Some turn violent in march to GOP convention

[peejay 327]

Some turn violent in march to GOP convention

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. - 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 50 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, clad in black, were operating on the streets in addition to a mostly 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.

Police estimates of the crowd shifted several times during the event, ranging from 2,000 to 10,000. The crowd was clearly in the thousands. Late Monday afternoon, long after the antiwar 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. Authorities didn't have immediate details on the other arrests.

The antiwar 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 dispersed 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 a group called Funk the War noisily staged their own march. Wearing black clothes, bandanas and gas masks, some of their members 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 tear gas.

Protesters put eye drops in each other's eyes after police used chemical irritants such as pepper spray and tear gas. 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."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080902/ap_on_...ention_protests

[Peikko 1,575]

Oh the irony. Blessed be the anarchist pacifist. Idiots.

[Ban Hammer 14,271]

nothing like an anti-war protest turning violent to get the point across.

[dalegg 143]

At this point of the Iraq war, with things going the way they are and Anbar province having been handed back to the Iraqis, are "no more war" and "get out of Iraq now" slogans really appropriate?

What exactly are they hoping to accomplish? Oh yeah there were 3000 protesters out there saying end the war so NOW John McCain will stand up and announce to the delegates that he plans on taking the Republicans in a totally new pacifist direction. 5 years of a steadfast decision through the deadiest times in Iraq putting their political careers in possible peril has not wavered the party and yet now, a couple thousand protesters are going to force them to adopt the position of immediate withdrawl.

What's the matter with me? I'm looking for some logic here.

Edited September 2, 2008 by dalegg

[Dan J 277]

At this point of the Iraq war, with things going the way they are and Anbar province having been handed back to the Iraqis, are "no more war" and "get out of Iraq now" slogans really appropriate?

What exactly are they hoping to accomplish? Oh yeah there were 3000 protesters out there saying end the war so NOW John McCain will stand up and announce to the delegates that he plans on taking the Republicans in a totally new pacifist direction. 5 years of a steadfast decision through the deadiest times in Iraq putting their political careers in possible peril has not wavered the party and yet now, a couple thousand protesters are going to force them to adopt the position of immediate withdrawl.

What's the matter with me? I'm looking for some logic here.

Exercising their right to free speech. I doubt anyone will be particularly influenced by protesters of any kind. Unless you can get a protest of very significant size.

[alienlovechild 75]

Maybe I missed it but what happened to Recreate 68, the Denver "Gitmo" jail, and all the rest at the DNC convention?

[Dan J 277]

Maybe I missed it but what happened to Recreate 68, the Denver "Gitmo" jail, and all the rest at the DNC convention?

They got lost, ended up in St. Paul.

[dalegg 143]

At this point of the Iraq war, with things going the way they are and Anbar province having been handed back to the Iraqis, are "no more war" and "get out of Iraq now" slogans really appropriate?

What exactly are they hoping to accomplish? Oh yeah there were 3000 protesters out there saying end the war so NOW John McCain will stand up and announce to the delegates that he plans on taking the Republicans in a totally new pacifist direction. 5 years of a steadfast decision through the deadiest times in Iraq putting their political careers in possible peril has not wavered the party and yet now, a couple thousand protesters are going to force them to adopt the position of immediate withdrawl.

What's the matter with me? I'm looking for some logic here.

Exercising their right to free speech. I doubt anyone will be particularly influenced by protesters of any kind. Unless you can get a protest of very significant size.

Yeah I know that, and I know they just want to make everyone aware of how they feel, but this seems like quite a lot to go through to say something that's already known if you aren't really expecting to make any difference.

[Ban Hammer 14,271]

Maybe I missed it but what happened to Recreate 68, the Denver "Gitmo" jail, and all the rest at the DNC convention?

They got lost, ended up in St. Paul.

how fitting

[peejay 327]

nothing like an anti-war protest turning violent to get the point across.

I remember the exact same phenomenon during the Vietnam War. Only this go-round we have a voluntary military. Imagine the whining if there was a draft! Rebels without a clue.

I wonder how many of these clowns came to St. Paul in cars fueled by imported oil products? This is the price we pay for importing 70% of our petroleum needs. I wonder how many of these clowns have the intellect to try to solve the root problem rather than to be crude reactionaries? My guess is slim to none of them.

We are not militarily in the Middle East for sh*ts and grins. Our present oil dependence pre-dates GWB and company. It has been in the making for years and years. It just came to a head on his watch. As has most things that ever happen in the USA, pre-planning never happens in a free market capitalist society. Our government operates only in crisis mode. Until it becomes a crisis, there is no problem. Government reacts reather than acts.

Ever try to change the masses' habits without it occurring in crisis mode? Jimmy Carter tried years ago and was laughed at. Imagine the whining if Bush would have attempted to wean America from its oil addiction while it was cheap and plentiful. The Republicans bungled in their efforts to keep the unsustainable sustainable. The fact is we have met the enemy and it is us. GWB is not the anti-Christ in this situation. Did he make you go out and buy that gas hog and the McMansion in the far reaches of suburbia 100 miles from your job? Did he implement policies to add 100 million energy users to our energy dependent population in a mere 30 years?

If you haven't guessed already, we are in Iraq because the region is smack dab in the middle of most of the world's remaining petroleum reserves. And the USA accounts for roughly 25% of world petroleum consumption. Without lots of petroleum bad things happen in the USA. That's a fact.

You figure it out. Apparently the anarchists don't know and could care less anyway. It's just a good excuse to act up and act the fool. What a waste of time and effort that could be put to better use.

[Scott & Lai 12]

At this point of the Iraq war, with things going the way they are and Anbar province having been handed back to the Iraqis, are "no more war" and "get out of Iraq now" slogans really appropriate?

What exactly are they hoping to accomplish? Oh yeah there were 3000 protesters out there saying end the war so NOW John McCain will stand up and announce to the delegates that he plans on taking the Republicans in a totally new pacifist direction. 5 years of a steadfast decision through the deadiest times in Iraq putting their political careers in possible peril has not wavered the party and yet now, a couple thousand protesters are going to force them to adopt the position of immediate withdrawl.

What's the matter with me? I'm looking for some logic here.

Exercising their right to free speech. I doubt anyone will be particularly influenced by protesters of any kind. Unless you can get a protest of very significant size.

Free speech is one thing, violence is quite another.

[IAMX 3,055]

While this is well over the top, we certainly need a polar opposite to the anti-protest group. Only then will there be a middleground than this ridiculous protest cage bullshit at the conventions.

[Scott & Lai 12]

While this is well over the top, we certainly need a polar opposite to the anti-protest group. Only then will there be a middleground than this ridiculous protest cage bullshit at the conventions.

If people would behave like civilized human beings, "protest cages" wouldn't be needed.

[IAMX 3,055]

While this is well over the top, we certainly need a polar opposite to the anti-protest group. Only then will there be a middleground than this ridiculous protest cage bullshit at the conventions.

If people would behave like civilized human beings, "protest cages" wouldn't be needed.

You mean the extreme few?

So does that justify, because of Christian and Muslim bombings in the U.S., that we can ban churches and religion from the U.S.?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Oh the irony. Blessed be the anarchist pacifist. Idiots.

Actually protests are often targetted by extremists so that they have a pretext to start fights.

UK Soccer hooliganism was in part orchestrated by BNP and National Front folks - I heard about it a few years ago. They weren't even going there for the football - just using the event so that different groups could fight each other. Apparently - quite a lot of organisation went into that - via mass email, message boards and text messages to get as many people as possible to show up.