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H17759

Headlines : Government

Summary:

(St. Paul Assistant Police Chief Matt) Bostrom warned that “certain groups and persons have specifically and publicly stated their intent to ‘shut down the RNC’ by denying delegate access to the Xcel Energy Center.” He cited a “self-described anarchist/anti-authoritarian” group known as the RNC Welcoming Committee, which has advocated a “three-tier strategy” of blocking the Xcel Center, “immobilizing” delegates’ transportation and blocking connecting bridges. He referred to “violent riots” that occurred in Seattle in 1999, when he said the city failed to heed threats to shut down meetings of the World Trade Organization. And he said St. Paul needed to have unimpeded traffic flow for emergency vehicles to get to and from the Xcel Center, if necessary. Included in the briefs are an assortment of documents that have been posted on the Internet by the Welcoming Committee and other groups, including some more recent calls for “direct action.”

[Posted By ShiftShapers]

By Randy Furst
Republished from The Star Tribune

Suicide bombers. Chemical or biological attacks. Lone gunmen. Terrorist attacks. Riots. Blockades that could shut down the Republican National Convention.

In its most explicit arguments to date, the St. Paul city attorney’s office on Friday outlined the “calamitous” potential of granting a request by antiwar demonstrators to change the route and time of a Sept. 1 march outside the Xcel Energy Center.

Protest organizers accused the city of scare tactics designed to legitimize the denial of free speech.

The dire warnings by the city came in a legal brief it filed to support the permit restrictions it is placing on the antiwar group.

The city warned of “immeasurable risks to public safety and security” if protesters were allowed a march route that could total 100,000 and encircle the Xcel, site of the Sept. 1-4 convention.

At the Minneapolis offices of the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, Jessica Sundin, one of the group’s leaders, accused authorities of exaggerating the threats.

“There are no experiences in recent history of conventions being targeted by the kind of violence they are describing in their brief,” said Sundin, who has taken a leave from her clerical job at the University of Minnesota.

“They are raising a specter of terrorism that is absolutely unfounded, and they are using it to prevent us from speaking out against terrorism…

[end excerpt]

Click here to read the rest of the article

Posted by ShiftShapers
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H17759

St. Paul & Cops Gear Up for Protests at GOP Convention

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