The dim scumbags were planning, but the cops got them first, LOL.  Good
work Twin Cities PD.

Republican National Convention protesters targeted in a series of police
raids Friday night and Saturday said they wouldn't back down from their
plans to march on the convention's opening day.

Organizers have said they hope to attract up to 50,000 people to the
protest Monday.

Four people were arrested at two Minneapolis homes and booked on
probable cause of conspiracy to commit a riot, said Gina Berglund, an
attorney helping to represent protesters. There were no arrests at a
third home targeted. Later, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office said a
fifth person was arrested at an undisclosed location.

"A lot of people in the activist community are really on pins and
needles about who's next," Berglund said.

A fourth home, this one in St. Paul, was raided Saturday afternoon. Two
people were detained outside the home in handcuffs for about two hours
before St. Paul police arrived with a search warrant. St. Paul police
spokesman Tom Walsh could not confirm whether anyone had been arrested.

Eileen Clancy, one of the founders of a New York City video collective
called I-Witness Video, sent an e-mail saying she was inside the house
and was told she couldn't leave while police waited for a search
warrant. Clancy said an employee of the collective -- whose Web site
says it uses video to protect civil liberties -- was being held outside
the house in handcuffs.

On Friday night, Ramsey County sheriff's deputies raided an organizing
site of a group -- the RNC Welcoming Committee -- that has publicized
plans to disrupt convention activities. No one was arrested.

"They will not crush our spirit," said protester Lisa Fithian from
Austin, Texas, at a gathering of about 300 people in a Minneapolis park
Saturday afternoon. "Our organization will continue. We will be on the
streets."

Dave Thune, a St. Paul city councilman whose district includes the
theater building used as a hub for the protesters, denounced the raid,
saying people had a legal right to assemble there.

"We spent so much time trying to welcome people to the city and now this
is the way we start out," he said. "It pretty much sucks."

Arresting people on conspiracy charges to pre-empt disruptions is
troubling because it stops people from exercising free-speech rights,
said Chuck Samuelson, executive director of ACLU in Minnesota. He said
he was also concerned about the broad scope of the search warrant. ACLU
attorneys were monitoring the arrests, Samuelson said.

In a statement, Sheriff Bob Fletcher said authorities moved to head off
planned illegal acts.

"These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses,
breaching venue security and injuring police officers," Fletcher said.

"Our investigation solely focuses on one group. The RNC Welcoming
Committee," said Fletcher standing infront of items recovered in raids.
"There are 35 members of this committee. Our targets are the leaders of
this group. We are not interested in other groups protesting civilly in
any way, shape or form. That is not our interest."

The RNC Welcoming Committee, a self-described
anarchist/anti-authoritarian group, has worked to help other protest
groups with food and housing, but has also strategized to map roadways,
bridges and access points to aid in disruptive protests.

Jordan Kushner, head of the mass defense committee of the National
Lawyers Guild's Minnesota chapter, denied that criminal activity was
being planned.

"They took away all their means of communication, so that they can't
engage in legitimate political expression," Kushner said. "This is
police state harassment and spying."

The sheriff's office said it confiscated weapons on Saturday including a
machete, hatchet and several throwing knives, empty glass bottles, rags
and flammable liquids, homemade devices used to disable buses, metal
pipes, axes, bolt cutters, sledge hammers, empty plastic buckets made
into shields, an Army helmet, and large amounts of urine.

Protesters said deputies also seized materials including laptops,
protest literature and sign-making materials, bus schedules and a
topographical map of St. Paul, site of Xcel Energy Center, the
convention hall.

Betsy Raasch-Gilman, a member of the RNC Welcoming Committee, said St.
Paul officials decided to allow the building raided Friday to reopen.

"We'll be using our space again," she said. "It's quite a significant
victory and it shows the sheriff's department way overstepped last
night."

On Saturday, Randi McClure stood outside one of the raided homes where
three people were arrested. Residents were forced to move out and told
it was being boarded up for undisclosed building code violations, she
said.

"Where's their evidence? What are they doing? Obviously they're just
trying to disrupt the protests," said McClure, 23, who was in the house
at the time of the raid.

Walsh, the St. Paul police spokesman, said city officers helped the
county carry out a search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal
investigation.

"We've known all along that there are people coming to our city who are
not planning to conduct themselves in a lawful manner," Walsh said.
"This is an affirmation of that."

Those arrested were Monica Bicking, 23, Eryn Trimmer, 23, Garrett
Fitzgerald, 25, Nathanael Secor, 26, and Erik Oseland, 21. Nestor, one
of their attorneys, said Bicking, Trimmer and Fitzgerald all are from
Minneapolis. It wasn't immediately known where Secor or Oseland were
from.
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Really? What, they are doing their best to get the best candidate
elected. The Republicans did the exact same thing. Your baseless
attacks against the Democrats are getting old. However, one can see
right through them like a window.

Jeff

Moron. The Republicans do the exact same thing. Either party would be stupid
not to, considering the swift boat tactics of the past two elections.

The GOP had a war room in Denver last week.

as opposed to you, a classy piece of sh.t? Is it possible that when they win
in November, you will drag your sad bag of bones into a corner and stop
posting your crap?   No, I guess not.   You're getting way beyond tedious
with all the crap you exude.