RNC raids

After the raids Friday and Saturday by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department and the Minneapolis Police Department led to six arrests, the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is seeking a judicial review of the “probable cause holds” being used to detain the six activists in the Ramsey County Jail.

Ramsey County can hold the arrestees for 36 hours on probable cause, a time line in place often used to gather evidence before formal charges are filed. However, weekends and holidays are not included in the 36-hour hold, which means all six of the activists arrested for “probable cause” could be held until Wednesday afternoon.

A look over the inventory receipt for the raid at 3240 17th Avenue (hat tip TC Indy Media) reveals that most of the items the police seized out of the the home this morning as “evidence to riot” are things that could be found in nearly any home: They confiscated a pack of staples, laptop computers, bike locks, cell phones, a storage device, a computer hard drive, curtain rods, a checkbook. The police also took what they call “propaganda literature,” such as leaflets and other information material tenants and guests planned on distributing at the RNC. The only questionable items found at the home was a rifle barrel, throwing knives, and caltrops. Yet Alex, who lives at the home, says police claims that these were evidence of conspiracy to riot is ridiculous.

(UPDATE at 2:40 p.m.: City requires tenants to fix back door kicked in by police by 6 p.m. today or they will continue with boarding process.) After the police raid this morning at 3240 17th Avenue in South Minneapolis, in which the homeowner, 23-year-old Monica Bicking, and two other people were arrested for “conspiracy to riot,” city inspectors came in at about 11:30 to board up the two-story home. City officials, including Tom Deegan, manager of the city’s problem properties unit, were on hand along with Casterjon, the private contractor in charge with boarding, to close up the home for what Deegan calls “code violations.”

Bicking’s lawyer, Bruce Nestor, asked for more specific reasons for the boarding and attempted to halt the boarding process until he got them, but he was thwarted by officials and police. Deegan says he will release specific reasons for the boarding to the Joint Information Center (a partnership with MPD and SPPD) later today.

Alex, who only wants to go by his first name, was at the house during the raid.