Sep 9, 2008 10:03 am US/Central
After RNC Arrests, People Try To Get Property Back
ST. PAUL (AP) ― Trying to get their stuff back is proving frustrating for some of the more than 800 people arrested during last week's Republican National Convention.Monday was the first day that those arrested could retrieve their keys, wallets and cell phones.
"This is the epitome of insult to injury," said Kris Hermes, a National Lawyers Guild legal observer at the St. Paul police impound lot, where people were sent to get their property. "There were a large number of people today who returned to homes across the country empty-handed."
Hermes said most people were getting their property back. But some were told police couldn't find their property, and others were missing things, including a man who said his prescription sunglasses were no longer in his bag.
Others didn't have the identification they needed to show police to claim their property because their IDs were with their impounded belongings.
St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said the "vast majority" of people were getting their things back Monday. He said he thought there were "very few" cases of property not being found.
Normally, a person who's arrested can retrieve belongings at police headquarters on the edge of downtown. But because of the large number of RNC-related arrests, police designated the impound lot, on St. Paul's West Side, as an overflow site and directed people there.
Nathan Barten, who said he was cited Thursday for presence at an unlawful assembly, couldn't drive there because police had his car keys. When he found his property wasn't at headquarters, he biked over to the impound lot. It's normally a three-mile drive, but Barten said he couldn't take a direct route because bikes aren't allowed on U.S. 52.
At the impound lot, Barten said he was told he had to go back to headquarters to get his tracking number, needed to find his property. The number was supposed to be on a wristband given when he was arrested. He brought the band with him Monday, but the number wasn't there.
"I'm pretty frustrated," said Barten, of Delano. "I didn't resist at all when I was arrested, I gave my full name, and now I don't have a (tracking) number they never gave me."
Nicole Armbruster, of Washington, D.C., got her property back Monday but had trouble picking up belongings of two friends who had returned to Boston.
Armbruster, who said she was cited for presence at an unlawful assembly, said they were told she could present photocopies of her friends' driver's licenses, along with signed notes saying she had permission to get their property. But on Monday, Armbruster said, police told her the notes needed to be notarized. She was trying to get her friends to fax the notarized copies to police.
Some people who didn't give their real names to police when they were arrested also had problems.
One woman who used the alias Jessie Sparkles, as did others, was trying to get her belongings. She said she was told police had "thrown the stuff together" with that of others who hadn't given their names and that it could be two weeks before she got her property back.
The woman, who didn't give her name to a reporter but said she was from Indiana, said some people booked as John or Jane Doe had gotten their property back.
Walsh said if John or Jane Does identify themselves and their property, they'll get it back. He said he was unsure of the timeline.
"People did what they could to obfuscate and confuse the issue," he said. "They're trying to be held unaccountable for their actions and get their property back."
Matt Connell said he had to go without his medication for a few days after his arrest Sept. 1. The Minneapolis man said he was held for about six hours and cited for presence at an unlawful assembly. He didn't have keys for his apartment or for a lockbox that holds prescription medication he takes daily.
Connell said he had to break into the lockbox, at his girlfriend's home, to get the medicine.
Police at the impound lot told him they couldn't find his property, but that it might be in the property room at headquarters. He checked; it wasn't there, and he went back to the impound lot, where Connell said he was eventually told his property was at the Bloomington police department, though he was arrested in St. Paul. So he was getting ready to head to Bloomington.
"I was so angry all week," Connell said. "Now, I'm just tired."
Wrong place, wrong time, wrong lessons from the RNC
In June 2006, referring to the intentions of Twin Cities boosters to lure either the Democratic or the Republican national convention here in 2008, I wrote:
"Why wait? Let's arrest thousands of people right now, hold them in barbed-wire cages, pay millions in overtime to cops, close off downtown, disrupt transportation (and) strew garbage around the streets."
I'm sorry I was right.
