Tuesday, September 02, 2008

"Warrantless" raids on "peace" protesters

I came in this morning and had a link from one of my Democrat friends;
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/30/report-massive-warra.html
(Fuck BoingBoing. No linky for them.)

I used to read BoingBoing every day, but as it became more and more partisan, I got so disgusted with them I took them off my reading list, and refused to read them. This time, however, I expected my friend to talk to me about the link, so I sighed a deep sigh, and clicked the link.

Report: Massive, warrantless raids on peace protesters in Minneapolis, ahead of RNC.

It seems the homes (some homes, some merely houses rented as meeting points for other protesters) of some protesters were raided by the police looking for specific items and specific people. Everyone in the homes were detained and questioned while evidence was gathered, and then they left.

Le sigh.

I put on my rubber boots, and waded into the muck.

A couple of things became evident quickly;

1. The "warrantless" raids had warrants. Only BoingBoing reported "warrantless." Go fig.
2. This got relatively light coverage, and what coverage it DID get was either obviously biased, or took very few liberties. There doesn't seem to be a lot of support over the "outrage."
3. The video is hilarious. Listen to who they interview. She is obviously aware of why they were raided. Her weasel words hang so thick in the air, the Salon interviewer can't help but pause.
4. The items gathered are serious stuff. Some of them are not, but if you know what you're looking for from protesters, it's very obvious these items were not just "stuff" lying around.

From DigitalJournal
Many items were seized by the police including PVC pipe, chicken wire and duct tape. The RNC Welcoming Committee wanted to lock themselves together in human barricades called "sleeping dragons." Also included in the raids were knives, flammable liquids, five-gallon buckets of urine, homemade caltrops (which are devices used to puncture bus tires), bolt cutters, sledgehammers, protective padding and plastic buckets that were cut into shields.

The "RNC Welcoming Committee" is a protest group that had been shooting its mouth off for a long time leading up to the RNC. The fact that they were largely ignored (none were arrested) leads me to believe the police have classified them as "Mostly Harmless." It is my opinion that they were a secondary target.

Of the 7 raids, and the many many people raided and searched, only 6 were taken in on conspiracy charges. If the cops wanted to break up all the protests as so many would have you believe, they could have easily detained everyone for an extended period of time. They didn't. In fact, they didn't even close down their "rally point" houses. Cops supposedly had lists of names and lists of specific items.

From MNBlue (leftist)
I heard a police officer on cell phone talking about a tupperware of bottles (both cities recycle). A code officer was being called to look for code violations. We expected they will try to board up the house - sort of like immediate punishment for even planning to parade in protect. Update: late in the day, the house was released and the people are back inside.


Whoops. Guess the cops didn't really care about their piddly little organization and its super radical message of peace. More about those plastic bottles later.

The Sheriff lists the items they took;
Materials used in creating "sleeping dragons" (pvc pipe, chicken wire, duct tape)
Large amounts of urine (including 3 - 5 gallon buckets of urine)
Wrist Rockets
Assorted edged weapons including a machete, hatchet and several throwing knives
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
Old tires (for burning)
Repelling equipment
Kryptonite locks
Empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields
Material for protective padding
An army helmet

Sleeping dragons are pipes with padding inside that protesters can put their arms into, and bind their wrists together. These are used for making human walls or for doing sit-ins. They attach themselves to posts or other immobile objects using only their bodies, and form a chain across intersections or routes. The police can't just cut their arms off, and they can't break their grip on each other because the bound wrists are covered by the metal or pvc pipe they put their arms into for the link. The kryptonite locks were likely meant for use with the sleeping dragons.
Knives may be found anywhere, but what you probably won't find anywhere are machetes and throwing knives. Not much mention of these on those lefty BUSHITLER websites...
Flammable liquids I cannot find described anywhere. Could be liquor, could be gasoline. Though I'm sure it'd be described if it were more sinister. Not much to determine from this.
Homemade caltrops is an interesting one. I'd be interested to see what innocent use these were supposed to have.
Also on the list of stuff they were looking for was a general "materials for incendiary devices," but if all that was listed was flammable liquids, I think it is fair to say these guys weren't cooking up napalm or thermite...
The rest of the stuff is so-so... Cops probably grabbed it because they could. Not necessarily good, but cops have been doing this forever. Complaining about it just because it happened to them is indicative of the selective nature of the "injustices" they fight against.

Here's a picture of all of it.

Clicky for full size.
The maps look home made, and were probably used to plot out routes. The idea that the maps confiscated were tourist maps or stylized drawings are BS.

MNBlue asks;
Is this stuff that is in normally in homes, or associated with a hobby or business?
Except some of the homes weren't "homes." They were houses rented by non-profit groups for the express purpose of congregating peace protesters. People didn't "live" in these home, and need to keep tools and different items there, they just needed a place to sleep, store bikes, and what one of the videos refers to as "equipment."

All the rest seemed to be BS, so I'll cut to my assessment;

This was a raid for Anarchists.

Note I capitalized the "A." These are not a loose group of people who vaguely adhere to the believe in anarchist principals. The Anarchists are a group of violent protesters with whom the police are very familiar.

The Anarchists show up at otherwise peaceful protests and execute plans to covertly escalate the situation. They goad the police into reacting to the whole crowd as they hide among other peaceful protesters. All of this is, of course, taped in order to be edited, and released on the internet. This group is very smart, very motivated, and appears to be funded. Some tactics include hiding behind pregnant women so they can be hit with rubber bullets, throwing bricks wrapped in paper while other people throw paper or light objects, throwing frozen water bottles as others throw empty ones, setting fires, using human waste on police, using wrist rockets and firecrackers to simulate officers being fired upon, and on, and on, and on. The Anarchists have served as flash points for so many protests in the past that agencies plan in advance for them, and gather enough evidence and names to detain them long enough for the event to conclude. When agencies fail to plan, you get things like the Los Angeles immigration rally "May Day Melee."

All in an effort to make the police appear to overreact to some peaceful protesters.

The ones that actually perform the violence usually wear black sweaters, and almost always wear bandannas over their face. The sleeping dragons were not for them, the Anarchists don't have enough people to do a complete sit-in and upset traffic. They probably really were for some peaceful protesters (Though there is a way to cut straight through them without injuring the protesters. Guess they missed the memo). But the caltrops, fireworks, urine, water bottles, and possibly the flammable liquids and glass bottles (who knows nowadays) were obviously for the Anarchists who had insinuated themselves into the other protesters, and were making use of their "rally points" to store their hardware.

It seems to me the police were reacting to the Anarchists, and some of the other protesters were caught up in it (honestly, they were only detained for a while, and let go to return to their house). The protesters were just overreacting. They'll still get the chance to chant "bush is hitler" or "the government needs to be in charge of everything, unless they're republicans" or whatever it is they love to say. (I still think "free speech zones" are BS, but with groups like ELF becoming more and more violent, it's hard to just say anyone can go anywhere.)

Still, there will be protesters at the convention. No official is stupid enough to stop all protesters. So don't worry your little hippie heads. Just keep up the hypocrisy, and thin-skin you guys are known for.

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