Pre-emptive strikes against protest at RNC

By
Marjorie Cohn

From
Truthout.org

In
the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the
FBI-led Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited
people to infiltrate vegan groups and other leftist organizations and
report back about their activities. On May 21, the Minneapolis City
Pages ran a recruiting story called "Moles Wanted." Law
enforcement sought to pre-empt lawful protest against the policies of
the Bush administration during the convention.

Since
Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted
pre-emptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described
the targeting of protesters by "teams of 25-30 officers in riot
gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those
suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay
on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes,
seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets."
Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers representing
detainees were handcuffed at the scene.

"I
was personally present and saw officers with riot gear and assault
rifles, pump action shotguns," said Bruce Nestor, the president
of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, who is
representing several of the protesters. "The neighbor of one of
the houses had a gun pointed in her face when she walked out on her
back porch to see what was going on. There were children in all of
these houses, and children were held at gunpoint."

The
raids targeted members of "Food Not Bombs," an antiwar,
anti-authoritarian protest group that provides free vegetarian meals
every week in hundreds of cities all over the world. They served
meals to rescue workers at the World Trade Center after 9/11 and to
nearly 20 communities in the Gulf region following Hurricane Katrina.

Also
targeted, were members of I-Witness Video, a media watchdog group
that monitors the police to protect civil liberties. The group worked
with the National Lawyers Guild to gain the dismissal of charges or
acquittals of about 400 of the 1,800 who were arrested during the
2004 Republican National Convention in New York. Pre-emptive policing
was used at that time as well. Police infiltrated protest groups in
advance of the convention.

Nestor
said that no violence or illegality has taken place to justify the
arrests. "Seizing boxes of political literature shows the motive
of these raids was political," he said.

Further
evidence of the political nature of the police action was the
boarding up of the Convergence Center, where protesters had gathered,
for unspecified code violations. St. Paul City Council member David
Thune said, "Normally we only board up buildings that are vacant
and ramshackle." Thune and fellow City Council member Elizabeth
Glidden decried "actions that appear excessive and create an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation for those who wish to exercise
their First Amendment rights."

"So
here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law
enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have
committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by
months-long espionage efforts to track what they do," Greenwald
wrote on Salon.

Preventive
detention violates the Fourth Amendment, which requires that warrants
be supported by probable cause. Protesters were charged with
"conspiracy to commit riot," a rarely-used statute that is
so vague, it is probably unconstitutional. Nestor said it "basically
criminalizes political advocacy."

On
Sunday, the National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against
Police Brutality filed an emergency motion requesting an injunction
to prevent police from seizing video equipment and cellular phones
used to document their conduct.

During
Monday’s demonstration, law enforcement officers used pepper spray,
rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. At least 284
people were arrested, including Amy Goodman, the prominent host of
"Democracy Now!" as well as the show’s producers, Abdel
Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. "St. Paul was the most militarized
I have ever seen an American city to be," Greenwald wrote, "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."

Bruce
Nestor said the timing of the arrests was intended to stop protest
activity, "to make people fearful of the protests, but also to
discourage people from protesting," he told Amy Goodman.
Nevertheless, 10,000 people, many opposed to the Iraq war, turned out
to demonstrate on Monday. A legal team from the National Lawyers
Guild has been working diligently to protect the constitutional
rights of protesters.

Marjorie
Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at
Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She is the author of "Cowboy
Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law." Her
new book, "Rules
of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent"
(co-authored with Kathleen Gilberd), will be published this winter.
Her articles are archived at www.marjoriecohn.com.

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