The country is up to its keister in problems. Of course, there was going to be trouble -- whichever party came to town. We survived, but it wasn't pretty.
So it is strange to hear Officialdom, including my brother, the mayor of St. Paul, proclaiming the convention an unqualified success. From many perspectives, yes, it WAS a success. Folks watching TV probably didn't know or care whether they were looking at St. Paul or Sao Paolo, but Minnesota looked good to Minnesotans, and we like that.
But it wasn't a cakewalk.
One thing that was hard to swallow was the militarized statelet in St. Paul, with tactics and security designed for worst-case scenarios that did not materialize. The bulk of the 800-plus arrests were made there.
But average citizens, including the 10,000 law-abiding ones who came out to peacefully protest against the war in Iraq, were not prepared to see St. Paul turned into a No Man's Land where roofs were lined with snipers, streets were lined with legions of cops, security fences channeled citizens like rats and you had to color within the lines or you'd kiss asphalt and visit Bob Fletcher's No Frills Motel.
There is a fine line between preparation and intimidation. The No Go Zone was provocative -- and menacing -- not just to bad actors who wanted trouble. But to citizens who wanted to feel heard -- not greeted with riot clubs, handcuffs and cops on cars with rifles at the ready. Yes, you can blame the out-of-control protesters. But everyone felt chilled.
One person who ended up face-down in his hometown was Colin Dunn, an Air Force vet who served in Afghanistan and a trained EMT who was trying to help preserve the peace.
Dunn, 24, is a 2002 grad of St. Paul's Cretin-Derham Hall High School. A long time ago, his mother, Jane, ran a cash register in the old Hove's food store in Roseville, while I bagged groceries, courteously and efficiently. Jane called to tell me her son, Colin, was in a photo of arrested "protesters" that appeared on StarTribune.com. She was not happy about it: She had spent the night before sewing red crosses on Colin's shirt, so that it would be obvious that her trained medic son was there to help, not to hinder.
Colin had volunteered to help with the North Star Health Collective, a loose association of community activists (no, Sarah Palin does NOT approve) and health care providers providing medical assistance at the march. Including to the cops: Dunn bandaged up two cops whose bicycles had collided. A few hours later, he was arrested.
While he was helping treat two protesters who had been gassed, Dunn was hit in the back by a baton round -- a crowd-control projectile of a type that has killed demonstrators from Belfast to South Africa. Trying to get out of the way of the cops, Dunn and other medics dragged the injured protesters to a loading dock, where they continued their attempts to treat them. Police -- a SWAT team in military-style camouflage -- followed and arrested Dunn, four other medics, two legal observers and the protesters.
They remained, face down, on the street for hours and were charged with unlawful assembly by a mobile booking team. About 9 p.m., after they were brought to the jail, where they were told medics weren't supposed to be arrested and they were released. The observers were also released. Of the nine arrested, two -- the protesters -- were jailed.
"I can't believe they didn't know we were medics," says Dunn, whose urine was bloody for a few days after his kidney was bruised by the baton round. "I was trying to help keep the peace, and I got kicked in the teeth for it. I'm not a cop, but I had zero problems figuring out who people were. I had heard we were going to try to put on the convention 'the Minnesota way.' But they weren't doing anything 'the Minnesota way.'"
Congress allocated $50 million for security. When you do the math, each arrest cost $61,125. If you just count "good" arrests -- the ones likely to hold up in court -- you may be able to double that number. Did the cops overreact to the Siege on Seventh?
I don't know. But I know it will take more than a debriefing from Police Chief John Harrington -- the only after-action discussion planned by the St. Paul City Council -- to figure out what happened, why and whether it was as good as it should have been.
Medics, journalists, people just trying to get home: A lot of folks were arrested because they were in the wrong place, were trying to do their jobs or trying to help. The cops, too, were doing their jobs. I get that. They mostly did them well. And there is no question they had to be prepared for much worse than they confronted. But it is not much help to anybody to just say everything was great, nothing went wrong, it was all a big success.
