Anarchist Black Cat

http://twincities.indymedia.org/

#
Fri, 08/29/2008 - 23:09
Latest from outside the convergence center
cred_rating:
Four

As of 11:03pm:
Police are still blocking the street
The doors of the convergence center are closed, there are tons of folks (including news media) on the sidewalk.
The police have been searching the persons and belongings of people who were caught inside the center, running their IDs. Folks are getting released if they agree to have their picture taken.
Reports say cops are pointing guns at people inside.
Cops in the street are dressed for conflict, but not full riot gear

I've just been reading the full report on indymedia and it sounds as if the police are being very heavy handed, I can't believe it's legal? Don't they need warrents to search premises?

It seems like the police did have the warrants to do this all.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_10339642?source=most_viewed

The language that the sheriff-Bob Fletcher is using in this report is really odd and frightening



before you've exercised your right to freedom of speech, then all of the above is pure guesswork.

http://twincities.indymedia.org/videos/2008/aug/rnc-convergence-center-raid-video-report-submediatv
[url]
http://twincities.indymedia.org/livewir ... -arrest-so[/url]

i've just been watching all the raids on http://theuptake.org/

I'm in St. Paul right now for the Red & Black anti-capitalist bloc. I was in the convergence center when it was raided...I got roughed up and had a gun shoved in my face. We demanded to see a warrant for half an hour before they finally read it. The list of stuff they were looking for included everything from bombs and molotov cocktails to buckets of feces to "computers or X-Boxes with evidence of criminal activity stored in them" (I shit you not.) Four more houses have been raided since then, including the home of a St. Paul wob.

The way the police behaved was shocking. From those videos it's easier to believe that they are operating in a Police State rather than a democracy.

Is it just me, or is there a trend, with the cops not showing the warrants until they are getting ready to leave the scene? I wounder what that is about?

It does seem like they are making a point about not producing warrants when asked. Perhaps the idea is to get people comfortable with the idea that they don't need one. Another peculiar thing about the warrants is that they allow the search and seizure of political literature.

A story that I recently saw that shows a sort of increasing lack of regard for the press and free speech is this story of an ABC reporter being arrested for following senators talking to lobbyists:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventio ... id=5668622

Is it just me or is the climate actually getting worse...

I was thinking it might possibly be strategy a to make fast paced Indy media, bloggers, etc, look like blundering asses.

Cops start a raid, wait 30 minutes to an hour to produce warrants. A lot of buzz about a fascist raid where the cops are acting with out warrants hits the nets. Everyone gets up in hysterics.

Mainstream media comes along after the warrants were produced, make no mention of the delay in the warrants being produced. Media activist made to look like raving lunatics who cry wolf.


On the other hand there is probably more (or maybe even less) to it than I am thinking. Pigs might just be being pigs, because they can. And main stream media being lazy and complacent because they are.

I think it's because there is about to be a world wide recession/depression, and the police have been told to be especially heavy handed by their superiors towards any form of dissent,

From today's Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/4/ei ... vist_group

BRUCE NESTOR: In fact, St. Paul actually negotiated a special insurance provision with the Republican Host Committee so that the first $10 million in liability for lawsuits arising from the convention will be covered by the Host Committee. The city is very proud of this negotiation. It’s the first time it’s been negotiated between a city and the Host Committee. But it basically means we can commit wrongdoing, and we won’t have to pay for it.

AMY GOODMAN: Wait, one more time, explain how the money will work.

BRUCE NESTOR: They negotiated an agreement where the first $10 million in damages arising from any lawsuits against the city related to the city’s actions during the convention will be covered by insurance or by the Republican Host Committee, separate from the city’s own insurance coverage and own—or own financial reserves.

So this is like insurance against their own lawbreaking? I'm almost impressed by the honesty in that.
Guess that illustrates nicely that capitalism and democracy aren't the indivisible whole that they like to present it.
But, seriously
Satire dies again.

phenomenal. Just phenomenal.

This year at the Climate Camp the police searched everybody going in our out of the campsite, no matter who they were, every time they came in or out of the site. Every time. So if you went ten metres down the road to pick up a sack of potatoes you were searched twice.

The cost of this operation, which included a purpose built hanger, was huge. The civil liberties issue, i said at the time, was probably paid for in advance. So the police knew they were probably breaking a lot of laws, but they had a budget for it.

But that was just a theory - this shit in the U.S. is up front!