Originally Posted by Star Tribune

One thing that was hard to swallow was the militarized statelet in St. Paul, with tactics and security designed for worst-case scenarios that did not materialize. The bulk of the 800-plus arrests were made there.

But average citizens, including the 10,000 law-abiding ones who came out to peacefully protest against the war in Iraq, were not prepared to see St. Paul turned into a No Man's Land where roofs were lined with snipers, streets were lined with legions of cops, security fences channeled citizens like rats and you had to color within the lines or you'd kiss asphalt and visit Bob Fletcher's No Frills Motel.

There is a fine line between preparation and intimidation. The No Go Zone was provocative -- and menacing -- not just to bad actors who wanted trouble. But to citizens who wanted to feel heard -- not greeted with riot clubs, handcuffs and cops on cars with rifles at the ready. Yes, you can blame the out-of-control protesters. But everyone felt chilled.

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

"Attempts by law enforcement to squelch lawful political speech and stifle the press have no place in our democracy and are unacceptable," Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director, said in a statement. "Political conventions should be a showcase for free expression, not a venue for bullying and intimidation."

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St. Paul and Denver each received $50 million in federal funds for policing the conventions.

Tony Bouza, former Minneapolis police chief, said he thinks St. Paul could have handled the security with a few hundred extra police officers. "The only reason they did it was an orgy of overtime, subsidized by the United States government under the National Security Act," he said.

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The lesson, said Bouza, is that while Stamper [Seattle police chief] lost his job, "Ramsey [D.C. police chief during World Bank & IMF meetings] turned the place into a garrison state and nothing happened."

Originally Posted by Nick Coleman in Star Tribune

How did a city that loves its police force -- a city where many residents are on a first-name basis with their cops -- wake up on Sept. 1 in a militarized zone where the cops were deployed in military formations, using military tactics, in ways that did not discriminate between the small band of creeps that came to cause trouble and the throngs of peaceful citizens exercising their rights?

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The focus was on the police, but it wasn't the police who were the target of the anger. It was the policymakers, and the policies that led to mass arrests, the use of pepper gas, concussion grenades, rubber bullets (an inventory of the ordnance used should be provided, by the way) against peaceful protesters and the tactics of intimidation that went along for the ride.

Mike Whalen, a waiter and activist who has given free Irish dancing lessons for 35 years (he's probably had his arms around every woman in St. Paul), found his house surrounded by heavily armed police the day before the convention started.

Guns drawn, they said they were looking for bombs, but what they really seemed interested in was rousting the documentary photographers from New York who were staying in Whalen's house, and who made themselves unpopular with New York police for documenting abuses during the 2004 GOP convention in New York City.

Whalen and his guests were detained for three hours, and he spent an hour in handcuffs, in his own back yard, wondering how this could happen in the United States. He was not charged or arrested. Nor has he received an apology.

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That was a disgrace, especially when hundreds were arrested the last day of the convention for the crime of over-staying their permit. Which ranks right up with letting your parking meter expire. Write 'em a ticket, Clancy. Case closed.

Instead, they were pushed and chased, with gas, concussion grenades, surrounded and arrested.