There are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make.

Obama was referencing a revised city budget that Rybak, a Democrat, unveiled yesterday that applied stimulus money to patch holes in Minneapolis’ public safety budget caused in part by decreased aid from Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s cuts in funding to cities.

Rybak had been rumored to be in the running for a job in Obama’s administration, but last month announced his intention to seek a third term this fall — while keeping open the option of a 2010 run to replace Pawlenty.

Rybak first made the claim about the stimulus saving 57 police positions on Monday in a speech to unveil his revised 2009 budget. Note two subtleties that Obama passed over: Rybak acknowledges one-time stim funds will only preserve the jobs for one budget cycle, and along with the stim funds he credits cost-trimming that includes reductions in overtime (so while not layoffs, effectively less policing):

If the Governor’s cuts were passed on directly to the Police Department, it would have led to the elimination of 57 sworn police officer positions and 19 non sworn employees. We will not have to do that because of two factors. First, working with Chief Dolan, we are proposing elimination of $1.5 million in non personnel costs, including overtime.

Second the federal Recovery Act’s one time public safety grants arrived just in time. President Obama said he would help cities keep police officers on the job and he has delivered. Because of this funding I will be proposing no personnel cuts in the Police Department. Next time someone asks you what the Recovery Act will do, start by telling them it will keep 57 police officers working on the streets of Minneapolis.

There is a catch, and it is a very, very big catch. The money we are using to avoid those public safety cuts are one time dollars. They can be stretched over 18 months but then they are done. In the 2010 budget and beyond we have to make up the funding for these officers and, as you will see in a moment, the 2010 cuts the Governor is proposing would lead to even deeper cuts in public safety funding.

 It didn’t take long for the White House Blog (yes, there’s a White House Blog) to pick up on the 57-cops line in a late Monday post. And Rybak kept up a drumbeat on Twitter right through Obama’s speech:

Ready to use federal stimulus funds to save and create jobs in Minneapolis www.MayorRybak.us
5:53 PM Feb 20th from web

Revised 2009 city budget has no cuts to public safety, thanks to commitment to debt reduction and using federal stimulus www.MayorRybak.us
5:36 PM Feb 23rd from web

I wish the Governor would quit criticizing the federal stimulus. It is being used to keep 57 police officers on the job in Minneapolis
8:00 PM Feb 23rd from web

White House blog posted on my budget proposal to use stimulus funds to keep police working in Minneapolis www.whitehouse.gov/blog
about 24 hours ago (approximately 7:45 a.m., Feb. 24) from web

Barack said it tonight but you read it here first: The Gov’s cuts would have eliminated 57 police jobs. The stumulus (sic) saved them.
about 10 hours ago (approximately 9:45 p.m. Feb. 24) from web

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

The documentary features interviews with local activists, lawyers and media personnel who were arrested, including Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman.

From the documentary’s producers: “Featuring first-person accounts and footage from more than forty cameras on the streets, ‘Terrorizing Dissent’ focuses on the story of dissent suppressed. People charged with ‘conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism’ speak out against the government’s campaign to manipulate media coverage and label civil disobedience and community organizing as terrorism.

‘Terrorizing Dissent’ shows the results of the $50 million the Department of Homeland Security gave to local authorities for security — a large chunk of which went to weaponize the police — and the $10 million insurance policy contract between the RNC Host Committee and the City of St. Paul, which shattered Minnesota’s civil compact between protesters and police.”

[Updated] 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 hasn’t been tallied yet, but nearly 50 of the more than 800 people arrested or detained were onsite to cover the RNC, according to a MnIndy analysis (see comments for additions to our original list). Their cases will be individually reviewed according to this policy, according to City Attorney John Choi.

In other news related to RNC journalist arrestees, it should be noted that the pending charges against “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman and two of her producers are being dropped. Choi explained that his office is declining prosecution in Goodman’s case, “because the facts and circumstances related to Amy Goodman fell outside of our charging policy for obstruction of legal process cases,” which is what she was cited for.

Choi explained that, “In conjunction with the police department and community activists, the City Attorney’s Office has developed a more conservative approach to handling obstruction of legal process cases. We felt that same policy should apply to this case.”

Further, after reviewing the facts, circumstances and video evidence, pending unlawful assembly charges against the show’s two producers are also being cleared.

Choi said the decision doesn’t necessarily mean the arrests were improper. “What defines probable cause for an arrest is different from what defines probable cause for a charge. … We have to look at whether we can succeed at court,” he said.

Minneapolis attorney John Lundquist, who represented Goodman on the matter, said, “Obviously we’re very happy that [the city attorney] made the right call in declining the charges. It was a little slow in coming, but I agree that it was correct to dismiss it. Clearly there was never any prosecutable case.” Further, “I strongly disagree there was ever any probable cause for the arrests in the first place.”

Mayor Coleman said in the prepared statement about the policy decision made concerning journalists at the RNC, “This decision reflects the values we have in St. Paul to protect and promote our First Amendment rights to freedom of the press. … A journalist plays a special role in our democracy and that role is just too important to ignore.” While police carried out their charge to protect public safety, “we are serving the public’s interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press.”

The statement acknowledges the “growing media profession in print, broadcast and the Internet, the city attorney’s office will use a broad definition and verification to identify journalists who were caught up in mass arrests during the convention.”

