A total of five people have been arrested after three homes and a “convergence space” were raided by authorities with automatic weapons drawn. So begins the Labor Day weekend preceding the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.
At about 9PM last night, a search warrant was executed by the Ramsey County sheriff’s office at 627 Smith Avenue in Saint Paul. The building, a former theater, is currently being rented by the RNC Welcoming Committee. While more than 50 people were detained (all, including a five-year-old child were handcuffed and photographed), no arrests were made at this location, but property was seized. The building was boarded up under an order from a Saint Paul inspector after fire code violations were found during the raid. The building was reopened this afternoon after Saint Paul City Council Member Dave Thune asked for an explanation of why the building was boarded up.
“This is all about free speech,” Thune told the Pioneer Press. “It’s what my father fought in the war for. To me, this smacks of preemptive strike against free speech.” Thune, apparently the only voice of reason in either city told Twin Cities Daily Planet, “this isn’t the way we do things in Saint Paul. I don’t want the city to get sucked into something that the sheriff’s office is concocting. Normally we only board up buildings that are vacant and ramshackle. The fire inspector has no idea what’s going on. He hadn’t been called. The person who is on 24/7 call was not called. I talked to him trying to find out who did issue that order and why.”
The RNC Welcoming Committee, in a media statement, insists the convergence center is “simply a gathering place and is not used for illegal actions—it is a place for workshops and trainings. Tonight we were watching films and sharing food.”
At 8AM this morning, the Ramsey County sheriff’s office executed search warrants (.pdf; 4.6Mb)—with assistance from the Hennepin County sheriff’s office, the Minneapolis police department, and the FBI—at three Minneapolis homes:
- 2301 23rd Avenue South
- 3500 Harriet Avenue
- 3240 17th Avenue South
Authorities staged the preemptive raids against members of the RNC Welcoming Committee, a “criminal enterprise made up of 35 anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention,” according to a statement by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
Most of the items confiscated during the raids—PVC pipe, chicken wire, duct tape, rags, and empty bottles—can be found in any Twin Cities home. Some items are more disturbing: three- to five-gallon buckets of urine and homemade caltrops. Most of the confiscations have been computers and personal items like journals.
The preemptive raids resulted in five arrests: Monica Bicking (the homeowner), Eryn Trimmer, and Garrett Fitzgerald were arrested at the 17th Avenue address; Nathanael Secor was arrested at the 23rd Avenue home; and Erik Oseland was arrested at an undisclosed location. All of the individuals were charged with conspiracy to riot, conspiracy to commit civil disorder, and conspiracy to damage property.
Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, told Glenn Greenwald that he had “never before heard of that statute being used for anything, and that its parameters are so self-evidently vague, designed to allow preemptive arrests of those who are peacefully protesting, that it is almost certainly unconstitutional, though because it had never been invoked (until now), its constitutionality had not been tested.” Conspiracy to riot is the same charge leveled against the Chicago Eight at the 1968 Democratic Convention.
At about 11AM, the I-Witness group was meeting at 951 Iglehart Avenue in Saint Paul. I-Witness is the group known for videotaping police activity during the 2004 GOP convention in New York, the footage of which was used to obtain dismissals against hundreds of arrested protesters. Police surrounded the home in which the meeting was taking place without a warrant and told the occupants that anyone who left—including a Democracy Now producer—would be arrested. National Lawyers Guild member Sara Coffey was detained outside the home.
Eileen Clancy, one of the I-Witness founders, managed to publish a weblog entry (scroll down to the Saturday, 30 Aug 2008 entry) while the meeting house was surrounded.
Guns drawn for a fire code violation, five-year-olds in handcuffs, and detaining—even arresting—people for what they might do. Is this really what we’ve come to? If you think not, call Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (651-266-8510) and demand that he retake control of the city from the county sheriff’s department.
Update: Saturday, 30 August 2008 09:38PM CDT: Some disclosures: I’m a resident of Saint Paul, which is located in Ramsey County and I was the Twin Cities Daily Planet‘s Saint Paul editor during its launch. I very much fear the repercussions of Bob Fletcher’s paranoic, over-reaching tactics will be reflected in my next property tax bill. I wonder if the city and county liabilities would be covered in the US$50 million security funding for the RNC.
Update: Saturday, 30 August 2008 10:09PM CDT: G.R. Anderson Jr., writing for MinnPost.com, has an excellent account of the 17th Avenue South preemptive raid. Anderson gets quotes from Minneapolis City Council member Gary Schiff who seems just as upset as Dave Thune.
