Granted, there were a few windows broken, and there were over 20,000 people demonstrating. The amount of broken glass in proportion to demonstrators is miniscule. But a few so-called anarchists out of 20,000 plus participants does not justify the police reaction and aggressive presence. I was told to “fuck off” by several police officers when I requested directions to a bus stop. As a passenger in a vehicle taking me to the airport, we were stopped, separated and detained while cuffed for almost 40 minutes at the direction of Homeland Security before being released. They did not even search the vehicle! Pure harassment! There was not one conviction for violence in the history of any of the three of us during our combined 125+ years of activism.

What we saw in St. Paul during the RNC was an undeclared state of martial law without a federal Declaration of Martial Law either signed as an executive act by the President or authorized by an Act of Congress. Neither occurred, yet local and out of state police were under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security and they had permission to run roughshod over the rights of not only protesters, but civilians, residents, etc.

When you police, either acting on your own or at the behest of your federal puppet string manipulators, begin arresting journalists, and not just the Amy Goodmans, but AP reporters and representatives of other media have also been arrested and/or detained, we get into an area of state sanctioned fascism.

And, while I’m here, I’ll admit I’ve also got gas cans, gasoline, some kerosene at times, cotton rags, empty glass bottles, a bucket for urine on cold nights, paint, fertilizer and detergents in and around my home and property. At times on the road, I am known to carry a container for gasoline. Am I on some list?

What we saw in St. Paul during the RNC was an undeclared state of martial law without a federal Declaration of Martial Law either signed as an executive act by the President or authorized by an Act of Congress. Neither occurred, yet local and out of state police were under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security and they had permission to run roughshod over the rights of not only protesters, but civilians, residents, etc.

When you police, either acting on your own or at the behest of your federal puppet string manipulators, begin arresting journalists, and not just the Amy Goodmans, but AP reporters and representatives of other media have also been arrested and/or detained, we get into an area of state sanctioned fascism.