No, it wasn't. Not all of it. Before the convention fades, its lessons should be learned.
ncoleman@startribune.com • 612-673-4400
Some Question Police After 800 Arrests At RNC
ST. PAUL (AP) ― Police packed away body armor, gas masks and pepper spray on Friday -- but not the questions about their tactics during the Republican National Convention.They made more than 800 arrests related to the convention, including nearly 400 on Thursday as protesters blocked traffic on streets and bridges a few blocks from Xcel Energy Center. In Denver, site of the Democratic convention a week earlier, only 152 people were arrested.
Hundreds of officers in riot gear -- some on horses -- poured into St. Paul's streets starting on Sunday to hold demonstrators to approved routes and quell disturbances. They used tear gas, pepper spray, percussion grenades and sticks to control protesters who overstayed permits or veered into unauthorized areas.
Police Chief John Harrington said the 3,700 officers who worked the event showed patience and moved in when they had to. He said they focused on people they expected to cross the line into property damage or violence, and tried to contain other protesters without trampling on their free speech rights.
"Nothing burned in downtown St. Paul," Harrington said. "No one was injured in downtown St. Paul. With the exception of one or two windows, downtown St. Paul remained open for business."
But protesters and some observers said the show of force raised the tension level.
"You could literally go nowhere without being confronted by a Robocop in the most intimidating, threatening gear, who wouldn't give you directions, who wouldn't do anything except threaten you and tell you to move, move, move," said Dianne Mathiowetz, an anti-war activist from Atlanta.
Some showed injuries they said were caused by rubber bullets or rough handling during arrest.
Those caught up in chaotic mass arrests included journalists, legal observers and others who hadn't intended to commit civil disobedience -- including two Associated Press reporters and an AP photographer.
On Friday, an attorney for The Associated Press sent Harrington a letter asking for an accounting of police treatment of photographers Matt Rourke and Evan Vucci. Rourke was wearing AP credentials when he was arrested Monday while covering protest violence in downtown St. Paul, and was held for 10 hours before being released.
Also Friday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sent Harrington and Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher a letter asking them to drop the criminal citations issued to up to 20 journalists who were detained while covering Thursday's protests.
The ACLU of Minnesota is preparing to coordinate legal representation for some protesters, and is looking into the use of chemical irritants and mass arrests as it prepares a possible lawsuit against the city, executive director Chuck Samuelson said.
Another group of six protesters held a news conference Friday to show bruises, scratches and other injuries. Two said they planned to sue and others said they were contemplating legal action.
Pre-emptive arrests before the convention and the aggressive look of riot police heightened fear and anger among the protesters, said Demi Miller, who walked the demonstrations as a member of the Peace Team, a group in yellow vests that sought to defuse tensions.
Miller said the law enforcement strategy changed from day to day.
On Tuesday, the day after nearly 300 people were arrested during scattered acts of violence on the convention's opening day, police prevented the band Rage Against the Machine from playing at a free concert on the Capitol grounds.
Hundreds of angry concertgoers joined an anti-poverty march that had just come down the street.
"Suddenly we had this huge group of really enraged or upset people energized to go screaming into downtown with the poor people's march," Miller said.
By the end of the evening, 10 were arrested and police fired pepper spray and percussion grenades to disperse those who lingered after the march broke up.
But the officers also showed restraint. In some cases, they waited for hours and took verbal abuse. They gave several dispersal warnings before using more drastic tactics.
During a peaceful standoff on Thursday night at the intersection of John Ireland Boulevard and Rice Street near the Capitol, one man agitated the crowd by roaming through the protesters and swearing at them. After about an hour, police suddenly moved to arrest him. Then one officer used a bullhorn to tell protesters not to worry, that they were only arresting the man causing trouble.
"Continue to speak your minds," the officer told the crowd.
Protesters cheered and clapped.
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