Over 800 Arrested In St Paul During RNC

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/05

On the final day of the Republican convention, 396 people were arrested by police in St. Paul, Minnesota. The unofficial count of people arrested during the entire convention is 818 protesters, 8 of which have already been charged with conspiracy charges. Among them are staff memebers for Democracy Now Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, and Nicole Salazar. These three were illegally arrested and charged with conspiracy to riot. They were released soon afterwards, however many other protesters may not be as lucky.

In a country where people are supposedly free to express themselves, one has to wonder why so many were arrested. There was an estimated 50,000 protesters supposedly in St. Paul for the convention, and the police have been doing everything in their power to subdue the movement. For nearly 1,000 to be arrested(that's about 1% of all protesters there) that means protesters had a 1 in 1oo chance of being arrested for SPEAKING THEIR MINDS. It is one thing to hold a violent demonstration. It is entirely another to march peacefully down the street and pulled off to be detained and/or beaten by officers bought and paid for by bi-partisan officials.

In comparison, let's see what happened at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. There was only 152 arrest there, ranging in various reasons such as from obstructing police to throwing stones(possibly warranting assault/vandalism charges, perhaps). Many of those came on Monday, however it is worthy to note that only 10 people were arrested on the final day. This means that the Democrats consider people 8 times less dangerous than their Republican counterparts. Also of note is the ABC Reporter arrested while taking pictures of an undisclosed Democratic politician inside of a hotel from the sidewalk. The sidewalk was claimed as private property and the journalist was charged with tresspassing and interference. However, he was not the only journalist on the sidewalk at the time, and hopes the charges will be dropped when the video of the arrest is shown in court. This also means that as a journalist you are 3 times more likely to be arrested at a Republican convention as opposed to a Democratic one.

It is no big surprise that telling the truth will offend people who are unwilling to believe it. Perhaps that is the point of being truthful- to anger people so much until you are willing to do something about it. Throughout all the political pandering about change and putting the country first, not much is changing. People are still being arrested for trying to tell the truth, and the liars are trying to protect their interests in control and power. What they are forgetting is that power without the ability to control the people you wield it over is as useless as a dulled sword in battle. The more people are jailed over bi-partisan protests, the more alienated the populous will feel.

However, there are still supporters of this old style of "do as I say, not as I do" politics. The older generation from a simpler era of doing things is so set in it's ways that it cannot see the folly of their actions. It is considered a personal attack to attack their positions on politics because being on this Earth longer than the new generation makes them wiser. This is not the case in point. One cannot shy away from the undercurrent of change this country's youth is beginning to cause. They are sick of the stranglehold the conservatives have held on the country for the past 8 years. As they watched the country spiral from economic superpower to lame duck, they are, along with middle class families are, among the hardest hit from failed policies. They protest because they can no longer take it anymore, and neither can the rest of America.

If there are any protesters reading this blog, wear your bruises and scars with pride. For they may hurt now, eventually they will heal. However, the impact you have made in St. Paul and in Denver cannot and will not be forgotten. I encourage you to continue to stand against the tide of corruption and deception, as I promise to continue to lend my support.

EDIT: Thank you Current News for airing this topic on TV. I hope that this blog and that story encourage more people to get out and protest, or at least raise awareness of police brutality against non-violent protesters. I have posted the video above which contains the broadcast in which it aired.

-A Seeker Of Truth.