evidence

[TCIMC note 12/17: The report didn't come out, but we haven't seen it's absence reported in the mainstream media yet. The buzz at Ramsey County Courthouse on Wednesday was that the report would not be released until after the holidays, in January. RNC '08 Report is still cataloging people's submissions to the commission.]

[TCIMC note 12/14 5PM: We have heard a rumor the Heffelfinger/Luger RNC Public Safety Review Commission may fail to release their report on Monday, Dec. 15 as mandated. Plz send more RNC-related materials into TC Indymedia & RNC '08 Report.]

Just a few days after the RNC dust settled, it was announced that the City of St. Paul hired former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger and former assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Luger to review police plans and how they were carried out during the Republican National Convention.

What became immediately clear was that the independent review would not be a fact-finding mission to explore allegations of police wrongdoing or violations of people's rights but a look at the City's security plan, how it was implemented, and whether it reflected what Heffelfinger described as "best practices" (Star Tribune, September 9th, 2008).

BURIED TAPE REVEALS USE OF FORCE AND AN UNWARRANTED MASS ARREST OF BYSTANDERS DURING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (September 18, 2008) ? Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month?s Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.

More than eight hundred people were arrested in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. This video shows that at least twenty percent of the eight hundred plus arrested were seized without due cause.

To view the video: http://blip.tv/file/1274115
or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmQrWTRAZmA&fmt=6
Broadcast quality h264: http://glassbeadcollective.org/rnc/LaborDayInThePark_sd.mov
(Also featured @ firedoglake & Minnesota Independent)

--Video produced by Glassbead Collective w. support from Twin Cities Indymedia--

This document is five years old, but it does provide the roadmap for the criminalization of dissent - in particular the part about how demonstrators may use the Internet to expose police brutality is quite interesting. (additionally the concept of 'law enforcement circles' as a restricted clique of privileged intelligence is also interesting.)

Please post all further evidence and documents to TC Indymedia which might be relevant to building a further understanding of how the police policy was carried out, and what the federal role in all this was.