Smashing Dissent
Police Brutality at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions
September 9th, 2008
Police brutality towards protesters at this year’s Democratic and Republican National Conventions rose to levels not seen at a convention since 1968. The police conducted preemptive raids on activist houses, arrested journalists, attacked demonstrations with explosives, rubber bullets, and a variety of chemical weapons, spied on organizers, and filed “terrorism” charges against dissidents. The National Guard deployed to the RNC. Police openly admit to targeting a subset of demonstrators – anarchists – for their political beliefs.
At the DNC police repeatedly attacked and harassed demonstrations. They made false statements (some of which they have now admitted were false) that protesters were plotting to throw urine or feces at police, spat on police, and were plotting mayhem.
Preemptive Raids
Suppression of dissent at the RNC in St. Paul and neighboring Minneapolis was far worse. On the night of August 29th the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department, in cooperation with the FBI, raided the RNC Welcoming Committee's convergence center, a kind of headquarters for the protests, at gunpoint. The police handcuffed and forced to the ground everyone present, including a five-year old child. As they ransacked the center they photographed and took down the identification of everyone in the center during the raid.
At the end of the raid the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department barred the center shut on the grounds that doors the police had kicked in at the start of the raid were no longer in compliance with fire codes because the police had kicked them in and damaged them. Enforcement of fire codes is outside the jurisdiction of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department. City Councilman David Thune objected to this action and successfully got the city government to reopen the Convergence Center the next day.
Saturday morning the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department led additional raids on other activist's houses, including raids in neighboring Minneapolis, which is not in Ramsey County. Police justified these raids by claiming they were looking for bombs, yet found no bombs in any of the raids. They did confiscate computers, political literature, glass jars, alcoholic beverages, rope, toilet water (which they claimed was “weaponized urine”), paint, tires, cameras, maps, cell phones, rags, and other common household items. Police continued to harass and arrest dissidents through the rest of the weekend.
Assaulting Peaceful Demonstrations
Once the RNC officially began, on Monday September 1st, the police repeatedly assaulted peaceful protesters. During the large permitted anti-war march on Monday the police singled out the anti-capitalist bloc (a subset of the demonstration) for attack with bean bags, tear gas, grenades, and colored smoke bombs/clothes markers.
Police assaulted Tuesday's Poor People's march by first arresting an Indymedia reporter, and later attacking the entire march with grenades. Police attacked fans of Rage Against the Machine when they chose to hold an anti-RNC march at the end of a RATM concert in Minneapolis on Wednesday. On Thursday, the last day of the convention, police attacked an anti-war march and arrested roughly 400 people, doubling the number of dissidents arrested. Despite these provocations demonstrators remained largely non-violent throughout the week, with the exception of a few minor cases of self-defense and property destruction.
Many of those arrested were beaten, tortured or otherwise mistreated. At time of writing, one dissident still had a boot imprint on his back from the abuse he suffered in jail. Police also repeatedly Tasered protesters who were already in police custody.
Eight of those arrested in the preemptive raids have been charged with “conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism” under Minnesota's 2002 version of the PATRIOT act. The charge of “conspiracy to riot” is commonly used against dissidents to prosecute them for their beliefs. In the past it has been used against strikes, unions, opponents of the Vietnam war, and demonstrators against the 1968 DNC.
The only evidence the police have presented against the RNC 8 is based on informants they paid to infiltrate and spy on dissidents. Informants are notorious for providing inaccurate information and exaggerating the potential for criminal activity. Informants recruited to spy on RNC protesters were told they would only be paid if their information led to arrests, giving them a powerful financial incentive to make false accusations.
War on the Press
Police targeted journalists, especially independent (non-corporate) journalists, for arrest. Arrested journalists include two cameramen from local CBS and NBC affiliates, AP photographer Matt Rourke, numerous Indymedia journalists, and several members of TheUptake.org's news team.
Police arrested ABC News reporter Asa Eslocker at the DNC for photographing meetings between Democrats and corporate donors. At the RNC police detained three members of the Glass Beads media Collective and confiscated their notes and personal belongings.
The police raided a house used by I-Witness video the weekend before the RNC; I-Witnesses videos exposed police misconduct and perjury during the 2004 RNC. The warrant police used for the raid was for the other half of a duplex house. Rather than obtaining a legal warrant, the police entered the other half and broke into the I-Witness house through the attic with pistols drawn. Police raided I-Witness again on the next to last day of the Convention.
During the first I-Witness raid police detained Elizabeth Press, a producer for Democracy Now. On Monday the police arrested two DN producers, Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. They then arrested Amy Goodman, the show's host, for questioning police about the arrest of the two producers.
Given that the government used extensive violence and dishonesty to invade Iraq, it should come as no surprise that it also uses violence and deception against its domestic opponents. Because of its violent and deceptive behavior the government and its police cannot be trusted and should be abolished.