Political dissent as terrorism: “Minnesota Patriot Act” charges filed against RNC 8

stalk · Sep 28, 2008

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/minn-s11.shtml

The charges of terrorism leveled against the eight youth who had sought to organize protests and civil disobedience against the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Minnesota last week sound an alarm that political opposition in the US is on its way toward being criminalized.

In what may be the first case of its kind, American citizens have been arrested and charged as terrorists for no other act than planning to protest and obstruct a political event. In this case the occasion was the nominating convention of a party chiefly responsible for policies detested by the majority of Americans, including the war in Iraq and the enrichment of a tiny layer of the enormously wealthy.

Even a casual review of the case reveals that the charges are a baseless frame-up, carried out in the name of constitutionally dubious “anti-terrorist” legislation enacted since 2002.

More alarming than the case itself, however, is the fact that it has gone virtually unnoted by the national news media. This reporter could also find no mention of the case on the web sites of left-liberal publications such as the Nation, the Progressive, or In These Times. No major politician from either party has commented on the case, including Minnesota’s Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar. Attempts to contact the campaign and Senate office of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama revealed that he had not released a statement on the arrests.

This silence on the case is no indication of its lack of importance. In essence, the terrorism charges against the RNC 8 show what the World Socialist Web Site has long warned: that anti-terrorism laws like the Patriot Act—enthusiastically supported by both major parties—have never been about protecting the American people from terrorism. They were put into place to create the legal framework for the suppression of basic constitutional and democratic rights of the population.

The eight members of the anarchist group Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee (RNCWC) were arrested the weekend before the RNC began and charged with the felony “conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism.” They have since been released on $10,000 bail. If convicted at trial, the RNC Eight could each face five years in prison plus a $10,000 fine. A ninth individual has been named in the police complaint, but has yet to be charged.

Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and attorney for Monica Bicking, one of the eight defendants, told the World Socialist Web Site that the authorities have shown no indication that the charges will be dropped.

The charges are predicated on an a priori assumption of guilt; not on what actually happened, but what might have happened had no arrest been made.

Furthermore, the charges are almost entirely based upon the evidence of two confidential paid informants.

Nestor pointed out in an earlier interview with the Minnesota Independent that “the most outrageous allegations made by the authorities are not supported by any evidence other than the statement of the confidential informants. They’re not supported by the evidence seized.”

The physical evidence gathered by law enforcement was even more threadbare than the purchased testimony of informants. “We have the sheriff displaying a single plastic item that he claims was a shield,” Nestor said, “as if one shield was going to protect demonstrators from 3,500 armed riot police who have projectile-tear-gas weapons.” In addition, police seized a rusty hatchet, nails, lighters and other common household items as evidence, and rather ludicrously reported discovering “weaponized urine.”

This is the same method the Federal Bureau of Investigation has used in its attacks on Muslim organizations and other “terrorism” suspects. In such scenarios, anonymous police infiltrators enter an organization, create a provocation or even a crime itself, and then turn over uncorroborated testimony, thereby implicating an entire group of people

Lawyers for the RNCWC members have also pointed to the climate of fear created surrounding their clients by the very charge of terrorism. “All they do is they label people as terrorists and anarchists, and at that point what people are actually saying and the content of their views has no meaning anymore,” said attorney Jordan Kushner.

Nestor told the WSWS that the arrests are “part of an overall law enforcement strategy to intimidate people from exercising political rights in the streets and to intimidate people from political organizations, to put citizens outside of the realm of acceptable behavior, to limit acceptable protest to voting and writing letters, and anything else is dangerous and potentially criminal.”

The arrests are based on a 2002 law enacted with overwhelming bipartisan support in response to 9/11 and the adoption of the national USA Patriot Act. According to Nestor the Minnesota law is a version of the latter. According to the law, “a crime is committed to ‘further terrorism’ if the crime is a felony and is a premeditated act involving violence to persons or property that is intended to: (1) terrorize, intimidate, or coerce a considerable number of members of the public in addition to the direct victims of the act; and (2) significantly disrupt or interfere with the lawful exercise, operation, or conduct of government, lawful commerce, or the right of lawful assembly” (emphasis added).