ABC News crew wears gas masks while filming the Funk the War group, in front of MPR on 7th Street. Photo: T. Roman

Of the 800-plus people who were arrested or detained in conjunction with RNC protests, a good chunk of them — 46, by our count — were members of the news media. Media representatives in town to cover the events, from both big and small presses, were slapped with citations and pending charges ranging in severity, including unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, misdemeanor interference with a peace officer and felony to riot plus other riot pretenses. (Notably Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was jailed along with two of the show’s producers.) Many others who weren’t arrested or detained endured pepper-spray and other arms used for crowd-control.

MnIndy has compiled a list of journalists who were detained or arrested, including some preemptively, culled from news reports and sources, including the Ramsey County sheriff’s department’s booking roster. Let us know if anyone is unaccounted for and we’ll add them to the list.

Journalists detained/arrested:

Tom Aviles, WCCO photojournalist

Charlie B, MTV Think blogger (full last name unknown)

Anita Braithwaite, New York-based Glass Bead Collective

Wendy Binion, Portland IndyMedia

Andy Birkey, Minnesota Independent

Geraldine Cahill, The Real News

Eileen Clancy, I-Witness Video, a New York-based media collective

Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent

Amy Forliti, Associated Press reporter

Ben Garvin, Pioneer Press photographer

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! host

Art Hughes, Public News Service

Suzanne Hughes, The Uptake, volunteer coordinator

Ted Johnson, Variety managing editor

Olivia Katz, Glass Bead Collective

Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! producer

Alice Kalthoff, MyFoxdfw.com editor

Jon Krawczynski, Associated Press reporter

Joseph La Sac, Pepperspray Productions journalist

Brian Madigan, Minneapolis freelancer

Ed Matthews, University of Kentucky photojournalism student

Jonathan Malat, KARE-11 photojournalist

Stephen Maturen, Minnesota Daily assistant picture editor

Britney McIntosh, University of Kentucky photojournalism student

Matt Nelson, University of Iowa student

Jason Nicholas, New York Post freelance photographer

Mark Ovaska, Rochester freelance photographer

Christopher Patton, Editorial board member of The Daily Iowan

Elizabeth Press, Democracy Now!

Matt Rourke, Associated Press photographer

Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet

Lambert Rochfort, Pepperspray Productions journalist

Seth Rowe, Sun Newspapers, St. Louis Park community editor

Jeff Schorfheide, Madison, Wis. Badger-Herald photographer

Mark Skinner, University of Nevada Las Vegas Rebel Yell reporter

Ania Smolenskaia, The Real News

Matt Snyders, City Pages

Nicole Salazar, Democracy Now! producer

Vlad Teichberg, New York-based Glass Bead Collective

Dean Treftz, U-Wire, national college news service

Nathan Weber, photographer, Chicago-area freelancer

Tony Webster, Twin Cities independent media professional

Jim Winn, University of Kentucky journalism adviser

John P. Wise, MyFox national editor

Dawn Zuppelli, Rochester IndyMedia

We learned that while the center will remain open during the Republican National Convention, it won’t exactly be business as usual. Details, and reactions from some of the people who hang their hats there, in this MnIndy video report.

Let’s go shopping!

On March 10 the Denver City Council authorized spending $5 million on “capital equipment” — namely some badass police apparati designed to head off trouble during the August Democratic National Convention. But that’s just a drop in the bucket for the $50 million in total federal tax dollars that will enable the city to stockpile enough gadgets, ammo and the latest in riot toyz to pole-vault any law enforcement professional into hog heaven.

Here are the rules: Any single equipment over $50,000 must be specially approved by the Denver City Council. As for any other surprise goodies that Denver and Secret Service are ordering in preparation for rude and wayward demonstrators and the like? They’re not saying. So beginning today, we launch (get it?) a several-day series exploring the array of possibilities.

Specifically, what we’ve got so far is approval for a “heavy rescue vehicle”; a “hazardous materials response vehicle”; an “urban search and rescue unit”; and a “unified incident command vehicle.”

After the jump, a look at what they are talking about.Heavy Rescue Vehicle
A heavy rescue vehicle is a giant toolbox on wheels. Typically used for carting firefighting and EMS equipment for specialized purposes (e.g. vehicle extrications, bridge collapses, etc.). The apparatus has high-angle, trench-rescue and confined-space capabilities.

Urban Search & Rescue Unit
Almost indistinguishable (from the outside, at least) from Heavy Rescue Vehicles, Urban Search and Rescue vehicles are filled with the goodies needed to find and get people out of collapsed buildings and the like. Can take any number of forms from scary tank-like vehicles to relatively benign fire-truck-looking things.

Unified Incident Command Vehicle
A cross between a fire truck and a mobile home. Unified Incident Command Vehicles are loaded with everything a law enforcer needs to manage a situation.

Tomorrow: Check out the dizzying array of $3.4 million worth of allotments designed to buy a SWAT vehicle, “communication equipment,” an “Interagency communication system” and an “Amplification system.

We extend huge thanks for  assistance with this package to a Colorado researcher and writer who does not plan to participate in the August convention but nonetheless prefers to remain unnamed for fear of retribution.