Photo: The Washington Independent

At least 10 individuals attending Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “House Call” event to protest health care reform have been arrested outside an office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The protesters were among the several thousand Tea Party activists that Bachmann invited to storm the Capitol on Thursday.

“They were inside an office and didn’t leave,” Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police told the Washington Post. They were being charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful entry.

Talking Points Memo contributor Christina Bellantoni described the “strange scene” where the the protesters were being loaded into transport vehicles.

Like a bad game of telephone, the crowd spread rumors without anyone having witnessed exactly what happened.

Several people said the group had been arrested for praying. Others said the group was arrested for ripping up pages from the nearly 2,000-page health care bill.

“This is America, this is not the Soviet Union,” one woman said.

That woman later told the officers, “I know you guys are just doing your job but don’t you hate your job?”

“I’m embarrassed,” another woman told her friends.

“Read your history books,” another woman shouted at the officers.

“Thugs from Chicago,” a man shouted at police.

“Arrest Nancy Pelosi for treason. You’re arresting the wrong people,” another shouted.

They’re wearing riot gear in London and they’re talking recounts in New York. It’s all so St. Paul, last fall.

St. Paul to London

Demonstrators, massed in the capital city to protest a gathering of people who wield political power, met police wielding riot-control weaponry. A bank’s windows were broken. Peaceful crowds were trapped by police moving in pincer formations.

It could have been the Republican National Convention (RNC), September 2008, in  St. Paul, Minn.. But it was the G20 Summit, April 2009, in London, England.

Differences: A man died in London after he collapsed in an area police had hemmed in. (Natural causes, one protester said; thrown bottles hampered police medics’ efforts, police said.) And the United States of America has a Bill of Rights that’s supposed to guarantee freedom of speech; England doesn’t.

Uncanny similarity: For their summit, the G20 leaders selected a London location that people call the ExCel Centre. The RNC took place at St. Paul’s Xcel Center.

Minnesota to New York

As Election Day turns into The Day After (and the day after that), the margin between two candidates dwindles to less than a half-percent of the total votes cast. Fundraising for a recount and charges of election-stealing ensue.

Sounds like the Minnesota U.S. Senate election, November 2008 — but it’s New York’s special congressional election, April 2009, where Democrat Scott Murphy leads Republican Jim Tedisco by a mere 25 votes.

Differences: New York doesn’t count its absentee ballots until after Election Day and gives overseas ballots an extra couple of weeks to arrive — leaving thousands of votes still to include in the canvass. (Minnesota counts all absentee ballots on Election Day and accepts none that arrive any later.) And President Obama made a last-minute robocall that could have made the difference with Election Day returns. (Candidate Obama made no such pitch for Franken.)

Uncanny similarity: The parallel universes are converging as Republicans fall back on discredited election-stealing charges from the Al Franken-Norm Coleman dispute to prime the cash pump for New York’s post-election drama. (Democrats, presumably slightly less prone to getting riled since they hold slim leads in both races, are so far making a more generic fundraising pitch in New York.)

Marchers praised the Minneapolis Police Department for their swift action in investigating the incident, and organizers urged participants to obey traffic laws and to thank local businesses, including Dunn Bros. Coffee and Bryant Lake Bowl for their support.

Several speakers addressed the crowd, sharing a unified theme: “It’s a woman’s right to walk at night.”

Kelly Lewis, a community organizer from Outfront Minnesota spoke about a large increase in hate crimes against LGBT people in Minnesota last year.

Several women addressed the crowd, many invoking the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the struggle for equality for the LGBT community.

Many demonstrators created homemade signs that decried violence directed toward the LGBT community.

Speakers shivered in the cold as they addressed the crowd.

Sweet Pea, a local burlesque celebrity, expressed outrage over the attack on Boynes.

Volunteers in yellow vests handed out glow sticks and made sure everyone stayed safe during the march.

The message for the night.

After the jump, Darby’s statement and a short video clip in which Darby, co-founder of Common Ground Collective, advocates for Hurricane Katrina victims.

December 29, 2008

To All Concerned,

The struggles for peace and justice have accomplished significant change throughout history. I’ve had the honor to work with many varying groups and individuals on behalf of marginalized communities and in various struggles. There are currently allegations in the media that I have worked undercover for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This allegation no doubt confuses many activists who know me and probably leaves many wondering why I would seemingly choose to engage in such an endeavor. The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of investigation.
As compelling as the natural human desire to reason and express oneself can be, regardless, I must hold my comments at this time on certain aspects of the situation. That said, there are a few statements and generalizations I will make relating to my recent choices.

Though I’ve made and will no doubt continue to make many mistakes in efforts to better our world, I am satisfied with the efforts in which I have participated. Like many of you, I do my best to act in good conscience and to do what I believe to be most helpful to the world. Though my views on how to give of myself have changed substantially over the years, ultimately the motivations behind my choices remain the same. I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter.

