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annm4peace

(6,119 posts)
Sun Apr 8, 2012, 07:54 PM Apr 2012

Arrests ReOccupy Minneapolis Nicollet Mall April 7th 2012




CREATIVE COMMONS WITH ATTRIBUTION
By Dan Feidt for Occupy Minneapolis
http://occupyminneapolis.mn
http://twitter.com/hongpong - http://twitter.com/occupymn - http://facebook.com/occupymn


http://www.occupyminneapolis.mn/news/reoccupy-arrests-on-nicollet-mall-photos-video/

"The power structure is fighting a losing battle. They can't destroy all the evidence. I was there last night and driving over to the Plaza from Loring to help people move things. Just as we got to the corner by Orchestra Hall and were going to turn left, all hell broke loose. They had a school bus size vehicle and some other large ones to put arrestees in, and the cop cars just didn't stop coming. I wonder what the ratio of cops to demonstraters was! It was a huge waste of city resources."


this email went out in wee hours of the morning
"MPD just rammed horses into occupiers, pulled people off sidewalks and made arrests of peaceful protesters while we marched. 9 arrested, jail support vigil at the people's plaza now.

The end of the day was such a contrast to the start, and to the early days of October. The class war was never going to be easy."


After evicting protesters attempting to reoccupy Peavey Plaza, Minneapolis Police arrested a dozen during a peaceful march. Videos show officers pulling several people off public sidewalks, slamming one violently into the street and deliberately censoring the mainstream and independent press.
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Arrests ReOccupy Minneapolis Nicollet Mall April 7th 2012 (Original Post) annm4peace Apr 2012 OP
This message was self-deleted by its author annm4peace Apr 2012 #1
from a 60 year old occupier annm4peace Apr 2012 #2
report back from that night annm4peace Apr 2012 #3
update for Occupy MN for Monday 4/9 annm4peace Apr 2012 #4
great video to share with City Council members and the Mayor annm4peace Apr 2012 #5
thank you for those who called the Mayor.. it has worked annm4peace Apr 2012 #6

Response to annm4peace (Original post)

annm4peace

(6,119 posts)
2. from a 60 year old occupier
Sun Apr 8, 2012, 08:49 PM
Apr 2012

"he Mobile Command Center was the size of a trailer truck that blocked the entire width of 11th St.outside Orchestra Hall. It’s dark blue with a neatly painted logo. It was the image I couldn’t get out of my mind all night. We have become a country of billion dollar, high tech surveillance that supports violent repression of dissent.

Those of us who support the 99% movement have our work cut out for us. We need to be able to talk about the police actions to other people. The occupiers share info on the national police repression on facebook on a daily basis. Tony Bouza’s article on out of control police and successes he’s had testifying against them is a good context for last nights events. Please share it:

http://www.southsidepride.com/2012/04/articles/americas_police-out-of-control"

annm4peace

(6,119 posts)
3. report back from that night
Mon Apr 9, 2012, 01:01 AM
Apr 2012

"It concerns me that the city of Minneapolis had intentionally searched for a law to cite against us whilst claiming that they respected our First Amendment Rights. It is clear to see that the type of behavior that the Minneapolis Police Department showed to us is beyond aggression, it is clearly oppression. A reporter for a local media outlet had his camera ripped out of his hands tonight, which shows that the freedom of the press itself is not being respected. The Occupy Movement focuses upon using civil disobedience as a method of protest, and tonight’s marches were no different than those that we had last fall."

http://occupiedstories.com/the-epic-battle-of-re-occupied-minneapolis.html

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -As planned, groups met today in both Loring Park and Peavey Plaza at 12-noon. Around 2:00pm Minneapolis Police officers came to Peavey Plaza to state to us that we were in violation of a state law (609.74) in which our tents, banners on strings, and tarps were in violation of the law and were to be considered as a public nuisance. This was, of course, the first that we had heard about such a law in the state. When the Lieutenant and Sergent were speaking with me, they literally stated that this law had been found by the City Attorney and that the order to enforce it was sent from the Minneapolis Mayor’s Office. News reports prior to the re-occupation essentially guaranteed our right to erect tents upon Peavey Plaza and if you look back at the Minneapolis Business Journal, it quotes the Minneapolis Police Department stating that this was the case. When the officers approached us, we asked for them to return with a printed ordinance so that we could decide what we were to do with the new enforcement of this law.

