Spring Riot at U Sparks New Questions about 2008 RNC Protest
UPDATE: A facilitated discussion about police brutality will take place at Tent State on the Coffman Union Front Plaza at 3pm on Tuesday.
So the Minnesota Daily as well as Esme Murphy on WCCO are reporting a "Spring Jam Party Riot" last night at the University of Minnesota in Dinkytown. Apparently hundreds of drunken college students were involved. According to news reports, the police responded in riot gear and in force to a bonfire party in the middle of the street. Police fired chemical weapons and rubber bullets into the crowd and into houses, in all probability part of the arsenal left over from the RNC last September. The students threw rocks and glass bottles back at the police. At least seven students were arrested.
More:MN Daily slideshow • MnStories video • Video • Satire: Bro Univ. Radicalization Project (BURP)
How much property damage resulted from last night's spring student "riot"?! Did the damage equal the statutory minimum of one thousand dollars' worth? If that's the case, will the rioters be charged under " Minnesota 's Patriot Act" with "furtherance of terrorism"? Will these college students be also charged with felony assault and threatened with prison sentences of 10 to 15 years?
Who will pay the damages after lawsuits are filed for injuries suffered by students and bystanders hit by police canisters and rubber bullets and from property owners whose homes may have been damaged. Did the Mayor in this case not have the foresight to obtain insurance?
Reflecting back to the RNC, we were told by Ramsey County Sheriff Fletcher that "dangerous anarchists" (not “real college students”) controlled the streets for 2 1/2 hours during the opening hours of the RNC. How many fires did the RNC protesters set? How many rocks and bottles did they throw? How does the property damage at the RNC compare with last night's?
Certainly the authors of the “Heffelfinger-Luger Commission” did not even attempt to answer the questions of how much damage actually occurred at the RNC. Will the media in the Twin Cities do its job to finally answer some of these hard questions?
Sunday, 26 April 2009 17:00
Just so no one misunderstands my points, I am NOT for anyone being charged under "Minnesota's Patriot Act". I've been lobbying the Minnesota Legislature to repeal this ridiculous, post 9-11 law that equates $1000 of property damage with "terrorism". The questions I'm asking stem from the silence thus far by mainstream media as to the RNC "police state" including the mass arrests, use of tasers, pepper spray, and year-long excessive collection of data on peace and social justice groups in the lead-up to the RNC. So far, this has been swept under the rug by mainstream media.
Many of us have actually worried that the police would more readily use the arsenal of (non-lethal) weapons that they acquired for the RNC and still possess. And now it looks like that has just happened. Still there's no response from the media.
Blog Written by Ross Rowley
Repost From: mnPACT!
http://www.mnpact.org/sblog/blog.php?id=1699
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Comments
the local DFL leaders and Political Prosecution
It is the most telling evidence that those arrest before and during the RNC was due to POLITICAL PROSECUTION and not justice.
Arrest the Organizers of Springfest !
Where was Sheriff Fletcher and why didn't he and his goons raid the organizers of Spring Fest a week ago?
This is just shameful..I hope District Attorney Susan Gaertner should be ready to charge the organizers with Conspiracy to Create Riots. And Furtherance of Terrorism...
Look at all the damage. I hope the FBI came out and ATF to make sure there weren’t any bombs planted by the rioters. Where is St. Paul John Choi to handle all the misdemeanors? At least this time they could arrest kids whose parents have money unlike the protesters during the RNC.
Boy, Mayor Coleman must want to shut down the whole campus especially since the students had unregistered fire arms (bonfires).
Broken windows... fires in the street... they could have burned down a whole block.
I hope they arrested all these punks and charge them with Felonies. What did the start they fires with? Molotov Cocktails? I heard those college punks where throwing feces at the cops. Disgusting.. They should throw them in jail and throw away the keys.
They should drop the charges against the RNC protesters who didn’t damage anything so they can handle the cases from these real rioters who did do damage.
Shameful.
testimonies of dinkytown police riot
That's pretty funny. Yet, while its important to point out the disparity between the riot over the weekend in order to point out absurdity of the RNC8 and RNC others' persecution it is still not productive to alienate the students and onlookers who were victims of police brutaltiy. Learn for yourself what hapened from folks that were at what was largely a police riot, join the effor to collect testimonies on the block, meeting tomorrow at 830pm on Wednesday Apr.28th in front of Coffman.
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