This message is aimed at you if you…:

• want to participate in the alternative media coverage of the biggest story in Minnesota in recent years, and…
• …are going to be somewhere near the convention, or, alternatively
• …you are going to be nowhere near the convention at all.

Here’s the deal: if you have a video cam, a still cam, or even just a cell phone, we want you to keep your eyes open. While some of them strenuously deny it, others among the protesters, out of adolescent posturing or out of malice, plan on trying to disrupt the convention and making life that week a very difficult for Twin Citians; “we want to make poeple in the Twin Cities understand what life’s like in Baghdad”, said my co-panelist on MPR’s “In The Loop” past year. We want to keep an eye on our city, so it looks the same as it did before they turned up. Which, if you live and pay taxes and send your kids to school here, should be a non-partisan thing.

So if you’re in the Twin Cities the week of the convention, here’s what we’d like you to do: Watch for:

• People gathering on off ramps or overpasses. Word has it that, since the venue itself is going to be pretty secure, they’re going to be aiming to shut down traffic to keep delegates from getting to the convention.
• People walking away from cars.
• People wearing green hats [they’re part of the ACLU legal team, and they can be expected at all protester “events”, looking for lawsuit fodder]
• Guys with purple armbands who have videos cameras.
• Piles of bikes. Bike thefts in the Twin Cities are way up in recent weeks; there’s evidence that “protest” groups are gathering bikes to use as cheap, traffic-proof transportation.
• Groups of people away from parade routes.
• Piles of stuff that could be used to block traffic.

With that in mind – as we get closer to the convention, we at True North will be publishing some contact information; if you see any of the above (and, in a perfect world, if you get pictures), we’ll be looking for your input.

Think about it.

More later.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 am and is filed under Convention '08, Days of Adolescent Rage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.