RNC Welcoming Committee to Unmask, Answer Questions
PRESS ADVISORY:
10am Thursday, 627 Smith Avenue, St. Paul.

In light of the massive police and military violence playing out each day of the Republican National Convention, the targeting, entrapment, and persecution of protest logistics organizers, the inhumane conditions that continue for the hundreds of people in the Ramsey County Jail, and the harassment of supporters outside the jail, we in the RNC Welcoming Committee are not backing down from our organizing. The Welcoming Committee is working harder than ever to ensure that our friends and comrades are safe and that protesters who are speaking their minds in the face of repression have access to food, housing, bicycles, a meeting space, workshops, legal/jail support, and medical care.

The St Paul Police Department, the City of St Paul, and particularly Bob Fletcher with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department have labeled us a "criminal enterprise", painting a picture of us and other anti-RNC organizers as faceless terrorists. On Thursday, September 4th at 10 AM on the 2nd floor of the RNC Convergence Space at 627 Smith Ave S., we will show the true faces and stories of the RNC Welcoming Committee.

We will show the 2nd floor of the convergence center as it was arranged at the time of the police raid last Friday night. We will give the latest information on the RNC 8, and we will take and answer questions. Afterwards, several members of the Welcoming Committee will be available for interview and photo opportunities.

The joint press conference will also feature the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

Dozens arrested after RATM; Welcoming Committee "to unmask" at 10 AM!
Submitted by Twin Cities Indymedia on Thu, 09/04/2008
All media are invited to visit the Convergence Center at 10 AM @ 627 Smith Avenue, wherein the Welcoming Committee has announced they will "unmask" themselves and even grant media interviews. http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/sep/rnc-welcoming-committee-unmask-...
A huge moment in what has actually been - in some respects - one gigantic public relations battle.

Local journalists take note: even though the constant abuse against journalists has been relatively under-reported by you people, FreePress.net has gathered 50,000 signatures to dump on Mayor Coleman sometime Thursday morning, demanding all charges against journalists be dropped. The harassment continued Wednesday, and yet the usual reporters have not really put any context onto this pivotal story. Shame!

Additionally, clear examples of media manipulation - PSYOPS - as innocent arrestees tonight were paraded in front of TV cameras and then released. Same as those fake TV military analysts; you guys are pawns in the Public Relations scheme - at least you'll get paychecks on Friday, eh? (see http://twitter.com/webster for a media arrestee stunt, made to order for the cameras)

Thursday's events:
* Jail vigil continues under harassment: http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/aug/jail-vigil-and-arrestee-support
* http://www.yawr.org : Student walkout against the war criminals: http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/aug/student-strike-against-rnc-marc...
11 AM WALK OUT OF CLASS, 12 PM ANTIWAR RALLY, FESTIVAL AND THEATRE @ STATE CAPITOL
Youth Against War and Racism is calling for a massive student walkout on September 4, the last day of the RNC, followed by a festival of resistance and a huge theatric march to "arrest the war criminals."
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=15454797647 and http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2812201110&ref=ts . 651-210-5342 | against.war@gmail.com | http://myspace.com/yawrMN

* 1 PM Peace Picnic on Harriet Island - yum! http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/aug/peace-island-picnic-harriet-isl... (correction: it is NOT at noon)
* 4 PM March @ State Capitol: Anti-War Committee sponsors No peace for the war makers: http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/aug/no-peace-war-makers-protest-day...
* 7:30 PM Ralph Nader Super Rally @ Orchestra Hall feat. Cindy Sheehan, Nellie McKay, Jesse Ventura, David Rovics . Sure to be entertaining, however ballots will still be rigged against independents & no airtime will be provided. http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/sep/open-debates-rally-ralph-nader-...
* 7 PM Scott Ritter Iran Talks out in Wayzata http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/aug/scott-ritter-iran-talks-1 . Thanks for yr efforts to stave off the warmongers!
* 7:30 PM Mental Health & Decompression sessions @ Sisters Camelot http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/sep/peer-support-group-decompressio... Thanks, this whole police state has been stressful.

Notes for Wednesday:
* More intimidation from riot cops at exit from Ramsey County detention. Reportedly, there is a large Minnesota National Guard presence there with checkpoints, an unprecedented militarization. We are hearing of extreme detainee abuses.
* The RATM show resulted in dozens of arrests (Coldsnap confirms 31 @ 2:30 AM), as well as a photo of some ridiculous 6-wheeled ATV that can apparently fire tear gas: http://twitpic.com/a609 - how much money are they blowing on this kind of garbage? (This is how Bernie Kerik type guys make money - selling stupid homeland security products like this). Why the hell did they decide to bottle up the whole area with riot cops? Another great decision.
* Our friends were able to expose undercover cops at the Tuesday Poor People's March, which seemed infested with provocateurs. Impressive! http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/sep/interview-undercover-infiltrato...
* The Dakota were able to hang onto their Coldwater Springs area all day; there was some police harassment purportedly because campfires are Teh Bad.
* Our Twitter feed @ http://twitter.com/tcimc has been helpful for staying apprised of events.
* Another great SubMedia video dispatch http://twincities.indymedia.org/videos/2008/sep/submedia-dnc-dispatch-5

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Preemptive Strikes against Protest at RNC
by Marjorie Cohn
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.

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."

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 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. 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.

Further evidence of 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."

"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."

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.

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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 and co-author of Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (with Kathleen Gilberd), which will be published this winter by PoliPointPress. Her articles are archived at .