pecunium: (Pixel Stained)
[personal profile] pecunium
I don’t know how to start this. I guess the beginning would be a good place, but I don’t know the stories from the beginning. Instead I guess I’ll have to go back to where I came in.

What bothers me started with news coverage of the Democratic Convention. Feature stories about people sleeping in, “the Freedom Cage.” That nomenclature was appalling. When I found out that was a sardonic renaming by those making use of it I wasn’t much happier, because the idea of a “free speech zone” is anathema to me.

I am an american citizen. In the boundaries of the United States there is no public place where I cannot speak my mind on matters political.

Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I can hear those who favor repression saying, “well this isn’t Congress,” or, more sophistically, “this wasn’t a law.” (which is nonsense. Those who did engage in protest, outside The Freedom Cage were gassed, harassed and no few of them were arrested. Further, the 14th amendment covers that little bit of logical perfidy, .... No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.. I compare it to the idea that, “money is speech,” and passing laws which restrict the flow of money to politicians is illegal, and the mind reels.

We can’t limit those who want to persuade people with gifts of money (and the strings attached to them) but sequestering those who want to talk... no strings attached, that’s just ducky. Fuck that noise.

I’ve come to expect this from the Republicans. As a party they seem opposed to democracy, (They, after all, staged a riot to stop a vote count) no matter what the rank and file understand to be the case. That the democrats have adopted some of their tools is disheartening.

Skip ahead to yesterday. I got an e-mail about a raids in St. Paul, on the location of a group known to be looking to protest. I forwarded it to a number of people, because I thought it even worse than the Freedom Cage.

When I thought it was just one incident I was bothered. Not quite enough to write about it, because there is only so much outrage I can exercise (feel yes, almost boundless. Take the time and energy to write about... there is only so much time in the day, and only so much I can do).

But then I saw some of the people I’d forwarded it too reporting on different raids. This was, it seems, a co-ordinated set of raids. A campaign. A campaign of the sort meant to suppress dissent. The use of state power to intimidate (If I were one of those people I’d worry what was being done to my computer while those (overbroad, I suspect) warrants were being served.

Since some accounts say the raids were executed without showing the warrant... the use of the police to intimidate is even more plain.

Whelan says his roommate, Erin Stalmaker, went out to talk to talk to the police. She asked the officers why they were there. The officers asked why people were running away from them. Erin reportedly told the officers that their drawn automatic weapons probably had something to do with it. She was detained after asking to see a warrant. (Majikthise has some other, really good, stuff. You ought to read her)

Glenn Greenwald reports that the only people arrested at one location were being charged with a really strange crime "conspiracy to commit riot.. Whoa... Conspiracy charges are problematic, in any case (really easy to set up, really hard to beat. An undercover cop talks to you, says it would be great to firebomb the cops at the convention, and molotov cocktails are easy to make. They only need gasoline, rags and empty bottles to do it. She comes back a couple of days later and asks if you can give her some empty bottles. Boom... conspiracy. Given the infiltration of, “terrorist groups” like Code Pink, Women in Black and the Quakers; such things are possible. Even if the inanity of the situation does get the case thrown out... defense lawyers aren’t free. Time in jail is time lost, and the opposition will just point to the “arrests for “x” as proof the groups really aren’t peaceful. Cops have incentive to make cases. It doesn’t require them to be evil, just human enough to worry about their jobs; back to the case at hand).

Greenwald also report that a raid was executed on a group which doesn’t protest, but observes protests to see that the cops aren’t going out of bounds. That one is even more worrisome. Not just because it’s an attempt to inhibit those who might attempt to fill the role asked after in the old phrase, quis custodiet ipsos custodes and watch the watchmen, but because, there was no warrant in that raid. They did, after things were underway, get a warrant FOR A DIFFERENT HOUSE.

The Uptake has this amazing video interview with the Democracy Now producer who was detained today. As the DN producer explains, she was present at a meeting of a group called "I-Witness" -- which videotaped police behavior at the 2004 GOP Convention in New York and helped get charges dismissed against hundreds of protesters who were arrested. The police surrounded the St. Paul house where they were meeting even though they had no warrant, told them that anyone who exited the house would be arrested, and then -- even though they finally, after several hours, obtained a warrant only for the house next door -- basically broke into the house, pointed weapons at everyone inside, handcuffed them, searched the house, and then left. Here is a blog post from one of the members of I-Witness asking for help during the time when they were forced to stay inside the house (see the second post -- it reads like a note from a hostage crying out for help). This is truly repugnant, extreme police behavior designed to intimidate protesters, police critics and others, and it ought to infuriate anyone and everyone who cares about basic liberties.

