Mean Greens
"19 bicyclists arrested after rally turns into melee"
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Saturday Sept. 1, 2007
"Police arrested 19 bicylcists, including three juveniles, after a protest ride took an ugly turn in downtown Mineapolis Friday night.
"About 200 bicyclists were riding on La Salle Avenue with two officers monitoring the protest that called for reduced reliance on automoblie transportation. The ride was also linked with weekend protests of next year's Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.
"When officers tried to arrest a rider they felt had been trying to provoke them, a scuffle broke out, said Minneapolis Police Lt. Marie Pryynski. 'When the officer went to arrest him, his buddy came up, and they started to struggle with the officer.
A group surrounded the officers and began to chant 'Let them go!" Then several people tried to prevent the officers from arresting the indviduals,' she said.
"Soon the two officers were surrounded by about 30 people, and they issued the call 'officer needs help.'
That brought 48 officers from six deifferent law enforcement agencies racig to the scene, where the situation escalatde and the officers used Mace in an attempt to control the crowd. Police then called in medics to examine people who were sprayed, Nobody was seriously injured.
"It was unclear, Pryzynski said, if the first people arrested were affiliated with the convention protest."
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Saturday Sept. 1, 2007
"Police arrested 19 bicylcists, including three juveniles, after a protest ride took an ugly turn in downtown Mineapolis Friday night.
"About 200 bicyclists were riding on La Salle Avenue with two officers monitoring the protest that called for reduced reliance on automoblie transportation. The ride was also linked with weekend protests of next year's Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.
"When officers tried to arrest a rider they felt had been trying to provoke them, a scuffle broke out, said Minneapolis Police Lt. Marie Pryynski. 'When the officer went to arrest him, his buddy came up, and they started to struggle with the officer.
A group surrounded the officers and began to chant 'Let them go!" Then several people tried to prevent the officers from arresting the indviduals,' she said.
"Soon the two officers were surrounded by about 30 people, and they issued the call 'officer needs help.'
That brought 48 officers from six deifferent law enforcement agencies racig to the scene, where the situation escalatde and the officers used Mace in an attempt to control the crowd. Police then called in medics to examine people who were sprayed, Nobody was seriously injured.
"It was unclear, Pryzynski said, if the first people arrested were affiliated with the convention protest."
The Republican National Convention in St Paul next year will be the site of political demonstrations in a size unseen seen since Chicago in 1968.
ReplyDeleteThere have been mini-meetings of group leaders in the Twin Cities recently to begin preparations.
Pray that the violence will be kept down.
This is the sort of brain activity that makes me worry about the immediate future of the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteTwin Cities? Was Boston unavailable? Berkeley all booked up? Sheesh.
If they had asked me -- they never do, incidentally -- I would have had the convention in Phoenix, and designated the protest zone an enormous expanse of the blackest tarmac. Which, in July, should prove immensely helpful.
Oy.
-J.