[via phone]

An altercation pitting convention police and the Minnesota National Guard against the anarchist group Black Bloc has ended in a fusillade of tear gas and an unknown number of arrests. Black Bloc held a dance party at St. Paul College (Ireland and Kellogg) this morning; afterward they took to the street, proceeding down Kellogg Avenue. At one point, members of the group pulled a dumpster into the street and grabbed garbage from it to throw at a passing limousine. They then tipped over the dumpster in the middle of the street to make it impassable.

The group then turned on to St. Peter, throwing temporary road signs and barricades into the street as they went. When they encountered a row of parked police cars, some members of the crowd broke windows out of three police cars and a police SUV.

When the crowd reached St. Peter and 7th Street, they were greeted by 20 or so Minnesota National Guard members who fired numerous tear gas canisters into the group. I was part of a cluster of four people who ducked into an alcove when the tear gas started; a tear gas canister was subsequently fired directly at us.