Minnesota State Patrol accused of giving hard drugs to Occupy in effort to discredit movement

[Bjorn Against]

Last edited Wed May 2, 2012, 11:20 PM - Edit history (1)

Video documentation by local activists and independent media shows that police officers and county deputies from across Minnesota have been picking up young people near Peavey Plaza for a training program to recognize drug-impaired drivers. Multiple participants say officers gave them illicit drugs and provided other incentives to take the drugs. The Occupy movement, present at Peavey Plaza since April 7th, appears to be targeted as impaired people are dropped off at the Plaza, and others say they’ve been rewarded for offering to snitch on the movement.

Local independent media activists and members of Communities United Against Police Brutality began investigating police conduct around the Plaza after witnessing police dropping off impaired people at the plaza and hearing rumors that they were offering people drugs.  We videotaped police conduct and interviewed participants, learning some very disturbing information about the DRE program.

Officers stated on record the DRE program, run by the Minnesota State Patrol, has no Institutional Review Board or independent oversight. They agreed no ambulances or EMTs were on site at the Richfield MnDOT facility near the airport where most subjects were taken. Multiple times, participants left Peavey Plaza sober, returned intoxicated, and said they’d been given free drugs by law enforcement. We documented on more than one occasion, someone being told they were sober by one officer, and then picked up by a different officer, and returning intoxicated.

http://www.occupymn.org/2012/05/minnesota-state-patrol-dre-program-targets-occupy-minneapolis/

The 35 minute video contains interviews with several witnesses and video of a State Patrol Officer offering drugs to Occupiers, let's make sure people know abou this and that the police are held accountable for once.

Update: I want to point out that the witnesses in the video are not just saying the police were giving away pot, they were giving hard drugs like heroin, cocaine and meth as well.

&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Odin2005]

1. Oink! Oink! Oink!

[provis99]

2. just think about it:

I would bet every other state's police is worse, more crooked, and more unscrupulous than the Minnesota state police. It's like Minnesota cops are the shiniest turds in a toilet bowl full of cop shit. Which says a lot about the state of policing in the nation.

[Bjorn Against]

7. They can be terrible here, but I agree that many other places are even worse

Minneapolis has a long history of protests, we have marches here quite frequently and more often than not the police handle them professionally. When the police go wrong here however, they go really wrong and there is also a really long history of police abuses here, and as this incident proves once again the law enforcement community agencies here are very corrupt and they need to be held accountable.

You are correct however that many other places have it worse, but we are certainly not the best either. The Madison, WI police are the only police force I have felt was on my side in any city that I have protested in but I am sure they have their issues as well.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. These fucking police have nothing better to do?

Jesus.

[glinda]

4. Kick til your foot hurts

They are disarming Occupy. They are creating addicts. I have to wonder if this is part of some of the "new training" programs being taught out of Camp Ripley and other places. One of the statements I read locally is that these Programs involve cops and sheriffs from all over the state. One of their focuses is "crowd control" like if people are going to threaten or lash out, cause trouble, etc.....

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. What the hell!? Where is the Minneapolis media?

[glinda]

6. Just sent this to someone there....

[Uncle Joe]

8. Just another example of the latest corruption from the so called "War on Drugs"

Edit for theme song time.

Thanks for the thread, Bjorn Against.

[Tsiyu]

9. Kicking to keep shining the light on corruption

"Pigs" is too kind a word for these asswipes...

"Thugs," "criminals," "evil," "underhanded," "corrupt."

I hope every Minnesota deputy who participated in this bullshit is charged with conspiracy and sentenced to be locked away for a long time...

War on Drugs, my ass.

[glinda]

10. Can someone send this to Rachel Maddow? To big Ed?

[annm4peace]

11. thanks Bjorn.. I had to share this on your post also

As you can imagine I am beyond angry about this. i have worked at a psych and drug hospital in Central Ca back in the 90s and worked with young adults at this hospital as well as chronic mentally ill adults who were homeless at times.
And this fall I participated in Occupy and stayed the night on a couple occasions and watched these young people who the cops are preying upon.