In other words, the statute lays out a legal framework for the categorization of protest as “furthering terrorism.” Police could quite easily determine that a protest aims to “coerce” “members of the public” or “interfere with” the operations of government, industry and meetings. In a broad sense, that is precisely what public demonstrations have always aimed to do.

The passing of the 2002 legislation was not the only, or most recent, preparation made by the government for the repression that has unfolded in St. Paul.

It has been revealed that the city government of St. Paul and the Host Committee of the Republican National Convention—which organized the event and solicited corporate donors—worked out a bargain whereby the Host Committee would assume the first $10 million in liability resulting from lawsuits civilians might launch against the city’s police. This agreement gave a signal to police that financial liability need not serve as a deterrent to police repression of protests.

Police preparation in the Twin Cities was elaborate. Because the RNC, like the Democratic National Convention, was declared a “National Security Event,” the local police were placed under the supervision of the federal government through the Secret Service and combined with numerous other state and federal police and military agencies.

It has also become clear that the media, especially independent media, were targeted for harassment and arrest during the convention. This included the unlawful search and seizure of filming equipment, computers, and cell phones.

As the scope of the arrests and police brutality has begun to take shape—multiple reports have emerged of police beatings, gassings, denial of medical treatment, and use of mace and taser guns on protesters and those already detained or arrested—it appears increasingly unlikely that this was simply an overreaction, as some liberal commentators have claimed.

The goal of this repression—which most assuredly would be a central preoccupation of the mainstream media had it taken place in, for instance, Russia—was only secondarily aimed at intimidating or squelching the RNC protests. Instead these measures were cut from the same cloth as the sort of massive repression carried out in third world police states. The massive police operation’s primary aim was to benumb, intimidate and silence the population as a whole.

It also provided the opportunity for a trial run of large-scale repression against the mass opposition to war and social immiseration that will inevitably emerge in the coming months and years.
Click to expand...

420UFO · Sep 28, 2008

this is fucking pathetic. Its becoming 1984 people... just wait and see how things are come 2012. Its becoming a police state, a dictatorship. fuuuuck.....

stalk · Sep 28, 2008

yup

mariecstasy · Sep 28, 2008

420UFO said:

this is fucking pathetic. Its becoming 1984 people... just wait and see how things are come 2012. Its becoming a police state, a dictatorship. fuuuuck.....
Click to expand...

and so many people are in their bubbles, completely oblivious of these happenings.

DaveHT · Sep 28, 2008

IMO the last elections you are going to have are going to be this year. Even then they will be null and void when your economy fails causing "a state of emergency" before Jan 20. Bush will remain your President under the guise of law from one of his stupid presidential directives. Then he is going to declare himself dictator. Almost he same thing Hitler did. The writing has been on the wall since your "patriot law" passed.

I used to think he would cause a war on your soil first before becoming dictator but the economic collape will work just as well. Hell, he even conviced Georgia to piss off Russia in the hope it would blow up and cause them to attack you. He was waiting for Iran to cause it first but they're taking to long to make a nuke.

Hope you like fascism cause thats what you got.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. " - Benjamin Franklin

ER_1015 · Sep 28, 2008

What is worse....that this happened, or that we're not really surprised that this happened?

odon · Sep 28, 2008

This is complete and utter BS IMO.
These guys were clearly out to cause trouble and now cry fowl when they were caught.
Boo fucking hoo.
But, to be fair, let due process occur.
Heaven forbid they go through a trial through the media.
Oh, but they are all innocent though, right?
That fact is already established, right?

Pressed_Rat · Sep 28, 2008

Is anyone else NOT surprised by Odon's response??

odon · Sep 28, 2008

Pressed_Rat said:

Is anyone else NOT surprised by Odon's response??
Click to expand...

I'm saying that because I watched that episode unfold.
I looked it up as best I could at the time.
I watched as one involved lied straight to camera.
There was even a lenghy thread about it.
This article is a almost scandalous.
Thay are making the RNC 8 into innocent people caught up in the system.
Let due process occur
Should we not let more qualified people do that rather than "The media"?

wackyiraqi · Sep 28, 2008

Left-wing protesters like playing the victim. It is part of their gig and is quite obvious.

