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Evening, With Rage
Sep. 2nd, 2008 10:38 pmSo I went down to the Capitol because someone had said that Rage Against the Machine was going to play there; not that I'm a fan, particularly, but I wanted to see what would happen. What happened was that the police refused to let them play because they weren't included in the original permit. That was probably a bad idea, because what happened as a result was that the band and some other activists started leading the crowd down Cedar Avenue.
(You can read about what happened here or at the photo essay.)
I followed the crowd, sometimes riding and sometimes walking my bike, and taking pictures. There were no cops in the way that I could see, but I was afraid they'd show up at any moment to block the route. There were a few police vehicles in our path down Cedar, but instead of trying to stop the crowd they preceded it across the bridge into downtown. There were plenty of folks there like me who weren't exactly doing the chants ("Resist! Resist! Raise your fucking fist!" was a popular one, as was "Stop the war on the poor!") but were taking pictures or video. Lots of journalists of all sorts; citizen, independent, and Big Media.
Just like the demonstration on Monday, there were all sorts of people in the crowd. Law students in ACLU t-shirts who had volunteered to observe arrests and make sure anyone taken into custody had representation. "Peace" volunteers in yellow vests trying to keep the crowd orderly and calm. Folks with bandanas or masks, hippies, and hardcore Rage fans. Traffic was stopped all along the route, but at first there were just police vehicles blocking the streets.
Crossing the Cedar Street Bridge was the most exciting and frightening part of the experience. The chants got very loud, and there was a feeling of power in that, but also danger. At that point I was really hoping the police wouldn't do anything stupid, because although there were a lot of people trying to keep the peace in the crowd there was also a lot of anger in the air. There were other people on the edges of the crowd who had the same worried expression that I was wearing. Others seemed to feel like it was a party.
The leaders of the march stopped in the intersection at Cedar and 11th, perhaps to let the rest of the crowd catch up. There were buses and cars stopped, stuck, waiting for the crowd to pass through. I took the opportunity to bike ahead of the crowd a little bit, in hopes of getting some better shots.
At Cedar and Exchange I saw the first squad of cops lining the route again. They were very tense. You can't see it too well in this shot but those are gas launchers. The officer in charge of this squad instructed the others to get up above, and I heard him say "We're not taking any" something "period."
If something bad had been going to happen I think it would have happened at Cedar and 7th, where the police steered the group on 7th. I don't believe any of this was planned, by either side, and there were so many cops and so many marchers, and the crowd was very loud at this point.
There were some Republican observers along the route saying stupid shit. One of them, spotting a couple of National Guard soldiers, said "Here comes the guard! Yeah!" I think he thought he was watching Black Hawk Down. Another fine specimen of humanity, walking well ahead of the protestors with his straight man, said "I wish I had my pump-action shotgun with me."
On the other hand, there were some stupid things being said by the marchers as well. I heard one guy wearing all black, including a bandana over his face, say "There are a lot of poseurs here."
We were funneled into the tiny park up the block from the Dorothy Day Center, which was also surrounded by a cage. A woman (organizer Cheri Honkala, apparently) got up on someone's shoulders, and through a megaphone, warned everyone not to make trouble. "We have people in wheelchairs here," she made the crowd repeat. "We have kids in strollers." I had also seen a woman wearing a peace flag admonishing some of the "anarchists" not to start any shit, and a brief argument between them.
One angry young fellow decided to pace the length of the fence taunting the officers. "You're all a bunch of fucking cowards! You fucking faggots!" He was, happily, ignored.
Representatives from the march went up the the checkpoint to seek entrance, mainly as a symbolic action. They were of course not admitted.
Shortly after that the crowd began to scatter, some sitting down and some walking up the fences to take pictures and shout at the Republicans, who were all safely inside by that time. I decided to head home, relieved that nothing unpleasant seemed to be happening.
However, apparently just after I left, "police discharged a series of flash-bang grenades and smoke canisters at an intersection not far from a security fence surrounding Xcel. [Tom] Walsh [St. Paul police spokesman] said the tactic was aimed at protesters trying to breach the fence." More of that story here; for a less objective report check out the account of our local Fox affiliate.
