As more groups across Alabama sign on to the press release condemning police actions at the Republican National Convention, the Birmingham Peace Project released the following statement on these violations of civil liberties. Signees are listed in the end.

Very little has appeared in the general press regarding the astounding display of intimidation and violence launched by the St. Paul Police Department, with the apparent approval of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department and the office of Mayor Chris Coleman. Yet, throughout the independent press, private communications and e-news letters, recountings of illegal detentions, group arrests, searches and violence are flooding the country. Independent news source Democracy Now! reports hundreds of people arrested, and that “law enforcement officers used … rubber bullets and concussion grenades against protesters and journalists.” United for Peace & Justice’s National Coordinator Leslie Cagan and Veterans for Peace, David Waters, Alabama Chair, reported, “a heavily armed and extremely large police presence in St. Paul has intimidated, harassed and proved … in a number of instances, to have escalated situations when they used excessive force. They have used pepper spray … swung clubs, pushed people around, rode bicycles and horses against peacefully gathered groups and surrounded people (who were) simply walking down the streets.” According to International A.N.S.W.E.R., “police fired large amounts of tear gas and ‘anti-crowd’ explosives at thousands of protesters who gathered outside the Xcel Center at the end of the anti-poverty march. On Tuesday, they turned off the electricity at a permitted outdoor concert.”

Their large numbers indicate reinforcements were imported for the convention, at the onset. From St. Paul visitor Amanda Peterson: “Police forces from as far away as Tucson, AZ, and Arlington, TX, are in town to help the Minneapolis and St. Paul officers. I even met one female officer who said she was from Camden, Alabama.” UFPJ Coordinator Cagan additionally stated, “National Guard and State Troopers are also in the mix, to say nothing of the Secret Service and Homeland Security … ” Cagan concluded these remarks with the assertion that both Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul had received $50 million each from Homeland Security to buff up local law enforcement resources.

To cap off these actions, police peaked by arresting the reporters themselves, jailing two producers from Democracy Now! who were engaged in covering police activities. Leading independent journalist and best-selling author Amy Goodman was arrested trying to defend the two producers.

Bruce Nestor, speaking on Democracy Now! September 4, said:

“All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Ms. Salazar (experienced) violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, ‘I’m Press! I’m Press!’”

Nestor also reported that local authorities in Minneapolis/St. Paul made a deal with the RNC host committee requiring that committee to insure itself for the first $10 million in litigation costs arising from the police response to protesters. Apparently no cost is too high when it comes to the “business” of suppressing dissent and keeping order before a duped public.

A majority of the over three-hundred detainees continue to be held, in violation of Minnesota’s own laws which require those arrested to be either charged or released within 36 hours.

The BPP not only deplores these developments but suggests that the deterioration of relationships between local police and general citizenry, and the increased acts of violence initiated by local police throughout the US, constitute not merely a national trend but a top-down initiative executed by those who stand to lose the most, in a country beginning more and more to resemble a police state. Perhaps the Republican National Convention should, upon its departure from Minneapolis/St. Paul, commission to remain there, a monument to the death of the U.S. Constitution.

The Birmingham Peace Project
David Gespass, Chair
Diane McNaron, Press Contact
dianemcnaron@aol.com

North Alabama Peace Network, T. Moss, 256.468.5314, Mr. Carlson@knowlogy.net;
Alliance for Democracy, Al McCullouch, mmc@hiwaay.net;
Alabama_PeaceFirst, Beckett3@cableone.net;
The Alliance for Peace and Justice, Auburn University, www.peaceeagle.org ;
North Alabama Chapter, Veterans for Peace, David Waters, President, 205. 591.0835
Tuscaloosa Chapter, Students for a Democratic Society, chapinrose@gmail.com.

Tags: Birmingham Peace Project, Protesters Arrested, Republican National Convention 2008

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