RNC Protestors Face MN Riot Police and National Guard; Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman Arrested AND RELEASED (update

From Twin Cities Indymedia, bfp, Coldsnap Legal Twitter, Minnesota Independent and TheUptake.org:

Video: Police fire smoke bombs at a crowd of protesting students, from TheUptake.org.

Video: Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman arrested by police.

Audio of Democracy Now producer explaining Goodman’s arrest and charges (from bfp)

Retweet from bfp (source: hannahsassaman): To release Amy Goodman etal. call Chris Rider@Mayor Coleman’s office: 651-266-8535,Ramsey Jail at 651-266-9350 x 0

UPDATE: AMY GOODMAN HAS BEEN RELEASED. According to Coldsnap Legal on Twitter: Amy Goodman has been released. Many other journalists, legal observers, medics, and friends are still inside.

I believe her two producers are among those inside.

100 or so people are being detained on Shepard Road by the Xcel

Directly across from the Xcel Center on the river, about 100 people are being detained with hands atop their heads. There is a SWAT team, about 50 cops surrounding those detainees, and about 80 more officers in riot gear milling in the area. Two police boats in the river. Six or seven Humvees full of Minnesota National Guard troops entered the perimeter about half an hour ago.

No one I’ve spoken with knows why the group is being detained. I tried to get some delegates to talk to me on camera, but no. The situation has been going on for well over an hour. It looks very tense down there, with SWAT teams pacing up and down Shepard Road.

I’ve got video that I hope to post by 7-7:30.

Teargassed protestors earlier in the day.

really worried about nez of the unapologetic mexican and liza of culture kitchen right now; both are in MN to cover the RNC.

look forward to aclu mn involvement.

mind scattered — apologize for screwy linkage/formatting!  more to come as i see it.

Two video exclusives from The Nation and a quote:

After the rally, I overheard two Republican delegates from Minnesota discussing the protests at the nearby Hilton Garden Inn.

“Did you see those bogus protestors,” one said.

“Oh yeah, what a disgrace!” the other responded.

“They can’t even do it right.”

Whatever that means.

I think some of the aimless protest groups with “democratic election” on where to go next, etc., may be who they’re talking about.  Inner conspiracy theorist is theorizing heavily.  Will update as I learn more.

163 Protesters, 4 Journalists Arrested in St. Paul

Authorities said of those arrests, 73 were charged with felonies, 42 with gross misdemeanors, and 48 with misdemeanors.

At least four journalists were among those detained, including Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke and Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, a nationally syndicated public radio and TV news program.

One of her producers says Goodman was intervening on behalf of two other producers for her program, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, when she was arrested.

St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said he had no immediate information on the four.

Instead of a single coherent march that organizers had hoped for, fringe groups of anarchists and others wrought havoc along the streets between the state Capitol and the Xcel Energy Center where the convention is taking place.

The St. Paul Police Department called in 150 Minnesota Army National Guard soldiers to assist with crowd control at about 3 p.m.

Police estimates of the crowd shifted during the event before settling on 8,000 to 10,000. The crowd was clearly in the thousands, many of them marching peacefully.

The arrests occurred in confrontations several blocks from the convention arena. Five people were arrested for lighting a dumpster on fire and pushing it into a police car, Walsh said.

About 20 anarchists who had started the trash bin fire later tried to block the intersection of St. Peter and Exchange streets. Police quickly dispersed the group, then shot two tear gas canisters at the fleeing anarchists.

“There are people who are committing violations of law and they’re being arrested,” Walsh said.

About 200 people from a group called Funk the War noisily staged its own separate march. Wearing black clothes, bandanas and gas masks, some of their members smashed windows of cars and stores. They tipped over newspaper boxes, pulled a big trash bin into the street, bent the rear view mirrors on a bus and flipped heavy stone garbage bins on the sidewalks.

One man who seemed to be the leader of the group carried a yellow flag with the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” The group chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!”

Meanwhile, a group of about 100 anarchists pushed a dumpster filled with trash and threw garbage in the streets and at cars. They also took down orange detour road signs. One of them used a screwdriver to puncture the back tire of a limousine waiting at an intersection and threw a wooden board at the vehicle, denting its side. Another hurled a glass bottle at a charter bus that had stopped at an intersection. The bottle smashed into pieces but didn’t appear to damage the bus.

Closely following the anarchists were teams of riot officers carrying batons, rifles and guns that could be used to shoot tear gas.

The day’s march was organized by a group called the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, whose leaders said they hoped for a peaceful, family-friendly march. But police were on high alert after months of preparations by a self-described anarchist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee, which wasn’t among the organizers of the march.

At a rally preceding the march, speaker after speaker called for ending the war in Iraq and more spending on domestic needs, such as providing health care and fixing crumbling bridges. Immigrants, labor and student groups, veterans, and others gathered for the roughly mile-and-a-half long march.

Peace activist Steve Clemens, 47, from Minneapolis said he was disturbed by the number of police.

“But we can’t control that,” said Clemens, who had already been arrested once – for crossing into a restricted area during a march Sunday.

Alan Rybak, a real estate agent from Lakeville, Minn., stood along the protest route carrying a sign that read “Support Our Troops.”

“I’m here to support our troops and to tell (protesters) to get a job and go home,” said Rybak, a Republican Party activist.

A group of 200 or so college-age people holding a banner that read “Students for a Democratic Society” began walking the route before the set time of the march. Many wore bandanas around their faces, bracing for the possibility that police would use tear gas.

Also see accompanying video.

@coldsnaplegal Court hearing for those arrested today will be tomorrow @ 8am @ Ramsey Cty Courthouse, 15 West Kellogg Blvd, St Paul, MN

256 total; 119 felonies, 48 gross misdemeanors; 89 misdemeanors (from twin cities indymedia)