U.S. Police Violate RNC Protester's Rights

RNC "Protesters" Looked For Trouble & Cops Provide It

"Some May Respect The Badge, But All Fear The Gun"

For International Readers, in the United States, the police are used to infiltrate political groups, break into homes without warrants, detain and arrest people on false charges, confiscate political materials, arrest journalist, arrest lawyers. Sound familiar? Land of the Free and Home of the Brave?

Now all of this is in addition to the general state of surveillance that Americans live under including having every aspect of their lives under review by the State.

In America we are allowed to work in order to pay taxes, to serve the police, and military, and make more children to hand down our way of life to the next generation. In the mean time we storm ass all over the world, and want to promote our "freedoms".

In the videos you are about to see I couldn't be more proud of these young people. Twenty years ago, and this would never have happened, but there are tens of millions of young Americans who detest what has become of their nation. These young people have the courage to stand up for their country, and hopefully, we pray, that it isn't too late.

As the Bush administration gasps its last stinking rotting breath the GOP hopes to somehow maintain its sleazy corrupt grip upon the reigns of power. Stay tuned folks, it's about to get interesting.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some Protesters (Protesting is not a crime) broke the law, and the police were only doing their jobs arresting. Having said that the methods and techniques employed by law enforcement violated hundred's, if not thousand's, of citizen's constitutional rights - which makes the police law breakers too.


Live Feed Uptake Journalist Video Of RNC Cops Arresting Hundreds!


Watch As Live-Feed Uptake Journalist Narrowly Avoid Arrest


The following text was lifted from here.

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 preempt lawful protest against the policies of the Bush administration during the convention.


RNC - Police Raid On "Convergent Center" Finds No Weapons

Since Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted preemptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the targeting of protestors 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 protestors. "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."


RNC Police Raid Homes - Gather People For Detention Centers

The raids targeted members of "Food Not Bombs," an anti-war, anti-authoritarian protest group that provides free vegetarian meals every week in hundreds of cities all over the world. They served meals torescue 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. Preemptive 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.


RNC - Police Continue To Win Hearts And Minds


So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protestors 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. Protestors 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."


RNC - Police Round Up Journalist And Lawyers

Further evidence the political nature of the police action was the boarding up of the Convergence Center, where protestors 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

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 protestors.

http://www.democracynow.org/