Coldsnap Mirror: Nun Arrested

I will be mirroring the Live Wire from Twin Cities Indy Media, including all the Coldsnap reports, on police actions in St. Paul. Corporate media will never cover this, and generating buzz may help the arrestees, who are supposed to be presumed innocent under the Constitution. Earlier today (Lindsay's report):

ColdSnap is reporting 9 arrests downtown near the Excel center and police massing all over the downtown core.

The National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police Brutality have filed an emergency motion to stop the seizure of cell phones and cameras during the RNC.

The groups will hold a joint press conference at Hennepin County Government Plaza to discuss their application for an emergency injunction, according to a tweet issued by the ColdSnap Legal Collective.

UPDATE (12:34 PDT):: One of the 9 protesters arrested was a nun, seen being loaded into an unmarked blue van. The 9 were apparently trying to climb a fence near a church.

The very latest (3:24 PM CDT):
The police refused to allow IWW Union members off of a train. They were forced to continue on to Plymouth, including a diabetic who needed insulin.

Palin Pick Makes Wonkettes Celebrities

Congratulations! Very funny people:
Ken Layne, Sara K. Smith, Jim Newell, Elizabeth Glover, Juli Weiner, shortsshortsshorts, say it with wookies, Strictly for the Tardcore, Angry BlakGuy, loudmouthredhead, and the rest of the vile degenerates. First the Library of Congress archiving, and now this, so that was a good week.

Far Beyond Proto-Fascist

Lindsay Beyerstein:

"About an hour and a half ago 20 to 30 heavily armed police officers surrounded the house," Whelan said. "One of my roommates said 'I want to see a warrant' and she was immediately detained."

"Are they still outside?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, they're still outside," Whelan replied cheerfully, "The streets are blocked off."

"How you did figure out there was a raid going on?" I asked.

"It sounded like people were falling down on my porch," he said, "Cops were running up both sides of the house onto the porch.

Whelan says his roommate, Erin Stalmaker, went out to talk to talk to the police. She asked the officers why they were there. The officers asked why people were running away from them. Erin reportedly told the officers that their drawn automatic weapons probably had something to do with it. She was detained after asking to see a warrant.

"Are you scared," I asked."

"No, I'm a veteran," he said, "I was in the army. I was a military police officer. I wouldn't have done this."

Whelan said it was especially perplexing that the police would target his home.

"There's nothing here," he said, "These are the "checking" people. They're not even going to be in the demonstration. Some are lawyers."

1,000 miles away, and in the path of a hurricane, I can honestly say the hurricane is less dangerous than our government.

Laughing At Danger

St. Paul, Minnesota: Dangerous

The raids in St. Paul are much more disturbing than I thought. Maybe I am slow on the news. I only found out about this at 1 a.m. last night, and it happened Friday night. Massive preemptive raids on peaceful protesters were conducted by local police in St. Paul, Minneosta, the only city where fire violations have become punishable by death in the event of resistance.

...members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying. Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly.

Video:


Watch yourselves, Jane and Glenn. The people in charge have no problems hurting innocent intellectuals. Be careful, and we will all hope for the best.
I won't miss things like this when I am gone.
I have found a lot more video and details, but it may be an hour or so (evac dial-up cpmmection).

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(I wrote this before I found Glenn's article)
Meanwhile, in suxville,
Reuters:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the city's more than 239,000 residents to evacuate on Sunday in the face of powerful Hurricane Gustav, which he called "the mother of all storms."

Actually, it's just a hurricane, but Mayor Nagin is the drag queen mother of all hypocrites.

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In unrelated news, a British criminal justice professor wrote a paper about cybercrime being exaggerated. He says it's all the doing of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. You see, Cory Doctorow, I told you there's nothing to worry about. People are just goosed over cyber/steam punk.

Placebo

Pure Morning

Did anybody ever believe St. Paul would be a great place to be during the RNC?
Bruce Sterling:

"The 'Welcoming Committee' is a criminal enterprise made up of 35 anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention," said Sheriff Bob Fletcher in a statement. "These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses, breaching venue security and injuring police officers. They have recruited assistance in their criminal conspiracy from other anarchists groups throughout the country. Through their plans and actions they have exhibited a blatant disregard for the law and the safety of others." (((Well, that makes the stakes pretty clear -- looking forward to the "Chicago-8" style hippie show-trial here.)))

Raid.
Dangerous kids, get off my lawn!

Slow Learner

I never saw this coming. Honest. Never. Raid:

"I heard somebody saying, 'They're coming, they're coming!' And feet pounding on the back stairs, pounding on the door saying they had a search warrant. They busted through the door. They've got their guns cocked at people." Sammy Schutz held tightly to five-year-old Gabe, who had been watching a video with his mother and father and about 20 other people when the police stormed into 827 Smith Avenue in St. Paul, ordering everyone down on the floor.

Down here we have Southern hospitality. We bake and serve cookies when the police come. They like them, we like them, no harm, no foul. Also, Santa Claus likes cookies too.