Photos from RNC Torture street theatre

Thanks to Al who took these. See the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/RochesterAgainstWar/ProtestOfRepressionAtCon...

Also, see the announcement for the action:

Eh. Torture happens.
It doesn’t affect you until it does.
Street theatre for the soul

Shit happens. Slavery happens. Sweatshops happen. War happens. Child exploitation happens. And now, Torture happens. Well, to be honest, torture’s been around for a while and has taken on many shapes and sizes in order to make its use “ok”. So, not wanting to be outdone, we decided to dress torture up for you—much like the Bush administration and numerous Democrat and Republican administrations before his— but with glitter and bright colors! The state, regardless of which party is in power, shapes the law to dole out terror and torture with impunity, but have they made torture glam? We think not. Today, that changes.

Are we poking fun at a serious situation? We don’t think so. Well, maybe a little. We think that color and humor are necessary for survival. Without poking fun at the seriousness of what was witnessed and experienced in both Denver at the Democratic National Convention (Why does REAL HOPE need a $50 million dollar security budget?) and especially in St. Paul at the Republican National Convention where residents and demonstrators were treated as enemy combatants, we would be crying and screaming. And we’re still crying and screaming, regardless.

The audio you’re most likely hearing is from the streets of St. Paul where police brutalized nonviolent demonstrators, the Mayor’s office of St. Paul where a legal team attempting to speak with the mayor was disrupted by riot police, and finally from Elliot Hughes, 19, who was tortured while in jail for exercising his 1st Amendment rights.

Our Demands:
1) Drop all charges against RNC demonstrators, organizers, and journalists!
2) An immediate investigation into the police tactics of intimidation, excessive force and torture within the jail during the RNC
3) Hold law enforcement officers and city administrations criminally accountable for torture, brutality, and harassment in the jails and on the streets of every city in this country
4) End the criminalization of dissent; cease the surveillance and targeting of activist groups
5) De-fund police and federal law enforcement agencies

Rochester organizers, activists, journalists, and anarchists who attended the RNC protests returned with chilling accounts (and video footage) of totalitarian state tactics and strategy practiced by local and national law enforcement agencies in the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN.

We are outraged at the blatant use of terror against domestic populations exercising their 1st Amendment rights. Our demands are bigger than St. Paul and Minneapolis because these tactics are used against marginalized communities in our own city and cities around the country and the world every day. We feel it is important to exercise our rights in solidarity with the unjust arrests and prosecutions of those that attended both the DNC and the RNC, as well as to draw linkages between the repression and terror felt in those cities with the terror felt by communities here who are targeted by policies like zero tolerance and constant police surveillance. No one should have to live their life in constant fear.

Background:

At the 2008 Republican National Convention in St Paul, MN, federal and local police agencies systematically used terror against thousands of people who had gathered to protest the policies of the Republican administration.

By the time John McCain gave his acceptance speech on September 4, over 320 people had been arrested and another 300-350 people were in the process of being arrested in the streets of St. Paul. Demonstrators were held in Ramsey Country Jail--a site protected by military personnel with high-power assault rifles--where numerous accounts of torture, brutality, and refusal to give medical attention to demonstrators were documented. Thousands more were subjected to “pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists,” according to Democracy Now!, three of whose journalists, including Amy Goodman, were arrested.

The military/police presence, coordinated by 30 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, represented the agents behind a systematic campaign of government terror and harassment against not only those who would exercise their rights but the residents of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Ironically, the state's justification for such measures was quite Orwellian: “national security” and the “war on terror.”

Significantly, “anti-terrorism” laws have been deployed to further stifle dissent. Eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee, an anarchist/anti-authoritarian group that acted as a clearing house of information, handled logistics, did outreach and education in preparation for the RNC, were charged with "Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism," according to Bruce Nestor, President of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. "The criminal complaints filed by the Ramsey County Attorney do not allege that any of the defendants personally have engaged in any act of violence or damage to property. The complaints list all of alleged violations of law during the last few days of the RNC -- other than violations of human rights carried out by law enforcement -- and seeks to hold the 8 defendants responsible for acts committed by other individuals. None of the defendants have any prior criminal history involving acts of violence. Searches conducted in connection with the raids failed to turn up any physical evidence to support the allegations of organized attacks on law enforcement," he stated.

Writing before the RNC even got started, Glenn Greenwald observed on Salon.com, “Just review what happened yesterday and today. Homes of college-age protesters were raided by rifle-wielding police forces. Journalists were forcibly detained at gunpoint. Lawyers on the scene to represent the detainees were handcuffed. Computers, laptops, journals, diaries and political pamphlets were seized from people's homes. And all of this occurred against U.S. citizens without a single act of violence having taken place, and nothing more than traffic blockage even alleged by authorities to have been planned.”

For more information, please check:
Twin Cities Indymedia: http://twincities.indymedia.org/
RNC Welcoming Committee: http://www.nornc.org/
ColdSnap Legal Collective: http://coldsnaplegal.wordpress.com/
National Lawyers Guild – Minnesota Chapter: http://www.nlgminnesota.org/
I-Witness Video: http://iwitnessvideo.info/
Colorado Indymedia: http://colorado.indymedia.org/
Rochester Indymedia: http://rochester.indymedia.org/
U.S. Indymedia: http://indymedia.us/en/index.shtml
Glass Bead Collective: http://www.glassbeadcollective.org/
Mobile Broadcast News: http://mobilebroadcastnews.com/