If that wasn't enough: It seems the Permibus a sustainable agriculture educational team was also targeted.

At approximately 6:25 pm on August 30, 2008 Minneapolis Police, Minnesota State Troopers, Ramsey County Sheriffs, Saint Paul Police, and University of Minnesota Police pulled over the Earth Activist Training Permaculture Demonstration Bus (Permibus) by exit 237 on Interstate 94. Initially the police told the people on the bus to exit. When the people on the bus asked if they were being detained they were told that they were but police were unable to provide justification. When asked why they pulled the bus over they refused to answer. After repeated requests to explain why the bus had been stopped Officer Honican of the Minneapolis Police explained that this was just a routine traffic stop though he did not explain the reason for the traffic stop. The police then told Stan Wilson, the driver and registered owner of the Permibus, that they were going to impound the bus in case they wanted to execute a search warrant later. After more than an hour of being questioned by Stan and Delyla Wilson as to the legalities of their detainment and the impoundment of the Permibus, the police then informed Stan that the bus, which is legally registered as a passenger vehicle in the state of Montana, was being impounded for a commercial vehicle inspection. Shortly afterward Sergeant Paul Davis, a commercial vehicle inspector arrived on scene. Despite the polices insistence that the reason for impoundment was for a commercial vehicle inspection the Permibus crew were not allowed to remove anything from the bus including computers, toiletries, and 17-year-old Megan Wilson's shoes. The police finally allowed the animals to be removed from the Permibus before it was towed, leaving the Permibus family standing beside their chickens and dogs, homeless on the highway.

This shit has to stop. The first step is to get the Republicans out of the White House, and remove their ability to engage in effective obstruction in the Senate. I don’t really like one party rule, but right now a house-cleaning has to be done.

After that... the activism can’t stop. The last mandate we handed the Dems has been squanderd (there was no need for Reid to let several bills go to the floor. When he said there was nothing to do, he was wrong. He knows he was wrong. He was caving into the Republican narrative, and that’s got to stop too). We can do this. It takes will.

It takes being willing to stand up and be counted. It takes making the number of houses, and meetings and spontaneous protests to be raided and suppressed too many for the press to ignore. It will involve being vilified. The right will call you an anarchist. They will say you are anti-american. They will say this sort of thing isn’t that bad.

They will say all this while they piously recall how the Administration protested the way the Chinese inhibited protest during the Olympics.

The only way to keep it from happening here, it to stand up and be counted.


hit counter

Date: 2008-08-31 07:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] antonia-tiger.livejournal.com
All I can do is ask what seems to be a bloody obvious question.

Who is up for re-election, locally, in November?

If they're not making a big fuss about this by Tuesday, they're part of the problem.

(I make some allowance for a weekend, for some posts. Not for an elected Sheriff or similar, since they have a direct command responsibility.)




Date: 2008-10-09 02:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cliftoncianche.livejournal.com
This is what a lot of hackers just don't seem to get: even if they're not malicious -- and that can be a big if -- companies may still have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on software, new routers, consulting time, you name it, just to keep them out.

Date: 2008-08-31 08:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whumpdotcom.livejournal.com
This is seriously bad policing, and will result in charges being dropped for lack of solid evidence. However, it deters all protests, including the peaceful ones, which I guess is the goal of the exercise.

Date: 2008-08-31 11:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] porysski.livejournal.com
Hopefully, it will result in charges being filed against the cops in question. Since there were no warrants, they were breaking and entering, stealing, brandishing weapons, etc.

Date: 2008-08-31 11:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] heimshal.livejournal.com
Yeah, this sounds like what I would guess is a Minnesota "service" to the RNC, probably stemming from some middle management position with more initiative than brains.

Fact: It's incredibly stupid, particularly when the RNC is already going to be starving news coverage by postponing events due to the hurricane.

Ergo, I can't believe anyone up the ladder would be suicidal enough to explicitly ask for this. Say what you want about America, but the only thing worse is the average American. Local government is a cesspool.

Date: 2008-09-01 12:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] remus-shepherd.livejournal.com
They're not interested in 'charges'. In one story I read on this, an officer admitted that they had no charges to press, but they could hold anyone for 72 hours -- that's Wednesday, after most of the convention. The authorities are *only* interested in suppressing any and all protest, by fear and by force.

