Twin Cities Indymedia - minneapolis - st. paul

Last night's rally and dance party outside RNC felony prosecutor Susan Gaertner's gubernatorial fundraiser in downtown Minneapolis was a smashing success from the perspective of protest organizers. At 4:00, the RNC 8 held a press conference satirically endorsing Gaertner's run for Governor, and presenting a giant check for "Eight dollars and zero sense." Soon thereafter a banner was dropped from a nearby parking ramp, and the crowd for the CRASS-organized rally swelled to about 100. A large police presence of nearly two dozen MPD officers with a booking van and flexicuffs was also on the scene, but the crowd avoided arrests and ended the party at about 6:30, chanting "We'll be back!"

Meanwhile, the number of cases dismissed by St. Paul City Attorney John Choi this week is at 30 according to CRASS, all but three of which were scheduled for trial on December 15. Many of the cases are from the Shepherd Road and 7th/Jackson parking lot mass arrests. A minimum of 63 misdemeanor/gross misdemeanor cases have now been dismissed and a dozen others declined for prosecution.

Press Statement from the RNC 8 | CRASS | Petition to Susan Gaertner: Drop the Charges | "your felonies, your fault!" | (did you take photos or videos of the rally? publish or link to them on TC Indymedia and we'll add them here!)

An initial review of Ramsey County court cases scheduled for today shows 25 misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor cases formally dismissed! Stemming primarily from the mass arrests on September 1, this dismissal of charges comes after a similar dismissal of up to two dozen cases two weeks ago.

As we find more information about the latest batch of bogus charges, we'll post it here.

Feeling the economic squeeze, Baristas rally for cost-of-living wage increase as Starbucks slashes labor costs

Rally: 10am, Lake and Hiawatha, take Light Rail and Carpool to the Mall of America
Picket: 11am November 28, Mall of America North Side Parking Lot

This Tuesday, several RNC-related misdemeanor cases were dismissed by the St. Paul City Attorney's office. The dismissed charges were pursuant to an earlier court order that gave the city a deadline of November 17 to share evidence, including video footage, with the defense for at least 22 cases, many stemming from the Shepherd Road and 7th/Jackson mass arrests on September 1. The city failed to meet the deadline. All the cases had trial dates of December 15.

The State's elaborately staged legal farces are really spinning into full gear this week:

• UPDATE on Monday's scheduled grand jury in Minneapolis : The Grand Jury subpoenas for the six Texas activists have been withdrawn.
• Last week, CRASS, the Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure held a press conference to publicize how the City of St. Paul has refused to release the 6,000 hours of surveillance footage to defense attorneys. After the State was defeated in the August 2007 Critical Mass case via a few cell phone video clips, it's clear they need to manipulate the evidence in order to run out the clock, waste RNC arrestee legal supporters' time & effort, and scramble public perceptions about what happened.
• Court solidarity needs your help! Many cases are going on at Ramsey County Courthouse and CRASS Court Watch needs people for Monday, Tuesday, and onward. Email rnccourtwatch@gmail.com for more info.
• Help Dave Mahoney: The authorities are scapegoating Dave Mahoney (saying he is a literally a Terrorizing Finger Pointer - not to be confused with the famed Terrorist Fist Jab). It's all part of their PR strategy. Defeat the propaganda. TC Indymedia's added a button to his site.
• It sounds like Bob Fletcher watched Terrorizing Dissent as he is starting to make remarks about the young woman with the flower who got ruthlessly maced on September 1st on Kellogg Blvd. However the local press seems afraid to even mention the name of the film Indymedia helped put together.

With these and more important events unfolding, Twin Cities Indymedia wants to encourage more people to plug in and help cover what's going on. Indymedia currently has a number of HD video cameras which could be used by Indy journalistas to cover demos and other events. Please contact us if you're interested. (More broadly, working on further expanding Twin Cities Indymedia is direly needed - including organizing a real video collective). More notes from the events of last week, and upcoming events that might be of interest to IMCers, below.

At a press conference Thursday at the State Capitol, a diverse group of concerned citizens expressed outrage at the efforts of St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington and Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher to portray violence at the Republican National Convention as protester-led. Videos and photographs revealed at the Capitol were just some of numerous sources showing that the overwhelming majority of confrontations were a direct result of police over-reach and brutality.

CRASS Press Release | Coverage in Twin Cities Daily Planet | Read more for photos