Yawn. Massive police raids on protest gatherings and random private homes preparing for a major political convention. Just move on, nothing to see here, is there?
This afternoon, I came across a diary by Arielle about the police raids going on as we speak in St. Paul. Since her diary fell off the list, along with several others, I felt I needed to write something. Please, when the police can break into your home in riot gear, with automatic weapons drawn, screaming to you to hit the floor, brazenly refuse to even show you a search warrant, can we just now, for God's sake, at last now, admit the obvious. We have become like China, Russia, Zimbabwe, differing in degree but not in kind.
Read Glenn Greenwaldtoday about the massive police raids at the RNC to see what's going down this quiet Labor Day weekend.
For details on these series of raids check Indymedia, which is updating their reporting regularly. The raids are ongoing and, as the video on Glenn Greenwald's blog indicates, they are taking place at private homes of people with no known connection to any of the groups gathering in St. Paul to protest. The sweeps are almost certainly preemptive, designed to intimidate protesters, amass computers, pamphlets, looking for anything suspicious.
Maybe the police have not terrorized you in your home, without even the pretense of a warrant; maybe you have not been abducted off the street, but there now is nothing preventing it, nothing. Because once those in power know they can trample on our rights and get away with it, there is nothing to guarantee our civil liberties any longer.
Americans watched while an American citizen, Jose Padilla, was whisked off the streets, held without charge, forbidden to see a lawyer, and forced to endure total sensory deprivation for years, in an effort to break him, eventually driving him insane. We're all Jose Padilla now, at least potentially. This was done as part of a War On Terror, that has turned into a War Of Terror, a totally predictable outcome to anyone who reads history.
Make no mistake about it -- this is worse, much worse with Denver, with it's chain-link "free speech area," more a joke without a punchline that a frontal assault on everything we hold dear as Americans.
According to Indymedia.org, journalists are now being caught up in the raids.
We are currently hearing that at least three Indymedia journalists have been detained near Marshall & Snelling Avenues - specifically Snelling & Pascal, near Macalester College. They have been detained for at least an hour.
Additionally Coldsnap has reported that a reporter from Democracy Now! has been detained at the house in St. Paul on Inglehart. There were reports this was because the police had a warrant for the wrong side of the house. Yes, in fact they are still bothering with some paperwork, at least at some occasions. (Coldsnap reports police have just raided the inglehart house) Although sometimes not they are not bothering with the paperwork:
Importantly, there was a break-in into the garage of Communities United Against Police Brutality organizer Michelle Gross, while she was under detainment at the Convergence Center last night. Those who committed this act did not take any things thieves would like, but papers were clearly rifled through. More details at link. We are deeply concerned that this indicates secret political police forces are moving into action.
http://twincities.indymedia.org/...
There was a report that at least one Welcoming Committee member was picked up by an unmarked snatch squad of police.
Indymedia goes on to speculate that the police are trying to intimidate alternative media, especially media that would be reporting on their raids, and the detention of Indymedia and Democracy Now reporters seems to support this.
It's hard to believe that this was not all planned out in secret, at the same time that St. Paul was presenting itself as the responsible, friendly, all-American host city for the Republican convention. This was meant to come as a surprise and to get little media attention. I'm sure the traditional media will oblige with minimal, sanitized coverage, if they say anything at all. Our only hope in getting the truth out to large numbers of people is via the internet -- and Keith Olbermann.
This is not business as usual; this cannot be allowed to stand. The word must get out, and I would encourage anyone who can, to travel to St. Paul to protest this attack on our rights as American citizens. Go to RNC 2008 for details.