Molly “Is It White In Here” Priesmeyer on the cops’ haul in yesterday’s anarchist/protester raids:
A look over the inventory receipt for the raid at 3240 17th Avenue (hat tip TC Indy Media) reveals that most of the items the police seized out of the the home this morning as “evidence to riot” are things that could be found in nearly any home: They confiscated a pack of staples, laptop computers, bike locks, cell phones, a storage device, a computer hard drive, curtain rods, a checkbook.
Priesmeyer doesn’t see fit to mention the things found in various raids that are less likely to be found in the “typical” home, according to my colleague JRoosh and the Pioneer Press (or, for that matter, to tell us who “Nestor” is and what he or she’s significance to the story is; “Nestor” is a disembodied last name Priesmeyer’s piece; perhaps it’s really a secret government program?:
materials to creating “sleeping dragons” (PVC pipe, chicken wire, duct tape), which is when protesters lock themselves together large amounts of urine, including three to five gallon buckets of urine wrist rockets machete, hatchet and several throwing knives a gas mask and filter empty glass bottles rags flammable liquids homemade caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads) metal pipes axes bolt cutters sledge hammers repelling equipment Kryptonite locks empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields material for protective padding an Army helmet.
A typical house? Perhaps; other than the buckets of urine and the caltrops (medieval stop strips – think jumping jacks designed to blow out tires), who doesn’t have all the above?
I mean, really?
The 37 caltrops found in the garage of the home, tiny nail-like devices used to stop traffic or puncture wheels, are also not evidence or conspiracy to commit a riot, Nestor says. For one thing, there were only 37 of them, hardly enough to stop much.
Hello?
It takes ONE to stop a bus.
It takes half a dozen, maybe ten, to make a street fairly impassable, and to tie up traffic pretty badly even at a best case.
“Did they have some devices to try to block traffic? Maybe so,” Nestor assert. “But does that mean they should be arrested on conspiracy charges? Not at all. This was intended to halt the protests.”
Intended to halt protests intended to douse people with urine and shred their tires?
This free speech absolutist is having a hard time ginning up much sympathy.
I checked my home top to bottom and could only find five of these items and that’s including the urine, and that is only because I counted a toilet one of the kids forgot to flush as a “bucket.”
Well, let’s look at just a few facts. Many of those items will be found in many homes. Empty bottles? Gasoline? A hatchet and a machete? Don’t you know anybody who drinks wine, camps, or mows their lawn?
There’s no serious question that some people — and some of the people who got raided — were involved in planning illegal actions around the RNC.
But being around people who are planning on committing unlawful acts isn’t a crime. If it were, every member of the RamseyCo Sheriffs Office should be hauled off, for their proximity to Rehak and Naylon.
Well, let’s look at just a few facts. Many of those items will be found in many homes.
Joel, you are stretching your argument beyond the breaking point. Let’s extend your argument further and see if it works.
Here is a list of items found in a theoretical home:
Yarn
A Half Full (or Half Empty if you’re a liberal) Jar of Peanut Butter
A Fern
A Hannah Montana CD
An AM Radio
An Active Nuclear Dirty Bomb
A Pink Pillow
A Barbie Doll
A Box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
Keys to a 1985 Volvo Wagon
A Rusty Bike
Oh, but wait, since some of these items can be found in the homes of law abiding citizens, this person poses no danger to their neighbors.
LOL
I was writing a response, but Roosh’s is better. That’s the point I was getting at. Since I’m both a small-l libertarian and a law-and-order guy, I’m going hope (and, for now, trust) there was more to the raids than a simple bill of usually-harmless-and-commonplace materials that justified the raid.
(And…caltrops? I suppose it’s possible that someone in the home does weaponry at the RenFest, but that’s a reach…)
I don’t think there’s any question that at least one of the raids was justified; that’s not the issue. The issue is how much overreaching Fletcher’s doing. This time.
But if you want to get all hopey changey about Fletcher doing the right thing, you could be right; there’s a first time for everything.
I think Fletcher was doing a favor for all of those sincere protestors who just want to have their voices heard. They can’t be faulted for the fact that their legal, justifiable and welcome demostration is vulnerable to hijack by radicals (think Seattle WTO) who want nothing more than chaos and violence.
