Posted on 08/30/2008 2:10:43 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Ramsey County sheriff's deputies found weapons and devices to disable buses - among other items - in searches in the Twin Cities last night and today.
Authorities said the items came from "key members of the RNC Welcoming Committee," a self-described anarchist group.
Five people have been arrested and four properties have been searched, according to the sheriff's office.
At 8 a.m. today, the sheriff's office executed search warrants at three Minneapolis homes - 2301 23rd Ave. S., 3500 Harriet Ave. and 3240 17th Ave. S. The FBI, Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County sheriff's office assisted them.
"The 'Welcoming Committee' is a criminal enterprise made up of 35 anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention," said Sheriff Bob Fletcher in a statement. "These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses, breaching venue security and injuring police officers. They have recruited assistance in their criminal conspiracy from other anarchists groups throughout the country. Through their plans and actions they have exhibited a blatant disregard for the law and the safety of others."
The statement said the items found in the searches included:
The five people being held at the Hennepin County jail are under arrest on suspicion of conspiracy to riot, conspiracy to commit civil disorder and conspiracy to damage property.
Arrested at the 17th Avenue home were Monica Rachel Bicking, 23, Erin Chase Trimmer, 23, and Garrett Scott Fitzgerald, 25, Nestor said.
Nathanel David Secor, 26,was arrested at the 23rd Avenue South home.
Erik Charles Oseland, 21, was arrested an undisclosed location, the sheriff's office said.
"Conspiracy to riot was the charge used against the Chicago Eight in 1968 as part of a politically motivated prosecution," said Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. "It is a charge that is essentially used for preventive detention."
A St. Paul building leased by The RNC Welcoming Committee, Where A Search Warrant Was Executed Friday Night, Is being turned back over to the property owner, the mayor's office said this afternoon.
An inspector from the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections secured the former theater on the city's West Side after fire code violations were found during the search, said Bob Hume, Mayor Chris Coleman's spokesman. The violations included a boarded-up fire exit and "sleeping pads everywhere," Hume said.
The building was secured, pending notification of the property owner, which has happened, Hume said.
No one was arrested after Friday night's search, but five arrests were made today.
People planning to protest at the Republican National Convention and St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune are calling the actions a preemptive strike before the RNC, which starts Monday.
St. Paul's mayor said this afternoon that free speech rights are separate from criminal behavior.
"We have worked very, very hard to make sure we've protected people's right to exercise free speech," Coleman said. "To pick up a protest sign, that's fine. If you're here to pick up a brick or some other instrument there's a problem."
Thune said he called city officials seeking an explanation for why the building, which appeared to be up to code and had a valid lease, was being boarded up at the request of the Ramsey County sheriff's office. Thune said Saturday afternoon that the building has been reopened.
"I don't know what happened with the boarding, but they've corrected it, and I'm grateful to our folks at DSI (Department of Safety and Inspections) for seeing the mistake."
Thune has been concerned about the conduct of authorities in the last 24 hours regarding activists.
"This is all about free speech," Thune said. "It's what my father fought in the war for. To me, this smacks of preemptive strike against free speech."
Friday's warrant was executed at 627 Smith Ave. in St. Paul about 9:15 p.m. The building is a former theater that the RNC Welcoming Committee is renting. The sheriff's office said St. Paul police assisted in the search.
Members of various protest groups targeted in last night's raid held a press conference today to express their anger and frustration.
The raid was an effort to "derail RNC protest organizing efforts and to intimidate and terrorize individuals and groups converging in the Twin Cities to exercise what are supposed to be their basic civil rights," RNC Welcoming Committee member Tony Jones read from a statement.
"We will not be intimidated," Jones exclaimed.
The group is demanding re-entry into the convergence space and a guarantee against future raids, the return of all property seized and an end to the "harassment and surveillance."
After reading the statement, Jones refused to answer media questions, saying RNC Welcoming Committee members won't talk until they've had a chance to meet with each other.
There will be another press conference this afternoon at the former Smith Theater, the site of last night's raid. Representatives of other protest groups, such as the Poor People's Economic Rights Campaign, spoke out against local police at the press conference.
Cheri Honkala, who's participated in other RNC protests, such as in New York in 2004, compared the St. Paul raid to "terrorism."
"We, just like the Republicans, have the right to free speech," Honkala said. One speaker, who said she does not belong to any protest group, but lives in St. Paul and has been helping visiting protesters, said the raid on the convergence center was unprompted and that the people there had done nothing wrong.
"The place they raided last night, they were showing documentary movies to twenty-somethings in a clean, alcohol free zone after dinner," Nanette Echols said.
"Today is the biggest day that people are arriving, and we have no place to welcome them," she said, choking up.
Just alternate fuels to keep the polar bears from drowning. Nothing to see here.
These guys are just creepy.
Please, please, please let there be embarrassing protests in the Twin Cities, with delegates getting doused with buckets of urine, tires getting slashed, cars getting graffiti’d, etc, etc. This would be awesome for our side.
I wonder how much this cost Soros ???