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Date: 2008-09-01 03:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] skylarker.livejournal.com
I don't think it will be deterring protests. I wasn't planning to participate in the protests before this. But now I'm on my way out the door to do just that.

Date: 2008-08-31 09:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] derangedfangirl.livejournal.com
Oh my christ...

And you lot say you have a free country.

0.0

I'm forwarding this to everyone I know.

Date: 2008-09-01 12:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
And you lot say you have a free country.

Actually, I nearly think I heard them ([livejournal.com profile] pecunium plus commenters) say that they mean to have one again.

A fight we're all having, each in our own way and place, these days.

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Date: 2008-08-31 09:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jujuberry136.livejournal.com
I came here via Matociquala's journal.

Thanks for posting, this is info everyone should be aware of.

I hope you don't mind, but I linked your entry in a post of mine to let others know what's going on. Please let me know if you want me to remove it (not a problem).

Again, thanks for sharing.

Date: 2008-08-31 09:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
I don't mind. What passes for rules 'round this parts are on the info page, but public posts are public. I prefer links (some for vanity, mostly for context) but news is news, and should be spread.

TK

Date: 2008-08-31 09:32 pm (UTC)
pameladean: (Default)
From: [personal profile] pameladean
Thank you. I live here, and I'm too mad to be more than intermittently coherent.

They also impounded the Permibus, which belongs to an organization that teaches sustainable living. Here's the url:

http://permibus.livejournal.com/

The callousness and gratuitous rudeness (they wouldn't let one person get her shoes, and they had to be begged to let the people take their animals with them) and the list of mutually contradictory and baseless charges are in line with the behavior of the police on the other raids.

P.

P.

Date: 2008-08-31 10:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sunfell.livejournal.com
Wow. That's just... criminal. What does sustainable living have to do with the RNC?

No, don't answer that- these people want to destroy the world, not sustain it. Of course they'd have people who teach the opposite arrested. Pecunium is right- Republicans don't care about democracy or any of its offshoots. If they're nasty enough to stage fake riots to get their people into office, they'll buy a city police force and turn them into their thugs, too.

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Date: 2008-08-31 09:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pdlloyd.livejournal.com
I also came here via Matociquala's journal. I'd seen a few posts about the raids yesterday, but was only aware of two. Even one was enough to reinforce my fears for democracy and our constitution. I love our constitution and I am frightened for it, and for us.

Date: 2008-08-31 10:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neanderthalus.livejournal.com
I am not sure why they were pulled over, but the number of police involved is not unusual dealing with a number of people in such a situation. What makes you think this has anything to do with the convention?

Admittedly I was not happy with all the video I saw coming out of Denver, and the Freedom cage is just plain ludicrous.

However, while protesters have a right to state their political views, they do not have the right to silence the political views of others. And if you think the Democrats haven't been involved in this type of activity before, then you are blind to reality.

as to the houses that were raided, what makes you think they were not going to attempt to stop the convention?

You cannot have people shutting down the Democratic Convention OR the Republican Convention. We need to hear both sides, we have a RIGHT to hear both sides. If you do not like what they had to say, you are free to vote for whoever you want come election day.

And just why are protesters collecting urine and feces?

Date: 2008-08-31 10:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bifemmefatale.livejournal.com
BUT...until those people in those houses actually commit a crime, they are innocent and the cops still have no right to be breaking and entering with guns drawn and no proper warrant. Surely even a conservative like yourself knows that goes against the Constitution and the ideals of our country.

Talking about shutting down an event is not a crime...that way lies thought police and political prisoners.

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Date: 2008-08-31 10:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unusualmusic.livejournal.com
This is crap. Will link and quote.

I talked to people involved

Date: 2008-08-31 11:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barondave.livejournal.com
See my LiveJournal Report on a raid in S. Mpls (http://barondave.livejournal.com/180706.html) including an interview with a housemate of three who were arrested at gunpoint and taken away in handcuffs.

They had a warrant. Link in the comments.

I also talked to the police. Since the raids happened on a weekend and Monday is a holiday, they can hold people without charging them for up to 36 hours. So even if no charges are ever brought, they're out of action until Wednesday noon.

On the other hand, we won't know what they'll be charged with, if anything, until Tuesday.