I was at celebrations of May Day yesterday and brought food for OccupyMN at Loring park. One of the other women asked if I had heard about state troopers providing drugs to young adults at Peavy Plaza, then taking them to a place to take the drugs, and then drop them back off at Peavy Plaza while they are high. Police, deputies, or troopers have also taken people from the jail and provided them with drugs and give them the option to drop them off at jail or Peavy Plaza. At first I didn't think the women had it right.. but today this video was put out by some independent journalists and this evening I was talking to another women who is active with Occupy and also a retired nurse. She hasn't seen the video but had also heard the stories from the young people. She informed me that one of the young men that took the drugs and was dropped off also has seizures and he seems to also have mental illness.

I sent the video and the following questions to my minneapolis state Senator and state Rep as well as the state Attorney General.

Do you know of the DRE program ?

Do you support enforcement agents from other counties picking up young people in the city of Minneapolis and providing them with drugs?

and dropping them off a city park while they are high ?

Will the state be held responsible if a person who has taken meth or other hard drugs flips out and kills or assaults someone at the plaza after then have been dropped off ?

Do you support our tax dollars being used in such a way?


I hope others send the video to their MN state reps and senators.

[glinda]

13. I have to wonder if this "Program" isn't out of Camp Ripley. That is one of the

new "Police and Sheriff" training centers for the whole State. They also focus on "crowd control" for the "Country's safety" btw. Police come from all over to train there and I think there are other sites in MN as well possibly. I say this because of the massive range that these cops have come from.

[glinda]

14. there is this

http://www.iptm.org/dreprogram.aspx
http://www.ci.la.ca.us/lapd/traffic/dre/drgdrvr.htm

[hootinholler]

15. How is this not illegal distribution?

Do they have a DEA license to prescribe?

Perhaps Sen Franken could look into it and ask the DEA to look into it as well.

[Dawson Leery]

16. The uniform in all it's "glory".

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

17. It only played the first 20 minutes then froze.

I have a slow connection, and while it was stopped I copied the DU address to post to facebook, it never finished. Looks like some form of possible entrapment. Like the guys the FBI sold fake bombs to, then arrested them. They did that to Earth First activists too, so they could label them terrorists and bring the movement to a halt.

[annm4peace]

18. they target simple people

they prey on people.. they look and evaluate who has to the potential to be influenece.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

19. It was reported the agent who would show up at Earth First gatherings

showed for three years before he found someone to take the supplies he furnished to blow up power lines. Then they were arrested with those supplies before they could travel very far. I also read a book called something like "How I infiltrated Earth First" He was paid by logging, cattle and mining interests. Someone I knew bought it at a logging conference in Reno. If I had seen it I would have gotten a copy myself, but missed that booth. Glad he loaned me the book though. He had worse things to say in the book about government agencies than anything Earth First did.

[HiPointDem]

20. Besides the cops, are these not the dumbest kids you've ever seen? Taking drugs with cops?

wtf?

Besides the risk of misuse of their participation, there's the history of lacing drugs & experiementation by intelligence services.

I can't believe those fucks got so many takers. It makes me discouraged about the prospects of Occupy when the rank and file are so politically stupid.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

21. I agree with post #20, and finally finished watching

I had to reload and replay it.

Why am I thinking of a book by Jim Dodge, "Stone Junction"
good fiction and education maybe?

[cliffordu]

22. Hmm......

I'd look up 'COINTELPRO'

to see what could be a precursor to this kind of activity.

Wonder why they're doing these studies on folks who could be considered Occupy Protesters......

[annm4peace]

23. this is just the begining.. the Occupy and social justice group is strong here.. not large but tight

Here is the link on the Occupy MN website.

http://www.occupymn.org/2012/05/minnesota-state-patrol-dre-program-targets-occupy-minneapolis/



I'm thinking a bunch of us older women, some Vets for Peace, and maybe a couple of clergy should show up unannounced at the
"testing center' that is a Dept of Transportation maintence center just off a busy road and nearby freeway.

