Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

Defense attorneys want to use the videos to help people arrested during the RNC, [Rebecca] Ford said.

"There's a lot of truth that lies in that 6,000 hours of video footage, and it needs to be seen," she said. "They're withholding the footage because it shows the violence perpetrated by officers."

CRASS will display photographs of officers they haven't been able to identify because they were wearing riot gear during the RNC and didn't "reveal their badge numbers or names" when asked, Ford said.

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

Outraged that authorities embarked on a review of thousands of hours of surveillance video footage in hopes of finding victims of violence during the Republican National Convention, protesters and their advocates said Thursday it was the police, not the public, who committed much of the violence.

And they demanded release of the footage to strengthen their own investigative work.

...

The news conference was organized by CRASS (Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure), and came in response to the Police Department's recent formation of an RNC investigative unit. Chief John Harrington and Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said last week that investigators planned to study surveillance footage to identify victims of violence during the convention Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center.

CRASS contends it was police who brutalized citizens. Among the speakers Thursday was Mick Kelly, 51, of Minneapolis, who has alleged in a federal suit that he was hit at close range by a projectile fired by police.

...

Jason Johnson, 33, of El Cerrito, Calif., said police tased him without cause multiple times on the convention's second day, making him feel as if his body "had been set on fire." Johnson was cited for obstructing legal process -- a charge he described Thursday as "a feeble attempt to justify police brutality."