While the situation looks bad, it's not the situation you report. It seems the FBI had plants in the group. As we know from the 60s, when the FBI does such things it's often the Feds who make the most radical suggestions and urge the group on. And then arrest them when they nod in agreement. Shades of Stasi!

I'll be covering the RNC. We'll see how this (and other things) play out.

Date: 2008-08-31 11:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cucumberseed.livejournal.com
Why have I not friended you before? [livejournal.com profile] supergee always sends me over to see what you have seen, and always, I am enlightened. Granted, it's usually that beloved police 4 cell in my eyes, but enlightenment, nonetheless.

Date: 2008-09-01 01:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
You may find yourself enlightened with photography, or cooking, more often than not, but welcome.

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Date: 2008-08-31 11:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dsgood.livejournal.com
Can't blame it all on the Republicans, in Minnesota. Minneapolis and St. Paul are run by DFLers (Democratic-Farmer-Labor.)

Date: 2008-09-01 12:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pgdudda.livejournal.com
Ah, but the governor is not. In fact, he's about as close to a right-wingnut Republican as you can be and still manage to get elected to office in MN. Same holds true for Sen. Coleman, except he's even more regressive and conservative.

Sometimes, you have to look higher up on the totem pole to see the puppeteer...

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Date: 2008-09-01 01:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sinboy.livejournal.com
Given that two neo-nazis with rifles were arrested with the stated intent of assassinating Obama, I can see why keeping people back from him was important to the local police. However, the incident where they arrested the reporter was indefensible.

Lets see if anyone calls Obama on this issue.

Date: 2008-09-01 01:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
I am working on some stuff related to that. I am not sure, BTW, they are neo-nazis. They seem to be just your (sadly run of the mill) extreme racists.

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Date: 2008-09-01 03:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mijan.livejournal.com
I was linked here by [livejournal.com profile] cluegirl.

This is un-fucking-believable. This is not the country that I thought I served for seven years in uniform. This is not the country envisioned by our Founding Fathers. This is not our Constitution in action. So much for the "Land of the Free".

Between this shit and the Dominionist Christians, I don't know if I recognize my country anymore. It makes me wonder if there's any way to fight it, and if the Obama administration will be able to fix all the things that are so horribly broken.

I'm not a person who is prone to giving up - it's the last thing I'd do - but after a while, it just feels SO hopeless.

Date: 2008-09-01 04:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
Welcome.

I've done 16, and I'm worried.

I've yet to hit hopless. At hopless, I leave. If there's no hope, then staying behind is throwing good money after bad.

It gets overwhelming, but not quite to hopeless. The real issues are down ticket. The Right spent decades getting this shit set up. People like the couple in Texas who made the textbooks more stupid. Folks like Wildmon making it impossible to speak about religion.

The making of every election be something hinging on nonsense like, "Character".

Those are the things we need to fight, and that is work in the trenches. It's fighting the idea that taxes are evil, and gov't can't do anything right.

Which means disinterring the corpse of St. Reagan and showing it's not incorrupt.

Obama isn't a panaceaea, but he's a start. We just have to make sure he doesn't get too comfortable.

Date: 2008-09-01 12:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cluefairy-j.livejournal.com
The "Free Speech Zone" occurred at the 2004 convention here in Boston. So, the DNC has supported this concept for at least two conventions.

Date: 2008-09-01 02:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inflectionpoint.livejournal.com
This shit makes me ashamed to be an American. I don't want to be named the same as thugs who do this. My family came to this country and gave up their farm, their community, their language... to get away from thugs like this. Who would have thought that two generations later, they'd live to see this?

On to the practical question. I'm a Californian. I'm not there, not on the ground where it is happening. What can I do to be of effective help and support? Because this shit is wrong and I can't sit still while it goes down. Suggestions, please.

Date: 2008-09-04 02:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selki.livejournal.com
This http://cliffschecter.firedoglake.com/2008/09/02/the-revolution-will-be-twittered/ implies that some ACLU lawyers were ready for action and are going to work on this -- I know they got involved after the NYC convention. I'm going to donate more to the ACLU.

(edited to fix bad tag)

Date: 2008-09-01 04:16 pm (UTC)
ext_85396: (Vetinari)
From: [identity profile] unixronin.livejournal.com
Pardon me for goring sacred goats, but ... what makes you think this is just the Republicans? What makes you think getting the Republicans out of power will make things any better?


