arrested preemptively in this park,” said attorney Robert Kolstad at a press conference held on the site of the mass arrest today. “They arrested them because they were afraid of what they might do in the future, which is a dangerous path for our government to take. Taken to its logical conclusion, what it means is that the government now believes that they can come to our houses and arrest us because they think that we might do something wrong. Our constitution simply doesn’t permit that.”

more...

http://minnesotaindependent.com/43406/class-action-lawsuit-filed-over-mass-arrest-on-first-day-of-rnc

[redqueen]

1. I thought this was started recently.

Glad it's finally in the works.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. Minority report. Very scary. Combine that with "indefinite detention"

and you have a completely repressive government and it doesn't matter what party is leading it.

[Subdivisions]

4. The Second Amendment

was designed to protect us from this shit.

[Beausoleil]

8. No, it's the 4th.

That is what was violated. You have an expectation to be secure in your person from unreasonable seizure.

Do you really think that if the protestors all pulled out their guns law enforcement would have left them alone? It would more likely have been a bloodbath.

What would really protect protestors in the future is for all the LEO involved to be charged with violating civil rights.

[Subdivisions]

10. I was referring to your comment, to wit:

Minority report. Very scary. Combine that with 'indefinite detention' and you have a completely repressive government and it doesn't matter what party is leading it."

Here is the Second Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

This gives us the right to defend ourselves against the sort of tyranny (indefinite detention) or "repressive government" you mention.

[Echo In Light]

3. Rec. The double standards applied are amazing.

[Javaman]

5. Wait, the persons name is Vain Mainstream? nt

[babylonsister]

6. Yup. Different, no?! nt

[Javaman]

9. Yeah, I'm thinking of changing my name now...

to Head Airstream. I'm bald. :rofl:

[Winterblues]

7. Gee using that logic we could invade some country if we wanted to take their oil

and use as our excuse, we thought they might in the future do something against us. Americans would never fall for such a pile of malarky though. We are far to sophisticated for anything like that..

[TexasObserver]

11. Recommend

[mdmc]

12. ..