Personally, I want the world to see that America is a place where differences can be expressed without the deployment of tanks and tear gas. We have no shortage of idiots and assholes, but we don’t put them in concentration camps as a prophylcatic. We do, however take strong measures to prevent general mayhem, and then give all and sundry due recourse to the law.
I also think anyone apprehended with a urine or feces projectile should be forced to consume that disgusting abuse of free speech on the spot. But that’s just me.
I just want to hop on my grammatical high horse & point out that a caltrop will not puncture a wheel, only the tire. You see, Molly, the wheel is the hard steel thing that the soft rubber tire is mounted upon.
While not always the biggest fan of Sheriff Fletcher in the past, I’d rather not have a repeat of the Draft Riots of ’63 and have to have the VI Corps Solution applied to the streets of my hometown. Sorry, but the laundry list above shows that these yahoos sure don’t seem to pass the “peaceful protestor” smell test (possibly literally).
Joel R, right now in my garage I have:
A large empty booze bottle
Much Kingsford lighterfluid
Dry old rags
Match’s to light my grill.
No big deal, right? While, what if I posted on line that I am going to blow someones house up. One of their neigbhors invided me to work out of his/her house and I put all of those things in one box, with a pledge to do said destruction. Do get what I am saying?
I have two unregistered firearms in my home. I am not conspiring to use them in an act of civil disobedience. Searching my home and arresting me is not justified.
However, if I had caltrops in my home, and I was part of an organization that had published plans to disrupt bus traffic during a public event, as the RNCWC has, then my arrest would be justified.
If the sheriff’s dept. is corrupt, it does not follow that every act of the sheriff’s dept. is tained by corruption.
This is from the RNCWC website:
http://www.nornc.org/
2. Transportation Troubles – This includes blockades downtown (at key intersections), on bridges (10 bridges over the Mississippi River in the metro area), and other sporadic and strategic targets (busses, hotel and airport shuttles etc).
They have links on their site where you can volunteer your services to supply child care services or EMS to the protesters. I guess if you’re one of the prole’s trying to use the bus to get to your child care or medical providers, all you get is hearty “fuck you”.
Finally I have verified a Symbionese Liberation Army “link” to the anarchist protesters detained in St. Paul. An loyal reader of my http://soliah.com noted that Mike Whalen, the owner of the duplex on Inglehart searched in connection with the “RNC Welcoming Committee” was a very close friend of Kathleen Ann Soliah/Sara Jane Olson even before her June 1999 arrest and was a strong member of her local defense effort. To see Mike Walen in handcuffed during this weekend’s search open this link
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2008/08/30/journalists-targeted-fbi-st-paul.html#
To see a June 1999 statement in support of Soliah/Olson click on this link.
http://www.startribune.com/local/16894551.html
One more nitpicky detail: it’s “rappelling,” not “repelling.” Although a bucket of urine could well be considered repelling equipment, come to think of it.
a bucket of urine could well be considered repelling equipment, come to think of it.
Hey! That’s good stuff! Ever thought of starting a blog?
If the sheriff’s dept. is corrupt, it does not follow that every act of the sheriff’s dept. is tained by corruption.
Well, yes, it does. It doesn’t follow that every traffic ticket issued by the SD is phony, but it very much does follow that every act of the SD is tainted by corruption — that’s one of the reasons that it’s so important to root out corruption, instead of promoting it.
Here we must part company, Joel. From browsing the RNCWC website I see clear indications that they are conspiring to use intimidation and the threat of violence to disrupt the political process of a healthy, functioning democracy. This merits police investigation and possibly federal involvement. The fact that the local police have a corruption problem does not absolve them of that responsibility.
I may be wrong but I suspect that if these protesters were skinheads intent on shutting down a civil rights convention you wouldn’t bat an eye if they were busted & hauled off in paddy wagons by a corrupt police force.
You can part company from me if you want, Terry, but not on your first paragraph; I agree with it completely.
I think it was a horrible — and avoidable — mistake to let a, err, differently-clued empire builder like Fletcher take the captain’s seat, but I’m not disputing the necessity for legitimate (including legitimate preemptive) law enforcement action in all of this.
Well, maybe we can travel a little further down the road, JoelR. In the interests of comity let me say that I grew up in S Minneapolis in the 70’s & graduated from West High. I understand your deep suspicion of big city police departments.