I go past it all the time and I wondered why there where groups of enforcement cars..

[glinda]

24. Good idea but why is this not in the mainstream news. This truly seems very wrong.

[demmiblue]

25. .

[sabrina 1]

26. Working hard for their real bosses. Isn't about time that tax payers are no longer required to

pay the bill for a 'Civilian Police Force' which is supposed to be working for THEM but clearly is not? Let their bosses foot the bill and maybe the people need to start appealing to some outside organizations, like the UN, for protection against the brutality and scheming of the current pretext for a civilian police force?

[annm4peace]

27. it is making the news

"The video report was put together by local independent media activists and members of Communities United Against Police Brutality. In a summary of their findings, the journalists say they believe young people hanging out near Peavey Plaza were targeted as subjects because getting them intoxicated is a way for police to "discredit and disrupt the Occupy movement."

it really expanded through out the day. I kept googling every 2 hours and more and more sites at it on.. I saw it go from Occupy MN.. to city pages, to Daily Kos, to Raw Story, then Huffington Post at the same time getting on Star Tribune (I didn't like their write up) and MPR.

I hope others look into the tax dollars going to this.


http://www.occupymn.org/2012/05/minnesota-state-patrol-dre-program-targets-occupy-minneapolis/

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2012/05/minnesota_police_giving_peavy_plaza_occupy-ers_drugs_as_part_of_impairment_study_report_says_video.php

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/minnesota-police-give-drugs-impairment-study_n_1475291.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/02/1088315/-Minnesota-State-Patrol-DPS-target-Occupy-Minneapolis-with-drugs-and-addicts

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/18135824/occupy-protestors-claim-officers-gave-them-drugs#.T6NDv431XeA.twitter

i just saw this..

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2012/05/state_patrol_looking_into_occupy_drug_allegations_mpls_police_claim_no_involvement.php

[glinda]

29. It appears to be a "group" effort on Strib to discredit the video. Probably

from the police themselves.

[annm4peace]

30. could they been any more obvious??

I was so glad the news got out in other media outlets before the Star Tribune and other corporate sites.


I and others in the Twin Cities community will continue to pressure our state Reps and Senators for an independent investigation.


i just love how the MN DOT spokesperson said that they deem nothing wrong has been done. Nothing like the criminal investigating his/her own crime.

[Zax2me]

28. Occupier news source...hmm.....

Okay....
In the end put nothing past the police.
I'd almost want to see this proven UNTRUE.
Until then...assume the worst.

[annm4peace]

31. Here are the demands

http://roguemedia.org/2012/05/02/mk-occupy-minnesota-drugs-the-dre-program-at-peavey-plaza/


Based on the preliminary findings of our investigation, we make the following demands:
1) An investigation into the training and recruitment methods of the DRE program, along with an identification of the sources of drugs being given to recruits and the source of funding for those drugs. Public release of any written protocols regarding recruitment, treatment and release of impaired subjects, along with policies on the presence of medical personnel. An investigation into what—if any—oversight exists of these training programs and their use of human subjects, including any controls, standards of conduct, or oversight bodies. A ban on participation by the Minneapolis police in the DRE program until it is fully investigated.

2) An immediate change in practice so that only already-impaired people are used for training and an end to the practice of providing drugs or offering them to entice subjects. An immediate change in practice so that subjects are only released to a safe and supportive environment

3) An investigation into possible ties between DRE trainees and the Minneapolis police department and any efforts to discredit the Occupy movement. Immediate cessation of efforts to recruit and drop off impaired people at Peavey Plaza. An end to all efforts by government and law enforcement to defame, disrupt, or discredit protest movements in a way that decreases the safety of public gathering spaces.

4) An end to the Johnson Resolution and other efforts to block access to public plazas. It is blatant hypocrisy for the city to advance these kinds of proposals supposedly for public health and safety while police programs endanger people in the same areas.

Activists and journalists intend to continue our investigation and demands for safety for the subjects of this training program along with an end to attacks on the Occupy movement.

[AzDar]

32. k & r