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Dispatches...
Aug. 31st, 2008 01:35 pmfrom the heart of a free country. Or why you don't want your city hosting a major political convention any time in the future.
Our friend's St. Paul duplex was raided yesterday in a pretty clear attempt to silence and intimidate I-Witness, a NYC based video collective that exposed police brutality at the NYC RNC in 2004. Our friend, a military veteran and longtime peace and justice activist, and his housemates were housing the video crew for the week. These guests in our fair Cities have no record of involvement in efforts to "incitement to riot" or even links to "terroristic activities," the legal terms being used as justification for the ongoing raids and arrests going on around town. The video crew, including a photojournalist from that well-known 'terrorist' news organization, Democracy Now, and members of the household were handcuffed and held at gun point (one of our friend's housemates was 'detained' when she asked to see a search warrant), but ultimately let go.
Other raids have targeted such scary groups as Food Not Bombs, which serves free meals to homeless people, demonstrators at the DNC and Katrina survivors. Earth Justice, a permaculture and environmentalist group, had its bus seized by the St. Paul police; the occupants were left stranded on the off ramp without transportation. A number of journalists, activists and lawyers have had their computers, cell phones and cameras seized. Those actually arrested can be held up to 36 hours without judicial oversight.
For an overview of what's going on, check out http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/,http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/index.html, http://coldsnaplegal.wordpress.com/, http://www.tcdailyplanet.net and any other worthwhile noncorporate progressive news source.
A few years back, it might have been our house on the list. But like most middle aged folks, we've been less involved in progressive politics as we've gotten older. Clearly we're overdue for getting back into the mix.
Tomorrow, for obvious reasons, we'll be at the Capitol for the March on the RNC. The rally starts at 11, the march at 1.http://www.marchonrnc.org/
Where will you be?
Our friend's St. Paul duplex was raided yesterday in a pretty clear attempt to silence and intimidate I-Witness, a NYC based video collective that exposed police brutality at the NYC RNC in 2004. Our friend, a military veteran and longtime peace and justice activist, and his housemates were housing the video crew for the week. These guests in our fair Cities have no record of involvement in efforts to "incitement to riot" or even links to "terroristic activities," the legal terms being used as justification for the ongoing raids and arrests going on around town. The video crew, including a photojournalist from that well-known 'terrorist' news organization, Democracy Now, and members of the household were handcuffed and held at gun point (one of our friend's housemates was 'detained' when she asked to see a search warrant), but ultimately let go.
Other raids have targeted such scary groups as Food Not Bombs, which serves free meals to homeless people, demonstrators at the DNC and Katrina survivors. Earth Justice, a permaculture and environmentalist group, had its bus seized by the St. Paul police; the occupants were left stranded on the off ramp without transportation. A number of journalists, activists and lawyers have had their computers, cell phones and cameras seized. Those actually arrested can be held up to 36 hours without judicial oversight.
For an overview of what's going on, check out http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/,http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/index.html, http://coldsnaplegal.wordpress.com/, http://www.tcdailyplanet.net and any other worthwhile noncorporate progressive news source.
A few years back, it might have been our house on the list. But like most middle aged folks, we've been less involved in progressive politics as we've gotten older. Clearly we're overdue for getting back into the mix.
Tomorrow, for obvious reasons, we'll be at the Capitol for the March on the RNC. The rally starts at 11, the march at 1.http://www.marchonrnc.org/
Where will you be?