Laurie Arbeiter

Sometimes you go to the news. Other times, it’s vice-versa. Like today. Editing video at a workspace near West 7th Street in St. Paul, I noticed the flash of police lights out the window and grabbed my video camera to see what was going on. Peering through the window screen, I saw at least eight St. Paul Police and Transit Police cars stopped on the street and officers surrounding a red car, guns drawn. Two women and a man were removed from the car, and the man I recognized from the largely peaceful march by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights campaign. All three were detained then released — told the car was on a federal “stop-and-search list” — and all are relatively high-profile and outspoken peace activists.