Local Activists Stand in Support of Midwest FBI Raid Targets

Some twenty local concerned citizens turned out in the rain September 27 to stand in support of Midwestern activists raided and harassed by the FBI the previous Friday. Besides the weather, the low turnout was largely due to the fact that the rally was organized on very short notice. The raids did not occur until most reporters had gone home for the weekend and reporting was sparse.

Six homes and offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota and two in Chicago, Illinois were raided. No one was arrested but phones, computers, papers and even children's art work were taken. The targeted groups were opposed to various US policies ranging from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to Israel and Columbia's military dictatorship. Animal rights and environmental activists were targeted as well.

When asked which group was in charge of the rally, demonstrators answered “no one” we're just angry citizens. Several carried signs with updated versions of Reverend Martin Niemoller's “First They Came” poem, which described the Nazi's rise to power.

First they came for the farm workers

and no one spoke up

Then they came for the unions

I didn't speak

Then they came for the Muslims

I didn't speak out

Then they came for me

there was no one left to speak

Some compared the situation to the McCarthy era of the 1950's. To others it is just the Obama administration ratcheting up oppressions that were begun under Bush. But this was supposed to be the administration of Hope and Change? What happened? When candidate Obama was asked “If he were alive today, where would Dr Martin Luther King be in your administration?” Obama's reply was: “Out in the street holding this administration accountable.” Another rally will be held in front of the Federal Building on Wednesday, September 29 at 5:00pm. Let's get out in the street and hold this administration accountable.