I strongly believe that people innocent of an act should stand up for themselves and that those who choose to engage in an act should accept responsibility and explain the reasoning for their choices.

It is very dangerous when a few individuals engage in or act on a belief system in which they feel they know the real truth and that all others are ignorant and therefore have no right to meet and express their political views.

Additionally, when people act out of anger and hatred, and then claim that their actions were part of a movement or somehow tied into the struggle for social justice only after being caught, it’s damaging to the efforts of those who do give of themselves to better this world. Many people become activists as a result of discovering that others have distorted history and made heroes and assigned intentions to people who really didn’t act to better the world. The practice of placing noble intentions after the fact on actions which did not have noble motivations has no place in a movement for social justice.

The majority of the activists who went to St. Paul did so with pure intentions and simply wanted to express their disagreements with the Republican Party. It’s unfortunate that some used the group as cover for intentions that the rest of the group did not agree with or knew nothing about and are now, consequently, having parts of their lives and their peace of mind uprooted over.

There is no doubt in my mind that many of you reading this letter will say and feel all possible bad things about my choices and for me. I made the choice to have my identity revealed and was well aware of the consequences for doing so. I know that the temptation to silence or ignore the voice of someone who you strongly disagree with can be overwhelming in matters such as this one; and no doubt many people will try to do just that to me. I have confidence that there will be a few people interested in discussion and in better understanding views different from their own, especially from one of their own. My sincere hope is that the entire matter results in better understanding for everyone.

Many of you went against my wishes and spoke publicly in defense of me. Those involved were correct when they wrote that I wasn’t making my choices for financial reasons or to avoid some sort of prosecution. They were incorrect that my ideology didn’t support such choices. One individual who publically defended me stated that they didn’t believe I was working undercover because the government would have used my access to take down a more prominent activist if the allegations were true. If indeed the government or I was interested in doing so, it could have happened in such a manner. However, the incorrect notion that the government was out to silence dissent was the cause for the mistake made by that person. In defense of the individuals who openly did their best to do what they thought was defending me, they did not know the truth and they had no way of knowing the truth due to their ideological and personal attachments to me. It’s unfortunate that the truth couldn’t have come out sooner and that the needed preparations for such a disclosure take time. I really did mean it when I said that I didn’t want to discuss it and that I didn’t want folks addressing the allegations.

Again, I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter. I’m looking forward to open dialogue and debate regarding the motivations and experiences I’ve had and the ethical questions they pose.

In Solidarity,

Brandon Michael Darby

All weekend long the police talked of the “criminal anarchists,” groups allegedly hellbent on inciting riots and causing destruction during the RNC. Now today, the national media has used images of smashed windows–there was a Macy’s window smashed, windows of a cop car broken when a cop wasn’t in it, and a bank window smashed, I saw it happen–as proof of a bunch of protesters gone wild.

We followed this group for nearly the entire day, a small faction made up of a total of 60 or so Funk the War and Food Not Bombs anti-war protesters and some self-proclaimed “anarchists” who said they weren’t part of any group. (The Food Not Bombs house was one of the homes raided on Saturday.) There was threats of tear gas, and pepper spray used on us more than once. Around 20 people had to have their eyes cleaned out. There was intimidation on every corner and from ramps of parking garages, and one cop wrestling someone to the ground. As cops and the mainstream media would tell it, it was out of control. But for the “anarchists,” it was hardly anarchy.

Caltrops intended to halt traffic.

For one thing, despite the media fearmongering and the ominous presence of riot cops–some aiming tear-gas guns at protesters from garages–and the 12 cop cars following us down the street at one point, for the most the 60 or so protesters in this group were fairly benign, though there were about 15 of them whose worse crime committed was pulling newspaper boxes into the street, and in one case, a Dumpster. When that happened, about five people in the group stopped to clean up the trash that had fallen to the street.

On one street, a few people threw down caltrops to block traffic. One kid who looked under 20 years old jumped on top of a cop car that broke through the pedestrian barrier. Another two smashed windows of a Macy’s, First National Bank, and unoccupied cop car. However, this was the work of maybe five or so people in the breakaway protest group.

Pepper spray was widely used on protesters.

Yet the media headlines say that “anarchists” marred peaceful protests. They broke away and “resisted police.” They caused protests to turn violent. To be sure, a handful certainly weren’t always peaceful or obeying the law. But there was also less than 40 of them in the entire group at many points, and when windows started to get smashed by a lone few, yells came out from the group such as, “What are you doing!? You idiot! How is that going to send a message?” Anarchy and mass chaos? Hardly.

Photos by Tim Roman