TC Indymedia Roundup #8: Minnesota's sprawling security state highlighted in documentary, Mall of America intelligence reports
As the 'Great Recession' deepens in Minnesota, the bankers' friends in our growing security state keep intensifying their reach and ambition. Public media outlets reflecting on the paranoid decade since 9/11 have distributed several narratives showing the system's strange operations: "Better This World," a documentary covering the 'Texas Two' 2008 Republican National Convention aired on tpt Tuesday night (TCIMC is hosting a screening on Sept. 14th as well - optional RSVP for The Nicollet). The Mall of America's "counter-terrorism" fusion center reports (collected by CIR) triggering FBI investigations also got coverage on MPR, Salon, and PBS NewsHour Wednesday.
TC Indymedia has closely covered the railroading of the Texas Two, as well as the Mall of America's special Suspicious Activity Report program linked to the MnJAC fusion center. (also the Minnesota Independent has followed MOA's program) One MnJAC report related to MOA & the Republican National Convention listed 11 suspected... 'suspicious' people.
Local activist projects & events are buzzing like cicadas into the fall: One major observation from the summer government shutdown was the difficulty with childcare. Now activists are responding with more education and organizing. Minneapolis Childcare Collective can be reached at childcare@riseup.net. A Radfam discussion about family planning and reproductive justice is happening Sept 16 at the Minnehaha Free Space (Radfam info) , while an EXCO-TC class on radical parenting is scheduled for Sept 21st.
Second Annual TC Anarchist Book Fair is around the corner! From Sept 16th to 18th at Powderhorn Park. For more info: TCAnarchist.org.
Stronger United Conference vs police brutality: Communities United Against Police Brutality is hosting a conference with quite a few workshops during Sept 23-25th. Volunteers can attend for free! Police brutality continues with more needless deaths and state violence in the drug war as a trooper kills Minnesota woman fleeing drug bust. Debra Doree, 48, was shot by a State Patrol officer on I-94, and Drug War Chronicle believes Debra was the 34th person killed in police drug operations this year.
Free CeCe: The community is organizing to support Chrishaun "CeCe" McDonald, a young, black trans woman attacked on June 5th, arrested and held after one of her attackers was stabbed and died. At the Hennepin Co. Govt Center there will be a rally Sept. 12th at 12:30pm & her next hearing is at 1:30. More info at Support CeCe.
A year since FBI raids: The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is organizing a series of events this month - with an anniversary event on Sept. 24th. They are sending out mailings on Sept. 10th and Carlos Montes events on Sept 23rd & 28th.
Leslie Parks wins fight to keep her home! After a long and bitter conflict with the parasitic banking industry, Leslie Parks finally got a decent mortgage on her home. A concerted community effort including Committee for a People's Bailout was able to help Parks simply hang onto her own home. Two years ago TCIMC produced a video featuring Parks' work to keep her home. [Corporate news video]
Last SHAC7 prisoner released: Welcomed back to freedom by his Twin Cities friends in early August, Kevin Kjonaas served four years and nine months of a six-year sentence, director of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. According to Voices of the Voiceless, Kjonaas can be reached at 2825 E. Lake St, Mpls.
You are the Media! Publish more news and events to Indymedia yourself at tc.indymedia.org/publish. More local & national actions & protests below the fold!
Whose University? The campaign/formerly film project deconstructing race & class privilege at the University of Minnesota has been moving along. A Trailer for WhoseU was posted Sept 6. For the new academic year, Whose U? asks whom does the massive competition for the entering class really serve? [WU? on FB]
Post-Civ book underway: subsectpress (blog) has announced a Post-Civilization Book Project, and they're looking for creative contributors. Follow on Twitter.
24th Annual Hempfest: On another front against the drug war MN NORML hosts Hempfest on Sept 17th on the rather well-surveilled plaza between the Hennepin County Government Center and Minneapolis City Hall.
Downtown Improvement District contractors blocked from stealing bike: TC Indymedia volunteer Melissa Hill prevented Downtown Improvement District contractors from stealing her bike by quickly recording them in the act. Quick video work forced DID to respond, generating wider news coverage and raising awareness of the creeping authoritarianism of public-private partnerships as well as the downtown social control/gentrification agenda which lies behind DID's actions. [CityPages]
Bush in town Sept 21st: The rather low-profile former president will be in the Cities Sept 21st.
Goodhue County commissioners pass fracking sand mining moratorium: Bluestem Prairie notes public opposition to mining Minnesota's unique silica sand for fracking has resulted in a county moratorium against mining -- the proposed site has many homes nearby and pollution risks are deemed unclear by the locals.
National protests set for September & October: In Chicago on Oct 8th & in Washington on Oct 6th [October2011.org] protests are set inspired by actions earlier this year from Egypt to Wisconsin. Also an "Occupy Wall Street" proposed occupation is scheduled for Sept. 17th.
Bike path finder: A new site & Android app called cyclopath can determine safe & recommended Twin Cities bike routes & pathways.
Authoritarian Hollywood take on Minnesota: Biological disaster film "Contagion" paints Minnesota as diseased, lawless land of martial law after an outbreak. Unfortunately, portrays Minnesotans as panicky simpletons incapable of mutual aid. The solution offered? Vaccines & domestic militarism!
Watch Out Texas, FBI's Darby sets up TX "Citizen Patriot" group: Disturbingly, notorious FBI provocateur Brandon Darby has set up a group called "Citizen Patriot Response". It seems like an eerie Cointelpro clone of the new group of libertarian/voluntaryist activists who recently started the Lone Star Sovereign Mutual Aid Response Team (SMART).
Rybak didn't get DNC, but gets other DNC: We were spared the nightmare of another national convention but Politico reports he will become a Democratic National Committee vice chairman. Presumably he'll advise the Dems to ignore the bad news (as he did to young people in a Vita.mn feature recently) and stick with his pro-bank, pro-war-on-drugs & pro-centralized control policies.
TCIMC Spam Report: Twin Cities Indymedia would certainly have preferred not to use a small third-party CAPTCHA service, Mollom, to block incoming spam, but our site is constantly attacked by spammers almost 24/7. The following chart shows three incidents this summer where spammers tried to hit our site with more than four thousand spam posts in a day.
Unfortunately we can't fight that scale of attack on our own! However upon request, TCIMC can set any account that belongs to a real person or organization to bypass Mollom entirely. We have also tightened the use of other tags to deter the 'bugging' of posts with off-site embedded image tags.
Also our new server is working pretty well but has some quirks yet -- please let us know via the contact form if problems persist for longer than 10 or 15 minutes.
Pittsburgh win on right to photograph police: The crackdown on photographers finally got a bit of resistance in a Pittsburgh case, as a University of Pittsburgh police officer settles for damages in a lawsuit brought by ACLU-PA over a recording made on Elijah Matheny's cell phone containing a detention & questioning of his friend. This is a major concern in Illinois as well. [ACLU press release] [Photography is not a crime blog]
Bioweapons blast from the past: General Mills put their milling expertise to work in order to develop bio-weapons in the 1960s. (think finely milled doom powders) According to the book "Germs" General Mills built a 'line-source disseminator' to spray deadly mists from aircraft, but unfortunately one of the book's authors is discredited former NYT reporter Judith Miller.
What else would you like to see more info about? You're the media -- publish or contact us with story leads!