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Roughing up the RNC protesters, Beijing style
Funny how much St. Paul this week looks like Beijing in the last month or so. Police intimidating peaceful people because they're afraid they may present the wrong image. It's yet another RNC convention whose organizers and supporters so fear the presence of any who might present messages contrary to their own that they are willing to violate, or have violated on their behalf, the First Amendment rights and civil liberties of American citizens.
It's just like Philly in 2000 or NYC in 2004. The Philly 2000 story by dengre provides a highly revealing look into how these actions come about and I strongly encourage you to start with it. The comprehensive NY Times report on just how extensively the police infiltrated and spied prior to the convention, issued in March 2007, gives some clue as to what is happening now. The Wikipedia summary of the police actions at the 2004 RNC convention gives an idea of the scope of the activities they viewed as suspicious.
All of this history underscores how our civil liberties are under attack from multiple directions including from shadowy citizen groups as well as law enforcement groups in various levels of government. Marcy Wheeler aka Emptywheel warned of this in her post about the solicitation of citizens to spy by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Minnesota. Our government is losing its way. The compass has been so distorted by the Bush administration.
Some of the first clues of what would happen were reported here. The video in that post is the heart of the story and it's disturbing. But now it's gone further. DiAnne Greiser at Democracy Cell Project has posted 2 letters from individuals who have been witnesses to and impacted by law enforcement types in St. Paul. Intimidation, arrests, harassment all seem to be part of the tools in the toolbox to keep citizens shut up inside their homes, voiceless and powerless. It's not altogether clear just which law enforcement groups are involved. The first letter is in this post, "Pre-Emptive Arrests in the Twin Cities" and the second letter in a comment on that post.
Glenn Greenwald at Salon is covering it extensively and has a new post up this morning that identifies the same resemblance I noted above to the Chinese government's actions prior to the Beijing Olympics. The new post also outlines the role of the federal government in these actions in which people who have done NOTHING wrong are being arrested pre-emptively.
More sources in the blogosphere and citizen journalism world include Jane Hamsher and Lindsey Beyerstein at Firedoglake who are actively reporting. The Uptake is a citizen video journalist group that's in the Twin Cities and putting up a lot of good video that others are linking to. Crooks and Liars has a good post up. The Indymedia outlet, The Minnesota Independent, and the Twin Cities Daily Planet also have a lot of coverage. Last but not least, John Emerson at Seeing the Forest blog has assembled a thorough list of links for those interested in learning more.
I wonder when we'll hear the Washington Post or any other traditional media outlet say anything about the activities in the Twin Cities which they so clearly disapproved of in China. Per Glenn Greenwald:
During the Olympics just weeks ago, there was endless hand-wringing over the efforts by the Chinese Government to squelch dissent and incarcerate protesters. On August 21, The Washington Post fretted:
Six Americans detained by police this week could be held for 10 days, according to Chinese authorities, who appear to be intensifying their efforts to shut down any public demonstrations during the final days of the Olympic Games. . . .
Chinese Olympic officials announced last month that Beijing would set up zones where people could protest during the Games, as long as they had received permission. None of the 77 applications submitted was approved, however, and several other would-be protesters were stopped from even applying.
On August 2, The Post gravely warned:
Behind the gray walls and barbed wire of the prison here, eight Chinese farmers with a grievance against the government have been consigned to Olympic limbo.
Their indefinite detainment, relatives and neighbors said, is the price they are paying for stirring up trouble as China prepares to host the Beijing Games. Trouble, the Communist Party has made clear, will not be permitted.
Would The Washington Post ever use such dark and accusatory tones to describe what the U.S. Government does? Of course it wouldn't. Yet how is our own Government's behavior in Minnesota any different than what the Chinese did to its protesters during the Olympics (other than the fact that we actually have a Constitution that prohibits such behavior)? And where are all the self-righteous Freedom Crusaders in our nation's establishment organs who were so flamboyantly criticizing the actions of a Government on the other side of the globe as our own Government engages in the same tyrannical, protest-squelching conduct with exactly the same motives?
Our founding fathers fought government suppression like this. It's sad to see that we are still fighting the same battle. I am not necessarily in agreement with every jot and tittle of the causes the protesters are protesting but I support absolutely their right to protest. It's gone too far when police can break down doors and rip apart cars just because someone called.
What's more sad is that the New York Times and the Washington Post, not to mention the nattering nabobs, are evidently oblivious to the destruction of our civil liberties. There is nothing on the Politics pages of either newspaper's website about the arrests and ongoing harassment. What happened to the press that was given special protection in the First Amendment?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Don't they realize that it's only a small step from taking away a single citizen's right to free speech to taking away the freedom of the press?
