mcjoan's story gives a fine summary of police & military actions against protesters and journalists at the RNC, with links to Glenn Greenwald & FireDogLake's exemplary coverage.
Glenn Greenwald said that:
Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 -- 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. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies.
I've found some more up-close reports from people on livejournal.com, including the tale of a 17-year-old swept up in a mass arrest on Monday and held for hours without being allowed to contact his parents.
And go see resa's diary Breaking: This is What Democracy Looks Like!, with more links and MSM contact numbers.
Livejournal user "blackquirrel"'s brother was arrested -- for walking to his car Monday evening.
My brother was just arrested.
Supposedly for "unlawful assembly" - in reality, he was walking back to his car after being turned away from a sold-out union-sponsored public concert.
He is 17 and he is being charged with a gross misdemeanor. He was arrested at 5:30 and he didn't have access to his phone call to let us know. We found out because we panicked when he wasn't home by 9 - his curfew on a school night since tomorrow is the first day of school. After frantically calling his cell over and over to no response we were left to wrack our brains to find some other way to track him down in a large city as we imagined him dead or disappeared forever. Finally, at 11 - fully 5 and a half hours after my minor brother had been arrested, a policeman answered the cell they had confiscated from him.
Outrage does not begin to cover it. He is not political. He is not involved in any organization. Even if he were, that is no excuse.
He was a kid walking to his car in broad daylight, and he has now been unlawfully detained for the last 5 and a half hours.
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on Tuesday, blacksquirrel updated:
My brother was released at 3:30am yesterday. He was home by 4am and in a haze of exhaustion I hugged him like he had returned from the dead. He woke up again at 7am to go to the first day of his senior year, because he didn't want to miss it.
He still had not been given a phone call. 8 other minors had been arrested with him and of them only one other was released because his father also made numerous calls. The police who answered that boy's phone then proceeded to impersonate him until the father demanded that they give the name of the boy's grandmother, and the police hung up. The rest of those minors have no way of contacting their parents or guardians. There are 7 families who may still think their child is dead or missing.
My brother was held in handcuffs in 88 degree heat for 3 hours without water. He asked for water several times and was refused.
.....
This is being reported as the arrest of 280 "violent anarchists." This is patently untrue. Yes, some people did smash windows and throw rocks yesterday, but the number of arrests is grossly inflated. My brother said that they surrounded a grassy area the size of a city block and arrested everyone who was there at the time. Everyone. I am furious. Not only is this an incredible infringement of basic rights, but it's horrendously lazy. We pay the police to find out which people committed the crime, not to arrest everyone in the vicinity and let the courts sort it out later. It's sloppy, authoritarian, and inhumane.
....
They never took a statement from him. This is both good and bad, because they didn't attempt to interrogate him coercively, but they also absolutely didn't care why those 280 people were on that hill at that time.
When he was finally released the clerk told my parents that they let him go because "he scored low on the test." My parents asked my brother what the test was and he said the only thing they asked him was whether or not he is Somali. We have one of the largest Somalian populations in the country. This was absolutely not an ok question to ask given the circumstances and sounds like the clerk using her discretionary powers to exercise her racism. But also, it was an incredibly weird question because my brother is a very pale Caucasian with hazel eyes and light brown hair, so the likelihood of him being from Somalia is slim. I wonder if he would still be there if he had dark skin or if he'd said yes.
...
ETA: They're now refusing to provide us with a copy of the arrest record, or even to state what the charge was. They're saying that they can only give us that information in a week. A lot can happen in a week.
Indeed it can. Stay tuned as we find out: Constitution or football?
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Meanwhile, Livejournal user "aelora" reported on her visit in a locked post (picture & quotes are with her gracious permission):
We got to see the beginning of the anti-war protests...
The press was quite excited by this little demonstration, though.
I was already thinking the riot police were overdoing it. These protesters were quiet, they were marching. Nothing to it. But the police were itching for a fight - you could tell. Although, to be fair, if I was stuck running around in that riot gear in 92 degree weather?? I'd be in a pissy mood too...
We ended up back at MSNBC but it was really hot so we wanted to head to one of the outdoor cafes. On the way there, the police had the road blocked because of protesters. You could cross past them but you couldn't come back. So like many others, we just waited.
On the way to the cafe, one Republican obviously mistook us for fellow Republicans as we followed the riot police and he said "I just wanna see a hippie get taken down!" Apparently he missed my Obama buttons...
we decided to head out for the long trip back. It was about 4:00 and we had quite a trip ahead. Plus, just the walk to the car would turn out to be a journey because, you see, the protests had picked up and the National Guard was involved as well.
All of the police were in gas masks.
This is what we got to witness as we attempted to head back to the parking lot...
Notice the citizens in their bandannas and surgical masks?? They were prepared - I was feeling as if I was not. I called my hubby to tell him if I ended up arrested, it wasn't my fault. I was an innocent bystander! Things were not good. One journalist got pepper sprayed in the eyes and was writhing on the ground. Some citizens with medical experience and equipment were walking around offering assistance where they could. And, of course, the bridge we needed to go under to get to our car was blocked off. If you tried to pass, you would get the pepper spray. Oddly enough??? We all were allowed to climb over the fence to get to where we needed to be...
The delegates walked past the MSNBC area to get to the Xcel Center - they were all white, very old, and obviously wealthy. The only diversity I saw was in the protesters. It was kind of amusing, actually. In Denver, there were people dressed in elaborate costumes to show off their patriotism. These people were in suits and silk blouses and all of the women had bleach-blonde hair. It was kind of bizarre.
Having not been in Denver, I can't completely say [if the two conventions had similar levels of military-type security], but from the coverage I watched, I sure as hell didn't see anything like that. I mean, it was damn scary. As we were leaving, I noticed the military officers posted on building rooftops and parking lots - there were about a dozen where we were parked and we were about 6 or 7 blocks from where the convention was being held!
I said a few times to [redacted] that it all seemed extremely excessive and just asking for trouble. There were military chants and formations, and the batons these guys were carrying were beyond scary. Luckily, the ones we came in contact with were nice and joking and seemed more annoyed at being out there than anything... But like I said, it seemed a recipe for disaster to have that kind of force out there with a bunch of college-age protesters and hard-core Republicans shouting and egging it all on.
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eta: Two more reports on dailykos, from last night's Diary Rescue:
samdiener details the police tactics used at the GOP convention and how they have been carefully honed during the last decade in Police Sweeps At RNC - a Decade Long Pattern.
Orbital Mind Control Lasers explains how an afternoon bike ride in pursuit of human interest photography can go awry and how you find yourself being tear gassed and detained in xxx-789-0443