Convention cops

The Republican National Convention. For many, that week in September brings back memories of the acidic smell of tear gas and pepper spray, police in riot gear on every corner and thousands of protesters in the streets. A two hour documentary by the Glass Bead Collective and Twin Cities Indymedia, features disturbing, never-before-seen footage of the RNC and police actions against protesters in the streets of St. Paul. The entire documentary is available on the Terrorizing Dissent website.

A clever trailer puts Sen. John McCain accepting the Republican party nomination in front of images of tear gas and protester arrests.

With several members of the RNC8 — the people charged with felonies in conjunction with planned protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last month — heading to court today for hearings in their cases, the Friends of the RNC8 are asking supporters to phone three local officials today to urge that charges [...]

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s office issued a statement this morning announcing that the city attorney won’t prosecute journalists who were cited by authorities at the Republican National Convention (RNC) with “presence at an unlawful assembly,” a misdemeanor charge.

That pertains specifically to the journalists who were swept up in the massive arrests during protests in St. Paul on the convention’s first and last days (including MnIndy’s Paul Demko, who was arrested on the last night of the RNC). How many people that might include is unclear, but nearly 50 of the over 800 people arrested or detained were on-site to cover the RNC for professional media or citizen-journalism organizations.

The Glass Bead Collective released video on Thursday of the mass arrests of protesters, media and bystanders at Shepard Road on day one of the Republican National Convention. A number of those arrested were heading to or from the SEIU Labor Day concert on Harriet Island. (Three members of the Glass Bead Collective were among [...]

A minority of the Minneapolis City Council decided Wednesday against requesting answers from Chief Tim Dolan on police actions during the Republican National Convention. And by killing a proposed staff directive, four members of the council’s Public Safety and Regulatory Services Committee made sure that the council majority not on the committee won’t have a say on the issue. MnIndy has audio highlights with transcription after the jump.

It turns out that first they came with handcuffs for the vulnerable adults in state institutions, then they came for the anarchists, the reporters, the medics …
Minnesota’s Office of the Ombudsman for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities has issued a blistering, 200-page report entitled “Just Plain Wrong,” detailing excessive and routine use of restraints, including metal handcuffs [...]

Hey, someone’s been eating my constitutional rights!

After St. Paul announced last week that a man named Heffelfinger would review law enforcement during the Republican National Convention, a local TV station trumpeted what would seem to be Goldilocks’ view on the matter.

This weekend’s SurveyUSA/KSTP-TV poll reported that — in Three-Bears fashion — 60 percent of Minnesotans surveyed chose “Just About Right” as the best answer to this question: “How do you think law enforcement handled the arrests of hundreds of protesters during the Republican National Convention?”

“Just About Right?” Does that mean 60 percent of Minnesotans think that 45 is just about the right number of journalists to be arrested and detained?

UPDATED Mayor R.T. Rybak announced this afternoon that Minneapolis would conduct a series of reviews into the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) actions in Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention, including a standard “after-action report” that will look into related security measures and the development of new policies for dealing with the media. A city council member who has urged a blue-ribbon, multi-jurisdictional review said the mayor’s statement was “good” but appeared to fall short of “a public, independent, transparent process.”

In this installment of City Hall Monitor: Minneapolis banks on Justice’s eyes being blind, but not glazing over like FEMA’s; an audit says it may be fictional but, hey, it’s a job; officials take an hour deciding whether to let people speak on NRP financing; and Porky’s resorts to discounts to drum up business at its hard-won, zoning-code-busting drive-thru window.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety effort tied to the Republican National Convention — but its limited scope may not satisfy calls from various quarters for independent review of police misconduct.