some good questions
<< Sep 7, 2008 @ 11:26 >>
A recap of the munitions used against protesters at the RNC:
http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/7923/crowd-control-at-the-rnc-fifty-million-unanswered-questions
A few things to consider here:
1. The RNC paid the premiums on a $10 million insurance policy for the police in St. Paul to pay for any lawsuits against the police brought by protesters. This has many implications.
2. If the police had let Thursday's march proceed undeterred to the prescribed "free speech zone" by the convention instead of blocking the protesters' path across the bridge would the protesters have been committing any crime other than petty misdemeanor jay-walking?
3. Is St. Paul's protest permitting law constitutional? Even if it is, if you view the protest crowd as individuals who all just happened to be attempting to walk peacefully to the designated "free speech zone" outside the convention, then didn't the police violate these people's First Amendment Rights?
It sure seems to me that preventing protesters from reaching a police and city sanctioned cage where citizens are supposed to exercise their First Amendment Rights by using Unlawful Assembly citations before the protesters can reach the cage is dubious.