There is a difference between grass-roots Democrats and grass-roots Republicans. Not so much of a difference as most grass-roots Democrats and grass-roots Republicans believe, but there is a difference. But at the national level? Christ, you might as well be arguing over whether you'd sooner be hanged with hemp or manila. THERE IS NO DAMNED DIFFERENCE. Either way, you end up hanged.

Both major parties are rotten and corrupt to the core, both are hungry for power no matter what it takes to get it, both regard the Constitution as an awkward, embarrassing historical relic that stands between them and more power, both will expand government at the cost of civil liberties until there's nowhere left for it to expand to. Both conspire to keep the electorate marginalized and divided and to avoid electoral reform because they know that as long as they can keep electoral system unchanged and the electorate marginalized, they can keep all significant power tied up between them. The only significant difference between the two is which freedoms and which civil rights are at the top of their hit list.

You can't fix the problem by throwing out one pack of crooked, power-crazed bums and replacing them with the other pack. You have to get rid of ALL of them.

It's time to fire both the Republican party and the Democratic party, and start over with a new set of parties that aren't owned body and soul by the deep pockets. Anything less is just pointless arguing over which kind of rope it's better to be hanged with. You're still going to hang, either way. It's time to smack each other upside the head and break away from the stupid rhetoric about "voting for the lesser evil instead of wasting my vote on a third party", because a vote for the lesser evil is still a vote for evil, and because third-party votes will continue to be wasted votes for exactly as long as the majority of us continue to believe that a third-party vote is a wasted vote.

Hell ... vote third party while you can — while third parties are still legal. Don't wait too long.

Re: (edited to fix bad tag)

Date: 2008-09-01 04:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jmkelly.livejournal.com
This is the second time this weekend that I've encountered this deep-rooted cynicism. The first time, the conclusion was that all political activity was pointless; this time, the conclusion is that only third-party political activity is worthwhile. Both arguments start with exaggerations and generalizations and end with either despair or calls to futile action (with all due respect).

To start at the beginning: the parties are not corrupt from bottom to top. They each have their share of corrupt and stupid people -- anyone can join, after all, and power draws creeps like shit draws flies -- but just as they're not perfectly virtuous they're not absolutely evil. Every now and then you catch a politician doing something that can't be explained by anything but a desire to do something good -- Lyndon Johnson's support for civil rights, for example, which did him no tangible good and actually harmed the Democrats' popularity in the South.

To skip to the end: ignoring the major parties will not make them go away, and voting for a third-party Presidential candidate who can't be expected to get more than 5% of the vote won't affect them any more than a peashooter to the chest affects an elephant. Indeed, to the degree that the third-party candidate resembles the lesser-of-two-evils major-party candidate, you shoot yourself in the foot when you choose the perfect-but-unattainable over the imperfect-but-attainable.

Not that third-party activity is necessarily futile -- I'm all for it. But it's currently pointless at the national-election level. It's completely worthwhile at the local level, where third parties can actual win elections and build a base. At the national level, I think it's more rational to join with one of the big parties and try to pull it your way.

And to get back to the original issue: we all have to make a noise -- at the very least, write to your Senators and Representatives. Maybe that's an exercise in futility too, but it costs nothing, and it's a good-faith effort, and I think it's essential to make a good-faith effort before resorting to extraordinary tactics.

BTW, I don't think it's just the Republicans -- the Dems had their Freedom Cage too. The cops working for the Repubs in Minneapolis and four years ago in New York seem to be a lot more brutal and ham-handed about it, but I wouldn't speculate about how much is due to the party and how much to individual police departments' leadership.

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Re: (edited to fix bad tag)

From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com - Date: 2008-09-01 05:28 pm (UTC) - Expand

Date: 2008-09-01 07:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] klingonguy.livejournal.com
Not a comment on the post, but rather on the poster. I was led to this LJ by someone on my own list, and having seen your name I'm wondering if you're the same Terry whom I knew back in my L.A. days going back 25-30 years ago. If the name "Fang" means anything to you, then, "howdy." If not, please, carry on.

Date: 2008-09-01 07:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
Yes it is.

God I love technology.

Disturbing - Thanks for This

Date: 2008-09-02 09:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ed-rex.livejournal.com
Also here via [livejournal.com profile] matociquala's journal and I too have taken the liberty of linking to your post; I trust you won't mind.

Re: Disturbing - Thanks for This

Date: 2008-09-02 10:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
Welcome.

What's public is public, and things like this need all the play they can get.

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pecunium

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