DaveHT · Sep 28, 2008

Pressed_Rat said:

Is anyone else NOT surprised by Odon's response??
Click to expand...

I'm not. Don't worry he's just a brownshirt.iggy:

stalk · Sep 28, 2008

Can't you see what's happening here?

It is now illegal to disagree with the american government.

I am now considered a terrorist.

If you think that's cool, please go fuck yourself

odon · Sep 28, 2008

DaveHT said:

I'm not. Don't worry he's just a brownshirt.iggy:
Click to expand...

Can you please take that obscene comment back and shove it up your ass - thanks.

odon · Sep 28, 2008

stalk said:

Can't you see what's happening here?
Click to expand...

Yes, I can.
8 people have been charged with “Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism”, which IMO they were planning on doing.

It is now illegal to disagree with the american government.
Click to expand...

No it is not.
As high and mighty these guys might think they are...
They are cookie cutter anarchists, ten a dozen, nothing too special.
It is not their views that are in court here it is their actions or future actions and the allegations leveled at them (probable cause).
Turn camera left and see thousands upon thousands of people saying the same thing and even more at the RNC a few weeks ago - in court at the moment? Nope.

I am now considered a terrorist.
Click to expand...

No you are not. Behave yourself, dude. hahaha

If you think that's cool, please go fuck yourself
Click to expand...

I have a strong, even an overwhelming feeling these 8 guys and gals were going to cause a riot and more.
But will wait to see what occurs in court.
Are there only 8 members in the RNCWC? I think not.
So why are these specific 8 in court and not the rest if "It is now illegal to disagree with the american government" etc etc etc ?

Heck, I might even agree with some of the groups ideals - perhaps not how some may go about it.

stalk · Sep 28, 2008

Odon,
sometimes you are so out of touch with reality it breaks my heart. I am truly sorry.
Thank you for trying, but...
Fail.

odon · Sep 28, 2008

stalk said:

Odon,
sometimes you are so out of touch with reality it breaks my heart. I am truly sorry.
Thank you for trying, but...
Fail.
Click to expand...

I would have given that more consideration if I had not read your previous post.
But, I won't make this personal.

Aristartle · Sep 28, 2008

odon, you really confuse me. I'll politely leave it at that.

Were you ever banned from this site?

odon · Sep 28, 2008

Aristartle said:

odon, you really confuse me. I'll politely leave it at that.

Were you ever banned from this site?
Click to expand...

Why do I confuse you?
I don't think I have said anything confusing.
It would help if you were not polite (but don't call me a brown shirt ffs)
Not to my knowledge...

wackyiraqi · Sep 28, 2008

Aristartle said:

odon, you really confuse me. I'll politely leave it at that.

Were you ever banned from this site?
Click to expand...

Why would you ask if he's ever been banned?

stalk · Sep 28, 2008

wackyiraqi said:

Why would you ask if he's ever been banned?
Click to expand...

Is it not obvious?

Log in or Sign up

Political dissent as terrorism: “Minnesota Patriot Act” charges filed against RNC 8

stalk Banned

420UFO Member

stalk Banned

mariecstasy Enchanted

DaveHT Member

ER_1015 Member

odon Slightly Popular

Pressed_Rat Do you even lift, bruh?

odon Slightly Popular

wackyiraqi Senior Member

DaveHT Member

stalk Banned

odon Slightly Popular

odon Slightly Popular

stalk Banned

odon Slightly Popular

Aristartle Snow Falling on Cedars Lifetime Supporter

odon Slightly Popular

wackyiraqi Senior Member

stalk Banned

Log in or Sign up

Political dissent as terrorism: “Minnesota Patriot Act” charges filed against RNC 8

stalk Banned

420UFO Member

stalk Banned

mariecstasy Enchanted

DaveHT Member

ER_1015 Member

odon Slightly Popular

Pressed_Rat Do you even lift, bruh?

odon Slightly Popular

wackyiraqi Senior Member

DaveHT Member

stalk Banned

odon Slightly Popular

odon Slightly Popular

stalk Banned

odon Slightly Popular

Aristartle Snow Falling on Cedars Lifetime Supporter

odon Slightly Popular

wackyiraqi Senior Member

stalk Banned

Useful Searches