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Back to Story - Help Some turn violent in GOP convention protests By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
Demonstrations near the Republican National Convention site turned violent Monday, as protesters harassed some delegates, smashed windows, slashed car tires and threw bottles. Police using pepper spray arrested more than 250 people.
The trouble happened not far from the Xcel Energy Center convention site where the GOP was starting its four-day meeting. And many of those involved in the more violent activities identified themselves to reporters as anarchists. These protesters, some clad in black, were operating on the streets in addition to a peaceful anti-war march, wreaking havoc by damaging property and setting at least one fire. Most of the trouble was in pocket of a neighborhood near downtown, several blocks from where the convention was taking place.
The main anti-war march was peaceful, police said, estimating about 10,000 people participated. Late Monday afternoon, long after the anti-war marchers had dispersed, police requested and got 150 Minnesota National Guard soldiers to help control splinter groups near downtown.
Members of the Connecticut delegation said they were attacked by protesters when they got off their bus near the Xcel Center, KMSP-TV reported. Delegate Rob Simmons told the station that a group of protesters came toward his delegation and tried to rip the credentials off their necks and sprayed them with a toxic substance that burned their eyes and stained their clothes.
One 80-year-old member of the delegation had to be treated for injuries, and several other delegates had to rinse their eyes and clothing, the station reported.
Five people were arrested for lighting a trash bin on fire and pushing it into a police car, St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said.
Of the arrestees, 119 faced possible felony charges, authorities said.
At least four journalists were among those detained, including Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke and Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, a nationally syndicated public radio and TV news program. Goodman was intervening on behalf of two producers for her program, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, when she was arrested, said Mike Burke, another producer.
St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said Rourke was held on a gross misdemeanor riot charge. Goodman was arrested on a misdemeanor charge, Ramsey County sheriff's spokeswoman Holli Drinkwine said. Neither Walsh nor Drinkwine had information on the other two journalists.
The anti-war march was organized by a group called the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, whose leaders said they hoped for a peaceful, family friendly event. But police were on high alert after months of preparations by a self-described anarchist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee, which wasn't among the organizers of the march.
About 20 people dressed in black tried to block a key intersection. Police quickly broke up the group, then shot two tear gas canisters at them as the fled.
Pictures taken by Associated Press photographers showed officers using pepper spray on people who appeared to be trying to block streets.
Up to 200 people from various groups marched in a noisy "Funk the War" march. Wearing black clothes, bandanas and gas masks, some individuals smashed windows of cars and stores. They tipped over newspaper boxes, pulled a big trash bin into the street, bent the rearview mirrors on a bus and flipped heavy stone garbage bins on the sidewalks.
One member of the group carried a yellow flag with the motto "Don't Tread on Me." The group chanted: "Whose streets? Our streets!"
At one point, people pushed a trash bin filled with trash and threw garbage in the streets and at cars. They also took down orange detour road signs. One of them used a screwdriver to puncture the back tire of a limousine waiting at an intersection and threw a wooden board at the vehicle, denting its side. Another hurled a glass bottle at a charter bus that had stopped at an intersection. The bottle smashed into pieces but didn't appear to damage the bus.
After the official march ended, police spent hours dispersing smaller groups of protesters, employing officers on horses, smoke bombs and pepper spray.
Protesters put eye drops in each other's eyes after police used chemical irritants. Some wore bandanas and masks to protect themselves.
Protesters were seen lying on an interstate exit ramp to block traffic in downtown St. Paul and linking arms to block other roads.
Terry Butts, a former Alabama Supreme Court justice who is a convention delegate, was on a bus taking delegates to the arena when a brick through the window sprayed glass on him and two others. Butts said he wasn't hurt.
"It just left us a little shaken," he said. "It was sort of a frightening moment because it could have been a bomb or a Molotov cocktail."
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Associated Press writers Ryan J. Foley, Martiga Lohn and Jon Krawczynski in St. Paul and Desiree Hunter in Montgomery, Ala., contributed to this report.
Posts: 6008 | From: phoenix az | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by SeekingFreedom: Yep, good to know the peace loving Dems are out in force.
Respect and peaceful communication...blah, blah, blah...
Did you bother to read the article? "The main anti-war march was peaceful, police said, estimating about 10,000 people participated. Late Monday afternoon, long after the anti-war marchers had dispersed, police requested and got 150 Minnesota National Guard soldiers to help control splinter groups near downtown."
