Ugh. Sorry this is so late. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this post, but my mind keeps drifting back to this blog I stumbled across tonight called Pagan Power.
A pagan site that supports McCain and Palin.
Yes, the same McCain and Palin whose “base” consists of Bible-literalist blood-and-bombs Christians who think that “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” doesn’t go nearly far enough and is actually kind of pinko.
Ok, Pagan Power, free association. I say, “Salem witch trials”, you say… Hmm. Coming up a blank. Thought so.
(Oo! And they’re “politically incorrect”. You know, there was a time when being politically incorrect was a badge of honor. Nowadays, it’s just a synonym for “being a horse’s ass”)
Like I said… Ugh.
Anyway, your neat thing today. I think it’s neat. You may otherwise, especially if you still give a damn about your first amendment rights.
Tony Webster is a photojournalist who got caught up in the rioting in Minneapolis/St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. He was Johnny-on-the-spot at a riot that happened after a Rage Against The Machine/Anti-Flag concert on Wednesday.
Here’s TwinCities.com’s coverage:
Police arrested 102 people in downtown Minneapolis early this morning as they marched through the streets after a much-anticipated Rage Against the Machine concert.
One hundred of those arrested were for a variety of misdemeanors and two for gross misdemeanors, according to the Joint Information Center. Out of the 100, 87 people were brought in, tagged and released. Thirteen were booked and released. Two people are still in custody.
The great majority of those arrested were given citations and released today, with court dates later this month and next month.
The two who are being held on “probable cause” haven’t been formally charged and no court dates have been set.
It began when a group of about 200 people began slowly marching from the Target Center on First Avenue, where the concert ended about 10:30 p.m., chanting slogans about democracy and “taking the streets.”
The Target Center had been surrounded by dozens of police in full riot gear, anticipating trouble following clashes with protesters in St. Paul on prior days during the Republican National Convention.
As the group walked southeast down Seventh Street, police began tapping the ankles of stragglers, telling them to get off the street and onto the sidewalk. At one point, a group of officers in a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle fired two rounds from what appeared to be either a beanbag or pellet gun.
Several people who were at the concert said they also saw police use pepper spray on individuals walking from the concert…
Webster tells a slightly different tale here (emphasis mine):
I waited for the Rage Against the Machine concert to get out of the Target Center in Downtown Minneapolis. Riots were predicted because republican delegates are in town for the Republican National Convention. Concert-goers quickly and peacefully exited the Target Center — at least until they saw dozens of Minneapolis Police Officers in riot gear and gas masks standing outside. Naturally, that’s going to wind people up after listening to Rage Against the Machine and Anti-Flag. My opinion is that police wanted there to be violent rioting.
[snip]
The protest was loud, but peaceful and without any property damage. There was some running around, some dodging into traffic, and I think a few arrests were justified for key individuals who truly were inciting the anarchy. I followed the protest a few blocks through Downtown Minneapolis until the Police cornered the crowd with horses and bike cops. The crowd was outnumbered by police. After the crowd was cornered, an officer road up and down the streets in a tricked out golf cart, firing 40mm impact rounds at people running around and freaking out as they were being rounded up like sheep.
I got caught in the mess. As a photojournalist, I had nothing to do with the protests and I did not attend the Rage Against the Machine concert. I was ordered to sit on the ground and put my hands on my head. I saw the Minneapolis Chief of Police Tim Dolan and got his attention. I told him I’m a credentialed photojournalist, and he claimed in an e-mail to have sent another officer to follow up with me. It never happened.
I was handcuffed, my camera slammed against the ground and my 10-22mm lens was broken. Officers tried to confiscate my memory cards. I was paraded by the media as some sort of trophy and then let go without explanation beyond “you got lucky.”
More from Webster at E-Democracy.org here.
I’ve posted on the overreaction of Twin Cities-area police to protestors before, and Glenn Greenwald has done a bang-up job of covering it – much better than I have, in fact. But I think we agree: This isn’t public safety. This is intimidation.
Now, before I go any farther, let me make quite clear that I don’t blame the national Republican party for any of this. The people to blame are the Minneapolis police. Indeed, police reaction was similarly heavy-handed in Denver during the Democratic National Convention, last week
The fact that there was heavy-handed policing during political conventions of two parties that are supposed to be the daggers-drawn antithesis of each other and in two different cities – and during two of the most important events in American democracy – points to something pervasive in American culture that goes beyond party politics.
The United States, supposedly the greatest democracy the world has ever seen, is devolving into an authoritarian state. Clashes like these are only the smoke in the sky heralding the firestorm over the hill, and I have a feeling that you’re going to see more incidents like these in the near future – of cops in black body armor going bugshit against demonstrators and marchers.
I’m not saying we’ve turned into Ceausescu’s Romania yet, like some of the more breathless blogs out there. You still have some rights. But they’re being proscribed tighter and tigher, and if you disagree with the powers-that-be or simply get a little too noisy, you might see some of your basic constitutional rights - of free speech, free assembly and freedom from unlawful search and seizure - lopped off entirely.
And the hell of is that crowd-control tactis like these have nothing to do with public safety. Webster makes a point that I’ve tried to make, as well. You don’t try to control a crowd of kids who’ve just been to a Rage Against the Machine concert by using cops with black jammies, black armor and thump-a-fag mentalities. That’s not public safety. The Minneapolis police were practically saying, “Yeah, I’m everything RATM warned you about. What’re you gonna do about it?”
These tactics have nothing to do with public safety. They’re all about pounding in the heads of frustrated, powerless people and intimidating the survivors. Pure and simple.
Oh, and though Webster did have a rough night, through suffering comes glory, and he managed to get some remarkable pictures before he was arrested. His personal favorites (and mine) are Riot Flag, Ghetto Bird and Amerika. Full photostream is here.
