Sideshow Bob, indeed

Mass Arrests at the RNC, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

Twin Cities resident and FDL contributor Pheonix Woman gives us the inside scoop on Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, head of security for the RNC and the tactical mastermind behind the mass arrests and extended detentions of protesters and journalists. In Minneapolis, most protesters were cited and released on the spot. Sheriff Bob threw most of the St. Paul arrestees into jail for days at a time on extraordinarily high bail, relative to the gravity of the offenses for which they'd been cited.

[The photograph is a picture I took from Kellogg Street, overlooking Shepherd Road, while a mass arrest of peaceful protesters was underway. This was probably the first time during the RNC that the police used "unlawful assembly" to arrest hundreds of people who literally couldn't escape. The police allowed a crowd to gather, locked down the escape routes, and arrested everyone for unlawful assembly. As I reported at FDL, I saw a simlar tactic deployed on 7th Street later in the week--the police blocked off both ends of the street, encircled the protesters, and then issued the order to disperse. When over a hundred people couldn't vanish instantly, the cops seized the pretext to tear gas everyone. The trick worked so well they repeated it on Thursday night on the Marion bridge where about 300 people were told they would be allowed to march even though there permit had expired. The cops let them proceed to the bridge over I-94 and then locked down both ends of the bridge and arrested everyone, including about two dozen journalists, families with children, legal observers, and medics.]

Comments

[Phoenix Woman]

Hi, Majikthise! Did you get home OK?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

I sure did. Thanks. Northwest lost my bag, but that should be arriving shortly.

[Cass]

Great reporting, guys, by you and everyone else at FDL. Thanks so much for the work you do.

[Eric Jaffa]

Lindsay Beyerstein -

How much responsibility would you say St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has towards the tear gas and mass arrests?

[minstrel hussain boy]

i followed your reporting with admiration. you did a great job. thank you.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Thanks, guys.

I'm not sure how much responsibility Coleman bears for this whole debacle. A separate question is how much leverage the Mayor has after the fact to make things right.

Pheonix Woman can answer that better than I can. Thoughts, PW?

[Cass]

I do wish that you, P.W., or the Star-Tribune had included the name of that insurance company in your reporting. I'd love to go back to my old work of sticking up old people and convenience stores, but I'm so afraid of the personal-injury lawsuits.

[mudkitty]

LB - you do it all - backgrounds, foregrounds, subject, composition, lighting, color, portraits...I could go on...

[mudkitty]

Oh, and did I mention, she also writes!

[cfrost]

There's an awful lot of cops there, tricked out in some very expensive kit, a lot of which is not used in ordinary police work. Are the citizens of the twin cities entirely sure that they both have and need to spend municipal dough on all that stuff? Then there's the expense of running all the arrests through the courts. (Didn't they just have a major bridge collapse last year?) Will they be reimbursed by the GOP?

L.B. - Glad to see you weren't conked on the head or had your camera confiscated. Good job.

[EJG]

As they decided to make an example of the good people who dared to protest or even be near those who were protesting, it would be only fitting for the public to make an example of them. They wanted to spread a message, do not dare protest our fascist government. We need to sue the city and those in charge in order to reinforce our constitutional right to protest. Those responsible should loose their jobs!

[BetterThanNoSN]

I would love to know if Blackwater had any representation in this policing. I saw Fletchers' interview where he admitted surveilling these some 400 people/anarchists as he called them. And if any committed violence were they really with the peace march or were they Brownshirts? Fascism appears to be rearing its ugly head in many ways so it just kinda makes one wonder.

[drydiggins]

>There's an awful lot of cops there, tricked out in some very expensive kit,
>a lot of which is not used in ordinary police work.
>Are the citizens of the twin cities entirely sure that they both
>have and need to spend municipal dough on all that stuff?

Depending upon the Federal Homeland Security Grant the city used,
the costumes may not have cost St.Paul a dime.

[eRobin]

Thanks, Lindsay for all the great work. I hadn't heard of the tactic you describe above. Haven't read about it anywhere but there. Thanks again for doing the necessary reporting.

[NoOneYouKnow]

Thanks, y'all, for your great work at the RNC. You're on the side of the angels.

[Paul]

According to the Constitution, there is no such thing as unlawful assembly. Any laws attempting to deny the right of free assembly are null and void.

The cops did the same tactic in Denver.

Time to challenge this premise in the courts.

[Commandante Null]

Why is it that Progressives have no tactical sense?

For example:

Stay dispersed and then flash mob (concentrate) them at the last minute when your scouts find a weak point. Or stay dispersed and penetrate the security and then flash mob or stay dispersed and do your civil disobedience and disruptions behind their lines. Do not concentrate where you can't disperse. Remove the batteries from your cell phones when you don't want to be tracked by their electronic warfare units. Wake Up People!

You don't have to be violent to use guerrilla and military tactics. Study: Sun Tzu, Col. John Boyd, William Lind, Chet Richards, d.n.i.com, etc.

Commandante Null

[cfrost]

Depending upon the Federal Homeland Security Grant the city used, the costumes may not have cost St.Paul a dime.

I was thinking the same thing. In other words, they may have picked MY pocket to buy their sexy security attire.

[GREYDOG]

THAT'S WHY WE CALL THEM "PIGS"

[WDRussell]

I just found your site because it was on Buzzflash.
You do a nice job.

[Ian]

In the late 1800's it was concluded that the second amendment was essential to defend the rights outlined in the first amendment. I think we can lay that argument to rest.

[I dont want to post my name]

They hate us for our freedom. Yeah right.

[GovtFlu]

"There's an awful lot of cops there, tricked out in some very expensive kit, a lot of which is not used in ordinary police work. Are the citizens of the twin cities entirely sure that they both have and need to spend municipal dough on all that stuff?"

Experience tells me the $$ came from the Feds via grants. One reason cities / counties love hosting events like this: Federal money pours in, it's like x-mas for the police/sheriff dept. Participating agencies get handed all the latest neat gear & training they normally cant afford. Things like new radios, guns, training, tactical vehicles, riot gear, construction to upgrade jails, new computers.. all thanks to Club Feds deep pockets.

[catbeller]

Same tactic, encircle, demand departure, then arrest, was used in Chicago for the major anti-war rally in 2002(3?). The news media here loved it. They couldn't get enough of the arrests of the people who blocked traffic. Both levels of Wacker Drive (think Batman movie chases) were solid with unmarked cop cars, war wagons, paddy wagons, and God knows what else. The people who were blocking the streets were really the cops accompanied by the military gear they had rolled into the north side. Daley really wanted to do his dad proud. Isn't it a shame that the war supporters were all wrong and the protestors were all right?

[leftymn]

why is there no media questioning of how these police tactics are any different than those used in China during the Beijing Olympics?

Legal definition of Unlawful assembly: "Unlawful assembly is a legal term to describe a group of people with the mutual intent of deliberate disturbance of the peace. If the group are about to start the act of disturbance, it is termed a rout; if the disturbance is commenced, it is then termed a riot."

As correctly noted the right to "peaceably assemble" is guaranteed in the Constitution.

I would think the city of St Paul or the County of Ramsey might find itself paying some damages in the next 2 years as a result of some unjust arrests.