Because according to what I read the peace loving Dem's anti war march was peaceful but the anacrist group caused the problems.
Damn, what good fortune that a small group causing problems makes it appear that all anti war protester's, nothing I read calling them all DEM's, were at fault. Do you really think that only Dem's are against the war?
Posts: 3255 | From: Los Angeles California | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Then, too, wallymac, it makes you wonder if the troublemakers were homeless street riff-raff hired by the RNC in Birmingham and Nashville and bussed to the convention site to cause trouble and get in the news doing so like they did in the 2000 election in the recount.
Of course he didn't read the article, wallymac. And PM doesn't think; he only regurgitates the vile he's fed by the far right. Rationality holds no sway in their political hatred.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
The Dorothy Day center (homeless shelter) is directly accross the street from Xcel..Downtown st.paul is not one of the nicest areas to visit at night.
-------------------- jordan Posts: 5812 | From: st paul,mn | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Up to 200 people from various groups marched in a noisy "Funk the War" march. Wearing black clothes, bandanas and gas masks, some individuals smashed windows of cars and stores. They tipped over newspaper boxes, pulled a big trash bin into the street, bent the rearview mirrors on a bus and flipped heavy stone garbage bins on the sidewalks.
Funk the War is by a group called Students for a Democratic Society. Here a link from their website:
As Students for a Democratic Society, we will launch a project of renewal and reinvention. We will renew the Left reinvent the way we organize. We will make our organization useful, accessible and intersectional. We will make our organization relevant to people’s lived experiences, easily understood and widely applicable, and aware of the complexity and interconnectedness of peoples’ struggles.
If you continue to read through the About Us page, most of what they talk about sound strikingly familiar as it is echoing recent Democratic leaders speaches.
Add that to the fact that they didn't riot at the DNC (which has as many leaders that voted for the war in Iraq:Biden, Clinton, etc) and you can guess why I would believe that they are Democratic Party leaning.
Posts: 1802 | From: Utah | Registered: Mar 2008
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Video: Raw Video: Pepper Spray Used on DNC Protestors AssociatedPress
the anarchists are the ones that stand acused of starting mischief in MN so far..
of course it wasn't as much rioting as limbugger had been hoping for tho:
Rush Limbaugh 'Dreaming' Of Riots In Denver Talk Show Host Wants America To See Actions Of 'Far Left'
POSTED: 11:37 am MDT April 24, 2008 UPDATED: 3:24 pm MDT April 25, 2008
DENVER -- Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments that appear to call for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.
"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during Wednesday's radio broadcast. He then went on to say that's the best thing that could happen to the country.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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Really? Because no story that I've been able to find about the scirmish at the DNC lists the SDS or the Funk the War March.
I'm not saying that noone rioted at the DNC, the RNC Welcoming Committee's website lists themselves and being against both Parties.
And a couple of people getting pepper sprayed doesn't really equate to groups of people valadizing local property of innocent bystanders.
Posts: 1802 | From: Utah | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
it wouldn't surprise me at all if the people that did all the destruction weren't hired by the agents of the RNC to make news... and before you scoff at that? it's happened before.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
For those old enough to remember the civil rights movement and the Viet Nam War which is what actually brought out the SDS and allowed it to flourish, anyone trying to define the SDS as an element of the democratic party sounds beyond foolish and decidedly ignorant.
Just who do you think began and led the movement that culminated in Nixon getting in the White House?
The SDS today is hardly a ghost of its former self, otherwise they would have stomped repeatedly on the current administration long ago for its lies used to justify invading another sovereign and innocent (of the charges used) nation.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: it wouldn't surprise me at all if the people that did all the destruction weren't hired by the agents of the RNC to make news... and before you scoff at that? it's happened before.
"it's happened before."
Yep, and we called it some of Nixon's dirty tricks.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: it wouldn't surprise me at all if the people that did all the destruction weren't hired by the agents of the RNC to make news... and before you scoff at that? it's happened before.
And I will even go so far as to agree that it IS possible. However, it's a leap of logic that has far less support than my assumption that the leaders (SDS) of the march (Funk the War) that encompased the violent rioters were involved with or endorsed the violence.
Posts: 1802 | From: Utah | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
Who do you think those violent protesters would vote for if they did? Not a hard one to figure out!
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Looks that way Glass just another little wimp that the dems can do with out and they will pretty soon.
Posts: 6008 | From: phoenix az | Registered: Mar 2005
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