dang those vegan revolutionaries

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Pre-Emptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC

Tuesday 02 September 2008

 

by: Marjorie Cohn, t r u t h o u t | Report

 

 

Marcus Washington, a producer from Tennessee who was documenting the antiwar

protest, grimaced in pain after he was hit with pepper spray. (Photo: Jim Gehrz

/ Minneapolis Star Tribune)

 

In the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the FBI-led

Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited people to infiltrate

vegan groups and other leftist organizations and report back about their

activities. On May 21, the Minneapolis City Pages ran a recruiting story called

" Moles Wanted. " Law enforcement sought to pre-empt lawful protest against the

policies of the Bush administration during the convention.

 

Since Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted

pre-emptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the

targeting of protesters by " teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with

semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning

protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law

enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and

political pamphlets. " Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers

representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene.

 

" I was personally present and saw officers with riot gear and assault

rifles, pump action shotguns, " said Bruce Nestor, the president of the Minnesota

chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, who is representing several of the

protesters. " The neighbor of one of the houses had a gun pointed in her face

when she walked out on her back porch to see what was going on. There were

children in all of these houses, and children were held at gunpoint. "

 

The raids targeted members of " Food Not Bombs, " an antiwar,

anti-authoritarian protest group that provides free vegetarian meals every week

in hundreds of cities all over the world. They served meals to rescue workers at

the World Trade Center after 9/11 and to nearly 20 communities in the Gulf

region following Hurricane Katrina.

 

Also targeted, were members of I-Witness Video, a media watchdog group that

monitors the police to protect civil liberties. The group worked with the

National Lawyers Guild to gain the dismissal of charges or acquittals of about

400 of the 1,800 who were arrested during the 2004 Republican National

Convention in New York. Pre-emptive policing was used at that time as well.

Police infiltrated protest groups in advance of the convention.

 

Nestor said that no violence or illegality has taken place to justify the

arrests. " Seizing boxes of political literature shows the motive of these raids

was political, " he said.

 

Further evidence of the political nature of the police action was the

boarding up of the Convergence Center, where protesters had gathered, for

unspecified code violations. St. Paul City Council member David Thune said,

" Normally we only board up buildings that are vacant and ramshackle. " Thune and

fellow City Council member Elizabeth Glidden decried " actions that appear

excessive and create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation for those who wish

to exercise their First Amendment rights. "

 

" So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement

agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of

violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to

track what they do, " Greenwald wrote on Salon.

 

Preventive detention violates the Fourth Amendment, which requires that

warrants be supported by probable cause. protesters were charged with

" conspiracy to commit riot, " a rarely-used statute that is so vague, it is

probably unconstitutional. Nestor said it " basically criminalizes political

advocacy. "

 

On Sunday, the National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police

Brutality filed an emergency motion requesting an injunction to prevent police

from seizing video equipment and cellular phones used to document their conduct.

 

During Monday's demonstration, law enforcement officers used pepper spray,

rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. At least 284 people

were arrested, including Amy Goodman, the prominent host of " Democracy Now!, " as

well as the show's producers, Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. " St. Paul was

the most militarized I have ever seen an American city to be, " Greenwald wrote,

" with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around

with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas cannisters, shouting military chants

and marching in military formations. "

 

Bruce Nestor said the timing of the arrests was intended to stop protest

activity, " to make people fearful of the protests, but also to discourage people

from protesting, " he told Amy Goodman. Nevertheless, 10,000 people, many opposed

to the Iraq war, turned out to demonstrate on Monday. A legal team from the

National Lawyers Guild has been working diligently to protect the constitutional

rights of protesters.

 

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--

 

Marjorie Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at

Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She is the author of " Cowboy Republic: Six Ways

the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law. " Her new book, " Rules of Disengagement: The

Politics and Honor of Military Dissent " (co-authored with Kathleen Gilberd),

will be published this winter. Her articles are archived at

www.marjoriecohn.com.

 

 

 

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wrong? there never was a mountain to climb.