An Inside Look at the Raided Convergence Center
A look at the “Convergence Center” after the raid.
More at http://www.theuptake.org. Why did the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office raid a quiet musical performance at a rented theater and then search everyone? It’s the eve of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, and that has everything to do with it. Noah Kunin takes us inside the building that the police raided Friday night and shows us what they did, or didn’t find. This was streamed live from a cell phone camera, hence the video quality.
Journalists/Home Owner Raided, Detained
More hostile actions on the part of the police and likely FBI in an attempt to intimidate and supress free speech and now apparently free press:
Sat. Aug 30, 2008. Saint Paul, MN Police Department raids a home at 591 Iglehart Avenue at gunpoint. The journalists include a contributing photojournalist with “Democracy Now”, whose host Amy Goodman appears in this clip jumping a fence to question police officers.
This is part of a series of police actions on the eve of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
After several hours, all those detained were released. No arrests. No property was seized as result of the search warrant. The clip ends with an interview with homeowner Mike Whalen. At the start of the clip, a neighbor shouts to the media and onlookers that we could all come into her backyard to see the detained people held in the adjacent backyard.
Video by Chuck Tomlinson
“Preventitive Detention” by Ramsey County Police…
…and the FBI. Pure political persecution.
When The UpTake arrived at the home at 3240 17th Ave. South in Minneapolis, the police and city inspectors were boarding up the house. The city said they had to board up the house because the owner wasn’t available, but the owner was in jail.
Interview With Detained Woman
Woman is relocating her disabled daughter to a “safe-house”, because she fears for her safety. Protecting her family from the government, here in the land of the free.
Michelle Gross of Communities Against Police Brutality was the victim of a burglary…and she’s hinting strongly that she thinks someone from the government did it.
She and her husband were detained by police in St. Paul on Fri. 8/29/08 while attending an organizing meeting of activists protesting the RNC in the Twin Cities. They were not arrested, and eventually released. However, they returned home to find their garage and car had been burglarized. Nothing was taken, but documents and belongings had been searched. Interviewed at a gathering in Powderhorn Park on 8/30/08.
More Video of Victims of Raids
People Discussing the raids:
A man reading a list of the “charges” to a group at a park, who laugh at the outlandish accusations:
Wonder when the so-called “liberal media” is going to pick this one up…
(h/t: Crooks and Liars)
Feds Involved in Raids and Intimidation of Legal Protestors
Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they’ve done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our “freedoms” in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic — but we’ve decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it’s therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them.
After all, if you don’t want the FBI spying on you, or the Police surrounding and then invading your home with rifles and seizing your computers, there’s a very simple solution: don’t protest the Government. Just sit quietly in your house and mind your own business. That way, the Government will have no reason to monitor what you say and feel the need to intimidate you by invading your home. Anyone who decides to protest — especially with something as unruly and disrespectful as an unauthorized street march — gets what they deserve.
Bush Not Going Quietly Into That Good Night
Working to make war powers permanent.
This coupled with the recent undermining of the constitution by the FISA legislation (that Obama, a constitutional scholar voted for), should tell you where we are headed.
Continue to ignore this at your own peril.
The Brownshirts are Coming…
Wake the fuck up America. This is something you had better start getting used to.
This is the cost of your ignorance, and the freedoms you’ve allowed to be traded away for the illusion of security:
This is clearly the suppression of free speech, and a proactive attempt to chill lawful protest and assembly. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that this is a Republican thing either, the same tactics were on display last week in Denver.
You don’t give away your power and then expect the government not to use it. You had better start pushing back, before Gitmo comes to a city or town near you.
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