Around 6:00pm, the officers returned to Peavey Plaza with copies of the ordinance to pass out. The ordinance itself applies to any type of item that is infringing upon the public’s right-of-way. It is important to note that while we had tents erected, they were not on the sidewalk, but rather they were upon the plaza itself. It is also important to note that the city of Minneapolis had just recently erected signs along the edge of Peavey Plaza advertising the planned renovation, and that those sit (unpermitted) upon the sidewalk itself along with the Minneapolis Police Department’s stationary cameras. They would not comment as to whether or not they felt that their own signs and camera were within the jurisdiction of the law itself.
After we received this notice, occupiers held a meeting to decide what it was we were to do when the officers chose to enforce the law itself. They had not given us a time-frame as to when they would be back to enforce this.

At around 8:30pm, the Minneapolis Police Department including Chief Dolan had returned to Peavey Plaza to enforce the law that they had found and chosen to enforce against Occupy Minneapolis. As they ordered us to either remove the structures or have them forcibly removed, we chose to pick up our tents and march through the streets. We marched to Loring Park where our other Brothers and Sisters were gathered, and were followed by the Minneapolis Police. Upon vacating Peavey Plaza, the remaining items were taken by the Minneapolis Police. They also removed all signs, sidewalk chalking, and any other trace of the day’s events from the plaza itself.

After gathering in Loring, we decided as a group that we would attempt to take back Peavey Plaza and place our structures upon the plaza itself. It is important to note that while the law has been on the books in Minnesota for a while, there was no mentioning of it prior to our reoccupation and the enforcement of the law is a clear sign that the City of Minneapolis has no respect to our First Amendment rights of both freedom of assembly and free speech. (Congress shall make no law…)

We marched from Loring Park, up Hennepin Avenue, and then back down First Avenue until we arrived at Peavey Plaza. We sat our tents and canopies back down, and began to have an open discussion as to why we all occupy. This was interrupted by the Minneapolis Police Department as they gave us a warning that the structures were in violation of the law and that we must remove them. Again, they gave no time-frame of how long it would be until they acted. After I literally forced them to give us a clear deadline (they gave us 10-minutes) we decided that we would take to the streets again. Individuals raised up our tents and canopies again and began walking up the Nicollet Mall.

While we were walking up the Nicollet Mall (in the streets) the police tried to block us from continuing our march. As they had not completed their barricade, they ordered us onto the sidewalks or risk arrest. Protesters complied with their request, and went onto the sidewalk. After passing through their failed barricade, most protesters remained on the sidewalk and continued heading North near the Target store on the Nicollet Mall. A few protesters took to the streets again but were met by mounted police (on horseback) shortly after crossing the intersection to continue North. Police then grabbed the canopy that these individuals were holding and began to bend the metal legs of it, whilst shaking the grips of protesters from it. Several protesters were knocked to the ground by the force of the police along with the fact that the mounted police were commanding their horses into the protesters. Those that remained in the streets were arrested.

While the police arrested the individuals in the streets, they also began to grab onto others that were standing upon the public sidewalk. These individuals had complied with the police, however several were still arrested without proper cause. During that time the mounted police then directed their horses onto the sidewalk itself in an attempt to intimidate and possibly injure those that were peacefully complying with their orders. I was one of those individuals. A Minneapolis Police Officer had grabbed me in what seemed to be an attempt to take me into custody, however a mounted officer began to direct his horse onto the sidewalk at that time. I was pushed into stanchions that were on the sidewalk (the stanchions were placed there to separate a restaurant’s patio from the main sidewalk itself) and as the horse pushed me, it was also kicking. If I did not have my bicycle in front of me blocking the hooves of the horse, I surely would ended up being trampled.