They had better hope that crap doesn’t break out, or I think you are going to see a conservative posse show up to kick a little lilly livered liberal ass. It will be easy to spot em’ just deck the chicks with hairy armpits and dudes wearing the ski masks.
If they want a street war, then the Conservatives of this country can give it to them...Oh yeah, and our guys won’t wear ski masks like p&&ys.
Its time to give them back a little Bill Ayers + + +
“Homemade caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads)”
Guys they are building IED’s.
pure and simple...they need to be dealt with...
Are there 5 empty rooms at Gitmo?
Soros may be arrogant, but he's not stupid. He'd see right away how counter-productive this public display of chaos would be to his plans. He's probably on the sidelines trying to surreptitiously quash this.
Authorities seize weapons, devices to disrupt RNC in raids last night, this morning
***********************EXCERPT*******************
Weapons and devices to disable buses - among other items - were found in searches in the Twin Cities last night and today by Ramsey County sheriff's deputies.
Authorities said the items came from "key members of the RNC Welcoming Committee," a self-described anarchist group.
Five people have been arrested and four properties have been searched, according to the sheriff's office.
At 8 a.m. today, the sheriff's office executed search warrants at three Minneapolis homes - 2301 23rd Ave. S., 3500 Harriet Ave. and 3240 17th Ave. S. They were assisted by the FBI, Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County sheriff's office.
"The 'Welcoming Committee' is a criminal enterprise made up of 35 anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention," said Sheriff Bob Fletcher in a statement. "These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses, breaching venue security and injuring police officers. They have recruited assistance in their criminal conspiracy from other anarchists groups throughout the country. Through their plans and actions they have exhibited a blatant disregard for the law and the safety of others."
The statement said the items found in the searches included:
Filthy,,,,,Filthy Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttssssssss!
The only Bicking listed in MN gave to Nader and the Green Party. Shocker! ..not!
Easy way to deal with these animals:
Launch buckets of itching powder into the air wherever they gather. They’ll be rolling around on the ground going insane, and it doesn’t require any dramatic action on the part of the cops for the socialists to put in their propaganda videos (not to mention frivolous lawsuits about how roughing up wannabe-terrorists is “brutality”).
Caltrops aren’t IEDs...they’re jacks. Like the kids’ game, where one point is always up, only caltrops are a lot bigger and the points are sharp so the tires get ruined.
Authorities raid, search protesters' hub in St. Paul
*********************EXCERPT********************
By Tad Vezner and Dave Orrick
Pioneer Press
Law enforcement officials Friday night raided a former theater on St. Paul's West Side, detaining and questioning dozens of activists and protesters gathered there three days before the Republican National Convention.
About 9:15 p.m., about a dozen St. Paul police officers, backed up by several Ramsey County sheriff's deputies, burst through the front door of the former Smith Theater at 627 Smith Ave. with their guns drawn, according to witnesses.
Several dozen occupants of the building were ordered to the ground, handcuffed, searched, photographed, asked to show identification and questioned by police and sheriff's officials, the witnesses said.
The authorities were executing a search warrant for Ramsey County sheriff's officials, who led the raid.
"The search is part of an ongoing investigation regarding serious criminal acts," said Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who declined to give details about the alleged acts.
The Pioneer Press did not see the warrant. But witnesses quoted from the warrant, which was read aloud by authorities. They said authorities were looking for "items that could be used for direct action techniques, ranging from computers, Xboxes, Xbox games, Molotov cocktails and matchstick heads."
Asked about the timing of the warrant just before the RNC starts Monday, Fletcher said "the warrant was dictated by the needs of the investigation and the criminal behavior of the suspects."
Fletcher, reached at home, would not say whether the warrant was connected to the RNC.
The theater, rented by an activist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee, serves as one of the centers for organizing protests during the RNC.
As of 11 p.m., about 100 people congregated outside the theater, cheering their peers who were released from inside the building one by one.
No arrests had been confirmed by 11:30 p.m.
As they were let out of the theater, activists and protesters criticized the action.
"I was doing nothing illegal," said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality. "I'm furious about this, that you can't come to a meeting space without the reasonable expectation to be unmolested by police."
Jordan Kushner, head of the mass defense committee of the National Lawyers Guild's Minnesota chapter, said the raid was unjustified.
"It's an obviously blatant act of harassment and intimidation to suppress political dissent," he said. "You do this in a police state. I guarantee you they are not going to find anything (illegal)."
Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.
Monica Rachel Bicking, 23
Erin Chase Trimmer, 23
Garrett Scott Fitzgerald, 25
Nathanel David Secor, 26
Erik Charles Oseland, 21
Just think, some day a Democratic candidate for President may start their political career at one of their houses.
Caltrops:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrop
They’re attempting to blow out the tires of vehicles.
The urine, however, definitely constitutes “biological warfare” in my opinion.
Can you imagine all the diseases these hippy weirdos might be carrying?
Funny how you NEVER see conservatives pulling terroristic crap like this.
[or carrying idiotic giant puppets, either]
Obama/Ayers/Soros Brownshirts....
Now lets not jump to conclusions here. I'm thinking a "device to disable buses" is just something an nObama supporter would need for protection.
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