The Minneapolis raids seem to be something of a jurisdictional hot potato. Minneapolis is in Hennepin County and the all of the raids were coordinated by the Ramsey County sheriff, Bob Fletcher (Saint Paul is located in Ramsey County). All of the local law enforcement entities have a cross-jurisdictional agreement with the RNC.
Update: Saturday, 30 August 2008 10:25PM CDT: The Minnesota Independent has a great video of reactions from the activists hours after the preemptive raids.
Update: Saturday, 30 August 2008 11:08PM CDT: Videographer Chuck Tomlinson has footage of the 951 Iglehart Avenue preemptive raid by the Ramsey County sheriff’s office. Democracy Now‘s Amy Goodman is seen jumping over a fence to question the police. Mike Whalen, the homeowner and one of the detainees, is also interviewed.
Two members of the RNC Welcoming Committee—Andy Fahlstrom and Betsy Raasch-Gilman—have sought sanctuary from illegal arrests at the Twin Cities Friends Meeting in Saint Paul. Meeting member Charley Underwood told the anonymous citizen journalist, “there’s a very long tradition of Quakers giving protection to persecuted people. So I’m completely in favor of my Meeting giving sanctuary to those who are currently being persecuted by the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.” Meeting member Ralph Hilgendorf told the journalist, “I’ve always viewed the sheriff and the local police as people who are here to protect us and our civil rights. Today’s events are uconscionable and inconceivable in a free society.” The Twin Cities Friends Meeting held a special Meeting for Worship this evening in response to the preemptive raids.
Update: Sunday, 31 August 2008 7:13AM CDT: Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the Minnesota ACLU, told the Pioneer Press yesterday that the group saw three broad areas of concern: “One, this appears this might be a pre-emptive strike to chill protesters on Monday, Two, we always have concerns about any type of conspiracy arrests, because conspiracy isn’t an act in the normal sense of the word. And three, we’re concerned… First Amendment-protected material may have been taken.”
As a counter-point to Samuelson’s concerns, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher has resorted to whole-cloth fabrication. “We’re here to put to rest whether law enforcement is picking on civil protesters. We’re not. ... We are aware of literally 250 groups that plan to protest, 250 planned protest groups we haven’t investigated, looked at, explored. This [the RNC Welcoming Committee] is the only group that publicly, on the Internet and in other ways, has indicated, ‘We have criminal intent.’” No such intent—or any hint of violence—has ever been evident, so far as I can tell, on the RNC Welcoming Committee website or in the group’s statements.
In a glimpse of how ridiculous this police action has gotten, a mobile permaculture demonstration bus was impounded for execution of a later search warrant. The seven people on the bus were allowed to take their dogs and chickens but not they’re computers and personal items, and were put off the bus at the Cretin-Vandalia exit of I-94 East.
Somewhat surprisingly for a corporate media outlet, the Pioneer Press has published a schedule of RNC protest activities. Meanwhile, Ian Welsh at firedoglake, has a compelling indictment of the national corporate media—and the politicians of all stripes—who have been strangely silent on the preemptive police action.
Oh, and about that urine? Andy Birkey at The Minnesota Independent has a statement from the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild:
“Two buckets contain grey water and were being used to flush toilets, to conserve water, in the upstairs bathroom. Both were identified in the inventory as ‘unidentified liquid.’ The third bucket, as shown by inventory sheets, was seized from illegal apartment over a garage in the rear. This apartment has been occupied for several years by a person unconnected to the house occupants or the RNC. No bathroom was in the illegal apartment and urine was collected in a bucket. This was listed as ‘unidentified yellow liquid’ in the inventory sheets.
And an explanation from Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild:
“Sheriff Fletcher does not have three buckets of urine. There are two buckets of gray water in the bathroom that were collected from a downstairs sink. It’s part of a permaculture program to minimize impact on the environment. They disconnected the sink drainage from the sewer system and use it for toilet water, to use less water when they flush.
“The other bucket was collected from an illegal garage apartment. The guy had been living there for years, and did not have a working toilet.
“Yes, he peed in a bucket. But he did not have anything to do with the RNC. He has nothing to do with the people living in the house. He has nothing to do with protests. It was seized from an apartment that has absolutely nothing to do with the people in the home or any plan to protest the RNC.”
Bob Fletcher is starting to look a lot like Barney Fife, except sadly, his guns are loaded.
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