Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Battle of St. Paul - Photos #2







At 2:45 pm, the first wave of riot police began to move up towards the Capitol. All of the peace marchers had finished their parade up this street and finished at the long grass lawn at the end. The crowds were already there for hours, dancing, playing, performing street theatre, having intelligent conversations, speakers were appearing at the truck trailer in front of the Capitol steps.

I was not happy to see these riot squads. Even this amount was harsh and unnecessary, I thought. I had no idea of the numbers inside downtown. I honestly thought this was the bulk of it; in truth they were only the beginning wave.

I don't know what happened to the demonstrators at the Capitol, or when they disappated. I don't know if the riot squads were dispatched against them the way we were on Kellog Avenue. I doubt it, given the sheer numbers of people and the lack of any news. If something happened there, we would have heard it by now.

Photos four and five are on Kellog Avenue, at least a half hour later. This is the main march on the street and park. As you can see, there are lots of violent rioters. Oh, yeah, lots and lots of rioters. You can barely see anything apart from all these....um, riot...people. Damn teenagers. Pay no attention to the ordinary folks just trying to get out of the way, or those of us just trying to cross the bridge to Harriet Island for the union music show. Which I missed. Thank you very much, machine gun assault squad!

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