Report from the Republican National Convention

 

5 Sep 2008

I arrived on Tuesday, August 26th, in order to attend the VFP National Convention. The Convention was held at the Ramada Inn right next to the Mall of America and very near the airport, which sits in between Minneapolis and St. Paul (where the RNC was going to be held). I noticed a lot of cops at the hotel and their numbers increased as the days went by. (As a side note: The delegation from Alaska checked in as we were checking out. It was very surreal.)

We started hearing reports of pre-emptive raids at the convergence zone (where protest organizers had been gathering). The 8 people who were eventually charged with felony counts of incitement to riot were from one of those raids, I believe. Evidently, organizing a protest is now interpreted by the cops as “incitement to riot.”

Jeremy Scahill (of Democracy Now) was the VFP keynote speaker on Saturday (the 30th). He had been a panelist at the Winter Soldier hearings (about Blackwater and war profiteering), and has been a good conduit of news for IVAW as well as VFP. Amy Goodman came with him for his speech, and before he gave his presentation, he talked about the raid that had just happened—a raid of a house full of independent journalists, including a couple of Democracy Now producers.

a huge group of riot gear-clad police rushed in and formed up behind us
On Sunday, August 31st, VFP organized a solemn procession with participants holding mock tombstones, and calling out the names of both American and Iraqi fatalities. The “permitted” march route took us from the capitol building down near to the Excel Center and back again. At a certain point some of us deliberately turned off the march and walked through a line of police on bicycles to demonstrate that we should be able to exercise our first amendment rights wherever we chose. It wasn’t a very big group that turned off, but included Carlos Arrendondo and his wife (Carlos pulls a flag-draped coffin with his son’s uniform over it). Col Ann Wright followed Carlos, and I followed Ann. The streets had been barricaded off—practically all of downtown St. Paul was inaccessible to street traffic, and we soon found ourselves at a dead end of barricades and police. The bicycle cops closed in around us and shut off our way out. There were dozens of other cops—some National Guardsmen, some State Troopers, other “street police.” When I saw that the bicycle police had cut us off, I thought we would be arrested for sure, but they didn’t do anything for quite a while. Carlos’ coffin is a media magnet, and there was a lot of press there, including Jeremy Scahill. A couple of older women had passed through an opening in the barricade and were being detained by the police (they were eventually arrested). There was a lot of picture taking, and press interviews, and after a while the bicycle cops dispersed. We were starting to talk about leaving and going back to the capitol building, when a huge group of riot gear-clad police rushed in and formed up behind us. They told us to leave once, then started marching forward in formation. At that point we started to move out of the way, but very s-l-o-w-l-y.
On Monday morning, VFP folks acted as marshals, creating a human cordon for the IVAW folks who marched from the capitol building down to the Excel Center. Their intent was to present a letter to McCain’s staff demanding better care of veterans and funding for the VA (since McCain supposedly “supports” the troops). This march happened at 8:00 in the morning and was pretty uneventful. We marched down there—it was too early for anyone to be on the street. There were a good number of cops, but they didn’t bother us. A member of IVAW did talk with the police, but was unable to get the letter in to McCain’s people. We marched back to the capitol building and waited for the BIG march to begin at 1:00 pm.

There were no stories about the 40,000 of us who were protesting or why—just this small group of “anarchists.”
VFP and IVAW were just behind the march’s organizers at the head of the protest. I have heard estimates of 40,000 to 50,000—I’m not really sure how many were there, but it was the biggest gathering of the week. Once again, Carlos had his coffin and marched in front of the vets. There were LOTS of cops—many of them dressed in full riot gear (we called them “Ninja Turtles”), even though it was a permitted march and the streets were totally blocked off. There were no incidents during the entire march, but evidently after it was over, there was a small group of self-proclaimed “anarchists” who threw a rock through a patrol car’s back window and turned over a dumpster. I did not see any of this happen, and didn’t know anything about it until I saw the local news that night. They led with that and sensationalized it in the paper the next day as well. There were no stories about the 40,000 of us who were protesting or why—just this small group of “anarchists.”

The next two days (Tues the 2nd and Wed the 3rd), I attended the “Peace Island” peace conference which was put together by a group of local peace activists. They decided to have their own peace convention after they got word that St. Paul would be the site of the RNC. There were a number of very good speakers including Ray McGovern, Ann Wright, Starhawk and Colleen Rowley. We continued to hear stories about warrantless raids, unlawful arrests and over zealous police.

On Wednesday morning before the Peace Island Conference, I participated in a weekly protest of Alliant Tech—the makers of DU weapons. Local activists have been protesting there every Wednesday morning for years. The regulars told me that they couldn’t believe the number of police that showed up this time—we counted about 175—many in the riot gear. There were about 50 protesters (median age 68). It was absolutely ridiculous. They were videotaping us and taking photos as well as we stood with signs (like the daily vigil here).

On Wednesday evening, I skipped the evening panel and went over to the county jail to lend support to the dozens of folks who were still being held; some since Saturday. There were probably 60 or so (mostly) young people there waiting for their friends to be released. There was an overwhelming police presence—lots of turtles. After I had been there about 30 minutes, a small group of young folks came down the street towards us, chanting “We won’t falter, we won’t fail, let our comrades out of jail.” As soon as they all arrived, they quit chanting, but in the meantime, the turtles had quickly formed up on either side of us, and some mounted police had come in behind the protesters--the National Guard MPs who were inside the jail compound put on helmets and stood in a row. It was crazy and scary to see. The turtles lined up shoulder to shoulder across the street from us, and in ranks behind us. Eventually most of them backed off when we didn’t do anything disruptive.

All in all, the police were very provocative and really seemed to be spoiling for a fight. Hundreds of people were unnecessarily arrested. The police fomented tension by their liberal use of heavy-handed tactics including tear gas, pepper spray, concussion grenades, riot gear, and overwhelming presence. The “turtles” had no identifying insignia such as a badge number, name, or even unit, so their actions were completely anonymous. We heard many reports of people whose cars were impounded, homes raided, etc. Frequently, the police would take the prisoners to some random place in the city to release them without any support.

But what is even worse (or at least as bad) as the heavy-handed police tactics, was the complicity of the media in ignoring it. It wasn’t until an AP photographer was arrested that the AP reported on what was happening. There was lots of media there, main-stream, independent, and international—but if you are average Joe American who gets his information from corporate media, then you have no idea of the truth. It’s pretty scary, folks.

Leah Bolger, President - Veterans for Peace Chapter 132,  5 September, 2008