And if I had the money, I'de fly to St. Paul right now and start tossing molotov cocktails around..:D :D :D The war party will get what they deserve. I hope their convention is a complete and utter failure.
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Tension over protests higher in St. Paul than in Denver
M.E. Sprengelmeyer Sun Aug 31, 8:55 AM ET
ST. PAUL, Minn. – On the eve of the Republican National Convention, uncertainty is blowing through the host city at Category 5.
Not only are people wondering how Sen. John McCain and the GOP will have to alter the convention’s messages because of Hurricane Gustav and the painful reminders of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, but there now are big questions about how the expected street protests will play out.
Local and national media outlets have reported that there have been multiple raids on places where anti-war protesters are gearing up for a massive rally Monday, just before the convention’s opening.
The Hill newspaper, citing the National Lawyer Guild (NLG), reports that the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office, which leads the local law enforcement effort, has raided at least three homes and made several arrests.
Minnesota Public Radio reported that authorities had seized gallons of urine, wrist rockets and kerosene – just the sort of unconventional weapons that were feared, but never emerged, during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Protesters have vowed to go forward with a rally of tens of thousands of people on Monday, when President Bush had been scheduled to speak. (Bush's appearance reportedly is in doubt due to the response to the hurricane.)
The RNC Welcoming Committee, an “anarchist/anti-authoritarian” group planning to “crash the convention,” has been giving regular updates on the protests – including names of those it says have been detained -- through its web site, www.nornc.org,
The group’s web site promotes a whole host of protest activities planned for Sept. 1 to Sept. 4, saying: “the Republican Party is coming to Minnesota to celebrate their latest conquests in global domination and exploitation. We of the RNC Welcoming Committee want to make sure that this time the fear-mongers will be met with their own biggest fear: people mobilized, organized, and taking the future back into their own hands.”
Similar rhetoric was used by protest planners before the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where there were some high-profile confrontations between demonstrators and police but fewer arrests, conflicts and incidents than in past national party conventions.
Will higher tensions translate into more trouble during the RNC? Stay tuned.
By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 15 minutes ago
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Thousands of protesters descended on the city hosting the Republican National Convention Monday, some smashing cars, puncturing tires and throwing bottles in a confrontations with pepper-spray wielding police who arrested at least five people.
Police said the size of the crowd shifted during the day before estimating it in the range of 8,000 to 10,000, many of whom marched peacefully. The arrests occurred in confrontations several blocks from the Xcel Energy Center where the GOP gaveled its convention to order in late afternoon. A handful of people were arrested for lighting a dumpster on fire and pushing it into a police car, said St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh.
Instead of a single coherent march that organizers had hoped for, fringe groups of anarchists and others wrought havoc along the streets between the state Capitol and the convention site. Some anarchists who had started the trash bin fire later tried to block a major intersection. Police quickly dispersed the group, then shot two tear gas canisters at the fleeing anarchists.
Pictures taken by Associated Press photographers showed officers using pepper spray on protesters who appeared to be trying to block streets.
"There are people who are committing violations of law and they're being arrested," Walsh said.
About 200 people from a group called Funk the War noisily staged its own separate march. Wearing black clothes, bandanas and gas masks, some of their members smashed windows of cars and stores. They tipped over newspaper boxes, pulled a big trash bin into the street, bent the rear view mirrors on a bus and flipped heavy stone garbage bins on the sidewalks.
One man who seemed to be the leader of the group carried a yellow flag with the motto "Don't Tread on Me." The group chanted "Whose streets? Our streets!"
Meanwhile, a group of about 100 anarchists pushed a dumpster filled with trash and threw garbage in the streets and at cars. They also took down orange detour road signs. In hot pursuit were teams of riot officers carrying batons, rifles and guns that could be used to shoot tear gas.
The day's march was organized by a group called the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, whose leaders said they hoped for a peaceful, family-friendly march. But police were on high alert after months of preparations by a self-described anarchist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee, which wasn't among the organizers of the march.
At a rally preceding the march, speaker after speaker called for ending the war in Iraq and more spending on domestic needs.
Peace activist Steve Clemens, 47, from Minneapolis said he was disturbed by the number of police.
"But we can't control that," said Clemens, who had already been arrested once — for crossing into a restricted area during a march Sunday.
Alan Rybak, a real estate agent from Lakeville, Minn., stood along the protest route carrying a sign that read "Support Our Troops."
"I'm here to support our troops and to tell (protesters) to get a job and go home," said Rybak, a Republican Party activist.
You can probably ship them a bucket of urine as there is a shortage after protestors were raided this afternoon by law enforcement.
items seized in raid on anti-RNC protesters:
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Materials to create "sleeping dragons" (PVC pipe, chicken wire, duct tape), which is when protesters lock themselves together
Large amounts of urine, including three to five gallon buckets of urine
Wrist rockets (high-powered slingshots)
A machete, hatchet and several throwing knives
a gas mask and filter
Empty glass bottles
Rags
Flammable liquids
Homemade caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads)
Metal pipes
Axes
Bolt cutters
Sledge hammers
Rapelling equipment
Kryptonite locks
Empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields
Material for protective padding
An Army helmet.
