Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Video - The Battle of St. Paul, Day Two



This video shows footage of the riot police squads marching through downtown St. Paul on Tuesday night, and some footage of earlier in the evening, around 7:30 pm. The event was the Poor Peoples' March, the second peaceful demonstration during the RNC. This was a much smaller group than the thousands who attended on Monday, and likewise was perfectly peaceful. The local NBC affiliate, KARE-11, was caught in the middle when riot squads erupted with concussion grenades and tear gas.

None of the violence is captured here, but you can see the military precision of the police, and you can clearly see the demonstrators and locals filming everything with their cameras and cell phones. KARE-11's footage made it on the nightly news, which was a rare event. We have been subjected to a news blackout in the Twin Cities; they will only refer to those initial gang of teenagers, instigating everyone with their stupid stunts.

Yes, yes, some windows were broken. Good lord, I'm getting tired of being blamed for that. If you want to witness real riot violence, pay a visit to downtown Minneapolis' Block E district. Watch the drunken frat boys from the sports bars smashing things. Lots of police patrols there, but no arrests and no riot squads. I stopped going downtown on weekends because of the violence there. True story.

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