As I said, I had left by then, but this sounds like bullshit to me. The crowd was very calm and I believe that the great majority of them had taken Honkala's words seriously. It seems far more likely to me that the cops were told to clear everyone out, so they started making a lot of noise and arrests. Despite missing the excitement at the end, the entire evening was a pretty tense and frightening experience, although in retrospect it was probably fairly controlled.
(You can read about what happened here or at the photo essay.)
I followed the crowd, sometimes riding and sometimes walking my bike, and taking pictures. There were no cops in the way that I could see, but I was afraid they'd show up at any moment to block the route. There were a few police vehicles in our path down Cedar, but instead of trying to stop the crowd they preceded it across the bridge into downtown. There were plenty of folks there like me who weren't exactly doing the chants ("Resist! Resist! Raise your fucking fist!" was a popular one, as was "Stop the war on the poor!") but were taking pictures or video. Lots of journalists of all sorts; citizen, independent, and Big Media.
Just like the demonstration on Monday, there were all sorts of people in the crowd. Law students in ACLU t-shirts who had volunteered to observe arrests and make sure anyone taken into custody had representation. "Peace" volunteers in yellow vests trying to keep the crowd orderly and calm. Folks with bandanas or masks, hippies, and hardcore Rage fans. Traffic was stopped all along the route, but at first there were just police vehicles blocking the streets.
Crossing the Cedar Street Bridge was the most exciting and frightening part of the experience. The chants got very loud, and there was a feeling of power in that, but also danger. At that point I was really hoping the police wouldn't do anything stupid, because although there were a lot of people trying to keep the peace in the crowd there was also a lot of anger in the air. There were other people on the edges of the crowd who had the same worried expression that I was wearing. Others seemed to feel like it was a party.
The leaders of the march stopped in the intersection at Cedar and 11th, perhaps to let the rest of the crowd catch up. There were buses and cars stopped, stuck, waiting for the crowd to pass through. I took the opportunity to bike ahead of the crowd a little bit, in hopes of getting some better shots.
At Cedar and Exchange I saw the first squad of cops lining the route again. They were very tense. You can't see it too well in this shot but those are gas launchers. The officer in charge of this squad instructed the others to get up above, and I heard him say "We're not taking any" something "period."
If something bad had been going to happen I think it would have happened at Cedar and 7th, where the police steered the group on 7th. I don't believe any of this was planned, by either side, and there were so many cops and so many marchers, and the crowd was very loud at this point.
There were some Republican observers along the route saying stupid shit. One of them, spotting a couple of National Guard soldiers, said "Here comes the guard! Yeah!" I think he thought he was watching Black Hawk Down. Another fine specimen of humanity, walking well ahead of the protestors with his straight man, said "I wish I had my pump-action shotgun with me."
On the other hand, there were some stupid things being said by the marchers as well. I heard one guy wearing all black, including a bandana over his face, say "There are a lot of poseurs here."
We were funneled into the tiny park up the block from the Dorothy Day Center, which was also surrounded by a cage. A woman (organizer Cheri Honkala, apparently) got up on someone's shoulders, and through a megaphone, warned everyone not to make trouble. "We have people in wheelchairs here," she made the crowd repeat. "We have kids in strollers." I had also seen a woman wearing a peace flag admonishing some of the "anarchists" not to start any shit, and a brief argument between them.
One angry young fellow decided to pace the length of the fence taunting the officers. "You're all a bunch of fucking cowards! You fucking faggots!" He was, happily, ignored.
Representatives from the march went up the the checkpoint to seek entrance, mainly as a symbolic action. They were of course not admitted.
Shortly after that the crowd began to scatter, some sitting down and some walking up the fences to take pictures and shout at the Republicans, who were all safely inside by that time. I decided to head home, relieved that nothing unpleasant seemed to be happening.
However, apparently just after I left, "police discharged a series of flash-bang grenades and smoke canisters at an intersection not far from a security fence surrounding Xcel. [Tom] Walsh [St. Paul police spokesman] said the tactic was aimed at protesters trying to breach the fence." More of that story here; for a less objective report check out the account of our local Fox affiliate.
As I said, I had left by then, but this sounds like bullshit to me. The crowd was very calm and I believe that the great majority of them had taken Honkala's words seriously. It seems far more likely to me that the cops were told to clear everyone out, so they started making a lot of noise and arrests. Despite missing the excitement at the end, the entire evening was a pretty tense and frightening experience, although in retrospect it was probably fairly controlled.
