Minneapolis police made a lot of 'pre-emptive' arrests this week; can't let them poor Republicans be harassed by the lower classes, you know. Too traumatic for them to have deal with the rabble without Daddy's onsite corporate security there, I guess. Didn't read about any at Denver, but I'm sure there were some.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/
But hey, it's a lot easier to conduct mass arrests of legal citizens than maybe arresting at least a handful of illegal aliens the same Feds have been ignoring for a couple of decades. Everybody knows those vegans are far more dangerous than Al Quada or Mexican street gang members, right? ...
So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and pro-*test*-('")ers who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone. And it's not difficult to see why. As the recent "overhaul" of the 30-year-old FISA law illustrated -- preceded by the endless expansion of surveillance state powers, justified first by the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror -- we've essentially decided that we want our Government to spy on us without limits. There is literally no police power that the state can exercise that will cause much pro-*test*-('") from the political and media class and, therefore, from the citizenry.
Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they've done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our "freedoms" in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic -- but we've decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it's therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them.
After all, if you don't want the FBI spying on you, or the Police surrounding and then invading your home with rifles and seizing your computers, there's a very simple solution: don't pro-*test*-('") the Government. Just sit quietly in your house and mind your own business. That way, the Government will have no reason to monitor what you say and feel the need to intimidate you by invading your home. Anyone who decides to pro-*test*-('") -- especially with something as unruly and disrespectful as an unauthorized street march -- gets what they deserve.
Isn't it that mentality which very clearly is the cause of virtually everyone turning away as these police raids escalate against citizens -- including lawyers, journalists and activists -- who have broken no laws and whose only crime is that they intend vocally to pro-*test*-('") what the Government is doing? Add to that the fact that many good establishment liberals are embarrassed by leftist pro-*test*-('")ers of this sort and wish that they would remain invisible, and there arises a widespread consensus that these Government attacks are perfectly tolerable if not desirable.
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Local prosecutors brought felony charges against 21 people for pro-*test*-('")ing the Republican National Convention, and federal prosecutors announced that they have charged another man with possessing explosives he said were intended to bomb tunnels under the convention site.
Demonstrations this week have been the most violent at a national party convention in recent memory, with pro-*test*-('")ers smashing windows, slashing tires, throwing bags of urine and excrement and physically confronting Republican delegates in the streets.
Local authorities say much of the activity is linked to the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee, a self-proclaimed anarchist group that released a statement Wednesday saying it was motivated by a range of issues, from the cost of the Iraq war to what it called inaction on global warming. The violence overshadowed a number of peaceful demonstrations, including an antiwar march that attracted a crowd of about 10,000 people.
Police are still looking to arrest one member of the group on charges of conspiring to riot. He and others attended two training retreats for 150 to 200 people, according to a criminal complaint. The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office infiltrated the group with an undercover officer and a paid informant
liberals throwing a temper tantrum
So, they mostly pre-emptively arrested the wrong people, as usual. They're pro-*test*-('")ing at the R convention, so of course they are all the same group ...
The violence overshadowed a number of peaceful demonstrations, including an antiwar march that attracted a crowd of about 10,000 people.
Meanwhile, they can't seem to find MS-13 gangsters, Russian Mafya thugs, Nigerian scam artists, and few hundred thousand career criminals, just claim some vegan was a threat because he might throw rotten cabbages at a Republican organized crime figure on their way into a national crime syndicate meeting to choose the next Godfather. And, after the 'Convention' is over, we will get to read about 99% of the charges being dropped on page 34 of the B section of the paper.
Do all the MS-13 gangsters, Russian Mafya thugs, Nigerian scam artists, and few hundred thousand career criminals put out news releases telling of their plans and asking for volunteers?
