Duluth Democrats condemn Gaertner’s prosecution of RNC Eight

This is good news, positive news. The Democratic Party, though, has a very, very long way to go before trust is restored. The Democrats, in large numbers, voted for every repressive measure that passed in the last decade. The building of the currently existing repressive state that threatens us all was a bi- partisan effort. Bush & Cheney, and their Minnesota underlings had a LOT of Democratic Party assistance.

Reining in police- state Democrats like Susan Gaertner and dropping the charges against the RNC Eight would be a good first step in Minnesota.

One last thing. The Eight are not the “so- called RNC Eight.” When the history of these dark times is written, scholars will referred to them simply as the RNC Eight. That’s the way these things work. Its the Chicago 7, the Milwaukee 14, the Minnesota 8, the Gainesville 8, and the RNC Eight.

I’m usually only tepidly involved with political campaigns, but if this prosecutorial nazi dares to run for office, I may drop everything to make sure she never comes near to be elected.

Conspiracy to damage property should not be confused with honorable, non-violent dissent. There are clear legal lines between the two. Let the judicial system work and let the chips fall where they may. If you believe that conspiracy to damage property is not worthy of prosecution then say so. If you think destructive dissent is equivalent to non-violent protests then say so. That way readers will be able to tell if you are a respectable radical or just another anarchist. Spare us all the nazi, police state nonsense. If you want to see real lawlessness in the executive branch – watch what is happening now. Be objective if you can, if you dare.

So..let me get this straight. A gang of thugs conspires to forment riot and damage private property to prevent/disrupt the legal gather of a group which it opposes. And Democrats are in a huff that a fellow Democrat would seek to prosecute said gang of thugs.

Would these same Democrats be pissing all over themselves if a Rupublican was seeking to prosecute a gang of thugs seeking to disrupt a Planned Parenthood convention?

What a bunch of pathetic hypocrites.

The Duluth DFL and the Duluth Central Labor Body don’t necessarily endorse the Welcoming Committee’s tactics or worldview, but their members understand that the prosecution of organizers for the actions and alleged actions of others is a threat to our very right to organize. Besides, a case that relies on political literature and common household items as evidence should spook any Minnesotan, anarchist or not, who happens to have a point of view and a curtain rod.
I think it’s fair to say that Duluthians in general were shocked by the police state atmosphere in St Paul and view these prosecutions as political: a way to justify that $50 million security state and abridgment of civil liberties.
It should be noted that the Duluth DFL passed 2 RNC-related resolutions that day. The 2nd supported Amnesty International’s call for an independent inquiry into civil rights abuses during the convention.
The full text of the RNC 8 resolution can be found here:
http://northlandantiwar.blogspot.com/2009/05/dfl-resolution-in-support-of-rnc-8.html

Don’t forget the Stop Choi Stop group also on facebook

Don’t forget the Stop Choi Stop group also on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77416718207&ref=ts#/group.php?gid=77416718207

I disagree with you, Mark, that the legal lines are clear. Since 9-11, the lines between peaceful protest, non-violent civil disobedience and violent acts of terrorism have been very blurred and muddied. The Minnesota Patriot Act which is still the law in Minnesota makes property damage as little as $1000 considered to be “in furtherance of terrorism”. You can also see evidence of the blurring in the many leaked “Homeland Security Intelligence Documents”. Their pre-RNC “Highway Watch” document contained charts and diagrams listing and targeting mainstream (non-violent) peace groups.

Another problematic aspect of the RNC 8 case exists in its application of the “Bush Doctrine” theory of “pre-emptive” raids and detentions conducted before enough factual evidence existed.

Gaertner should be credited at least with dropping the original “terrorism” charges and hopefully she’ll support repeal of the Minnesota Patriot Act. But the damage was already done, long before Gaertner instituted this prosecution, as a result of the terrorism labeling, the pre-emptive police actions and mostly right-wing media hype/threats. This was what served to chill the honorable non-violent dissent at the RNC.

Coleen,

Thanks Coleen for the enlightening comments; I’m an expert in very few things and haven’t really been following the case (or the coverage of it). The “terrorism” aspect was always an overreach. But as our current Commander-in-Chief would say, “on the other hand” some are quick to label the destructive minority of Pro-Life activists as terrorists. In any case, she rightly dropped that part.

I don’t think it is useful to apply the label “Bush Doctrine” to pre-emptive action. It is pre-emptive action, simply. Such labelling adds no value for the reader and demeans the writer. Any law enforcement group that does not use pre-emptive action when they have intelligence that indicates it would be effective is negligent. The FBI and CIA certainly know this from recent experience.

This was not a matter of responsible action by law enforcement to prevent a crime. This was the heavy-handed action of the state to round up and jail protest organizers whose only “crime” was to organize housing, food and other support for activists coming into the Twin Cities to protest. These eight young people spent the entirety of the RNC (and beyond) in jail so Sheriff Fletcher and the rest could justify their expenditure of $50 million in armaments and policing as well as their outrageous tactics of bombing, brutalizing and indiscriminantly arresting thousands. Gaertner’s prosecution of the RNC 8 validates Fletcher’s actions and must be condemned. I laud the Duluth DFL for seeing this case for what it is “policing” their own.

This country’s legal system is supposedly predicated on the notion of innocent until proven guilty. Pre-emptive arrests upend that notion and institute a kind of law enforcement based on alleged thought and association.

I was out with my organization doing copwatch (documenting police behavior) throughout the entirety of the RNC. The ONLY violence I saw was on the part of the police. This prosecution is an attempt to validate that violence.

To view some of the extensive film footage of police violence that was captured during the RNC go to http://www.terrorizingdissent.org

Michelle Gross
Communities United Against Police Brutality

Thanks for posting the “Stop Choi Stop” link. I knew that was out there, but couldn’t track it down immediately when I was assembling this post.

So Run Choi Run: 374 member. Notables: St. Paul City Council members Lee Helgen, Kathy Lantry, Russ Stark and Melvin Carter, Wellstone Action executive director Jeff Blodgett, House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, plus a lot of DFL activists.

Stop Choi Stop: 167 members. Notables: Southside Pride publisher Ed Felien and Minneapolis City Council candidate Charley Underwood, plus a lot of people who don’t live in the Twin Cities.

Bottom line: Choi’s got a lot of powerful people on his side.

So Michelle Gross,

We know what you are against, and passionately so. that is to be commended. Are you also for people, gathering bomb-making materials and making bombs? I suppose they were just preparing for an Independence Day celebration. Is destruction of property and interruption of security and other legitimate city services admissable dissent too?

“The Duluth DFL and the Duluth Central Labor Body don’t necessarily endorse the Welcoming Committee’s tactics or worldview, but their members understand that the prosecution of organizers for the actions and alleged actions of others is a threat to our very right to organize”.

Organize *what*? Riots? DestRuction of property? Interference with the political rights of citizens who are Republicans? The Duluth DFL disgraced itself with this resolution, no doubt introduced and passed with the help of leftists and Green-Dems in the party.

“Another problematic aspect of the RNC 8 case exists in its application of the “Bush Doctrine” theory of “pre-emptive” raids and detentions conducted before enough factual evidence existed”.

Miss Rowley, after all your years in law enforcement – you still don’t know about probable cause?

Did you even *read* the search warrant?