Buckets of urine, slingshots, anti-bus weapons seized in raid on anti-RNC protesters

TwinCities.com ^ | 8/30/08 | Mara H. Gottfried, Elizabeth Mohr and Dave Orrick

[ETL]

Who We Are/Points of Unity

The RNC Welcoming Committee is an anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizing body formed to prepare for the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. The RNC-WC, composed primarily of Twin Cities-based anarchists and anti-authoritarians, will function as an informational clearinghouse and organize a spokescouncil for RNC resistance. We will coordinate logistics (food, housing, transportation), and engage in education and outreach.

Without falling prey to the centralized, hierarchical tendencies that have dominated such convergences in the past, we hope that the RNC-WC will maintain a unified, anti-authoritarian presence at the 2008 RNC. Our numbers are huge, and it’s time that our actions reflected that.

Following are our points of unity. We invite all individuals and groups committed to these ideas to participate in the Welcoming Committee.

Those who work with the RNC Welcoming Committee must agree to:

1. A rejection of Capitalism, Imperialism, and the State;

2. Resist the commodification of our shared and living Earth;

3. Organize on the principles of decentralization, autonomy, sustainability, and mutual aid;

4. Work to end all relationships of domination and subjugation, including but not limited to those rooted in patriarchy, race, class, and homophobia;

5. Oppose the police and prison-industrial complex, and maintain solidarity with all targets of state repression;

6. Directly confront systems of oppression, and respect the need for a diversity of tactics.

http://www.nornc.org/who-we-arepoints-of-unity/

[Gaffer]

Amateurs may be easily dealt with on some levels. However, it is their inexperience that can sometimes cause professionals to err in addressing their threat, thinking they’re dealing with someone much more on their level. They are the very definition of unexpected and unpredictable.

[Turbo Pig]

Domestic terrorists, and they should be treated as such.

[sodpoodle]

Good discussion - rethinking the debate.

Especially true of serial sociopathic murderers - all amateurs who manage to elude the professionals for years.

And this threat is from a GROUP of psychotics - not just one twisted thrill-killer. No level of comfort there;)

thanks for the insight Gaffer
sod

[randog]

"The place they raided last night, they were showing documentary movies to twenty-somethings in a clean, alcohol free zone after dinner," Nanette Echols said.

LOL!! They had everything but alcohol! Just a bunch of Boy Scouts on a campout, right??!!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Domestic terrorists, and they should be treated as such.

Oh, they will be. Coddled, given a platform, free legal counsel, lots of press, and candlelight vigils.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

“They were forced to remain on the floor for 45 minutes while the officers took away the laptops, computers, individual journals, and political materials kept in the house.”

Yup, no mention of anything else..

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Red Diaper babies.

[meyer]

"Materials to create "sleeping dragons" ...... Empty glass bottles, Rags, Flammable liquids, Homemade caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads), Metal pipes,..."

Oh, nothing here - just the tools needed to disable a bus and then bomb it with Molotov cocktails and/or pipe bombs. Just kids getting into mischief.

[Condor51]

**** and you look like a bunch of paint-huffing terrorist wannabes. ****

I don't know if you're mocking this or what, but maybe you missed this part...

The statement said the items found in the searches included:

• Wrist rockets (high-powered slingshots)
• Sledge hammers
• A machete, hatchet and several throwing knives
• Flammable liquids, Empty glass bottles & Rags

These 'wannabes' intended on causing serious - deadly - bodily harm.

And Wrist Rockets aren't 'Dennis The Menace Sling-shots'. They're for Hunting and will kill. The ammo for them is 1/4" to 1/2 dia ball bearings. Plus I doubt they were going to roast marshmallows with the Molotov Cocktails they planned on making.

As such these maggots should be treated as if they were an AQ Terrorist Cell. I'd ship em all of to GITMO for a Military Tribunal.

[Pinkbell]

I saw that. The writer didn’t mention it, and none of the DUmmies bothered to find out. I guess it’s easier to run around screaming we live in a fascist police state under dictator George Bush. They also used this video of a bus pulled over by the police:

http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/videogalleryView/id/644

[Pinkbell]

They only love it if judges make a decision in their favor or legislate liberal ideas from the bench.

[BilLies]

Google
“Fulton Safety Committee report: February, 2008”

look at January 27, 2008. Do you think the Judge will take this into consideration?/s

[Darnright]

>St. Paul’s mayor said this afternoon that free speech rights are separate from criminal behavior.

“We have worked very, very hard to make sure we’ve protected people’s right to exercise free speech,” Coleman said. “To pick up a protest sign, that’s fine. If you’re here to pick up a brick or some other instrument there’s a problem.”

Thune has been concerned about the conduct of authorities in the last 24 hours regarding activists.

“This is all about free speech,” Thune said. “It’s what my father fought in the war for. To me, this smacks of preemptive strike against free speech.”<

Let me guess, this Thune cretin is a Democrat.

[Antoninus]

Some really classy people, these are.

[Darnright]

Bump

[AppyPappy]

“To me, this smacks of preemptive strike against free speech”

What a lying sack of crap. Since when are weapons a form of free speech?

[Chewie84]

Also, a lot of the reports documenting the raids neglect to mention another weapon found at one of the houses (I saw a photo taken of one of the rooms which contained an arsenal or their stockpiled weapons): A compound bow with a full set of arrows.
They were going there fully planning on trying to kill people.
With any luck, the judge will throw the book at these psychos, so the only “Actions” they will be participating in for the next few years will be pumping out Minnesota license plates in a state penitentiary.