During this time, across the street, Minneapolis Police Officers had grabbed onto the camera of a local reporter from KSTP. The reporter himself claims that he was assaulted. They threw his camera onto the ground and kicked it despite the fact that he had vocalized that he was with KSTP. The camera itself was ruined and his footage could not be salvaged.

According to our most recent confirmation, 9 individuals were arrested. We have been working to bail all of them out of jail tonight. After the confrontation with the police, we moved from the Nicollet Mall back to The People’s Plaza to debrief about our evening and hold a solidarity rally for those that were placed under arrest.

It concerns me that the city of Minneapolis had intentionally searched for a law to cite against us whilst claiming that they respected our First Amendment Rights. It is clear to see that the type of behavior that the Minneapolis Police Department showed to us is beyond aggression, it is clearly oppression. A reporter for a local media outlet had his camera ripped out of his hands tonight, which shows that the freedom of the press itself is not being respected. The Occupy Movement focuses upon using civil disobedience as a method of protest, and tonight’s marches were no different than those that we had last fall.
-Osha Karow-

annm4peace

(6,119 posts)
4. update for Occupy MN for Monday 4/9
Mon Apr 9, 2012, 10:12 AM
Apr 2012

Tomorrow is a big day. Here is a schedule to what is going on.
10am Occupy Homes Foreclosure Action
1:30pm Emergency Rally to Respond to Eviction and Arrest of 12
6pm Picnic @ Peavey let's gather. Bring Self! (bring a snack to share if able)

Also we should be calling RT Rybak's office all day demanding the Mayor to respond to the actions of the MPD Saturday night.
Mayor's Office
350 S. 5th St., Room 331
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: (612) 673-2100
Fax: (612) 673-2305

Also if anyone who was arrested, attacked, cuffed too tight, or harassed by police on the sidewalks wants to file a complaint against the MPD it is encouraged to do so.

annm4peace

(6,119 posts)
5. great video to share with City Council members and the Mayor
Mon Apr 9, 2012, 11:54 PM
Apr 2012

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101721275#post2

Shady characters and subversive concepts

Sinister women

Radical ideas

12 arrested were treated courteously

annm4peace

(6,119 posts)
6. thank you for those who called the Mayor.. it has worked
Mon Apr 9, 2012, 11:55 PM
Apr 2012

Minneapolis Mayor Rybak and Occupy protesters will meet over police response on Tuesday, 4/10.


http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/146749925.html

Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will meet with protesters from the Occupy movement on Tuesday, after they jammed his office lobby on Monday to complain about their treatment by police over the weekend.

Police Chief Tim Dolan acknowledged on Monday that the protesters had been sent mixed messages last week about the legality of pitching tents in Peavey Plaza, and he also questioned an officer's rough handling of a TV cameraman.

snip

About 75 people rallied outside City Hall on Monday, denouncing Rybak for the police action. Then they marched into his office lobby, saying they would not leave until he met with them.

Rybak was not there and his staff ordered them to leave, but they refused. Eventually his staff met with two protest leaders and they arranged for a meeting between Rybak and the Occupy group at City Hall at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Occupy activists announced last week that they were resuming their protests with the pitching of tents to blast Wall Street and the disparities between the rich and everyone else.

Sgt. Steve McCarty, a police spokesman, said last week that police would allow the tents to stay up overnight at Peavey Plaza but would not allow people to sleep in them.

Dolan said he was not apprised of that decision and said it was made by officers at lower ranks. "That direction should not have been given," he said.

Chad Nelson, a KSTP-TV photographer, was videotaping the arrests when an officer shoved his camera, knocking it to the ground and slightly injuring the cameraman. Dolan said the department's internal affairs unit was looking into it.

Dolan said that "I cannot see any logical reason or why that cameraman was interfered with by the police officer ... It will be thoroughly reviewed. We specifically instructed all our people to not take individual actions out there. If that is what it was, I am very disappointed."

Asked what role Rybak had in the decision to order the tents removed, Jeremy Hanson Willis, Rybak's chief of staff, said the mayor "was aware that they were enforcing the city ordinance." He said Rybak had no role in the decision to arrest protesters.

******

It is great they we now have "citizen journalists" who have video proof of what the Police says is not always reality.

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