Last Straw

Glenn Gre­en­wald reports on the appalling events in Saint Paul, Min­nesota, where the Repub­lic­ans have been hold­ing their National Con­ven­tion over the week­end. It appears the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment has been orches­trat­ing fascist-like police raids across the city on oppos­i­tion groups in attempt to shut them up.

Pro­test­ers here in Min­neapolis have been tar­geted by a series of highly intim­id­at­ing, sweep­ing police raids across the city, involving teams of 25 – 30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, enter­ing homes of those sus­pec­ted of plan­ning protests, hand­cuff­ing and for­cing them to lay on the floor, while law enforce­ment officers searched the homes, seiz­ing com­puters, journ­als, and polit­ical pamphlets. 

Massive police raids on sus­pec­ted pro­test­ers in Min­neapolis | Sat, 30 Aug 2008
Fed­eral gov­ern­ment involved in raids on pro­test­ers | Sun, 31 Aug 2008

The Land of the Free, where the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment act­ively recruits local res­id­ents to infilt­rate and inform on groups who oppose the gov­ern­ment, where the police steal people’s vehicles and leave them stran­ded on the side of the road to shut them up, where major radio presenters are arres­ted by thugs in riot gear for hav­ing the auda­city to ask a police­man a ques­tion, and where young women get pep­per sprayed in the face for hold­ing a flower up to the police as they walk by her.

Scenes from St. Paul: Demo­cracy Now’s Amy Good­man arres­ted | Mon, 1 Sep 2008

But, frankly, none of this quasi-fascism com­pares to appar­ent lack of out­rage from ordin­ary Americans.

There’s a poem made for these people:

When the Nazis came for the com­mun­ists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social demo­crats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade uni­on­ists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

—Pas­tor Mar­tin Niemöller.

External links:

• Why We Were Falsely Arres­ted |  3 Septem­ber, 2008
• RNC: Media Intim­id­a­tion Con­demned | 4 Septem­ber, 2008

Update, 7 Sep 2008: external link to ‘RNC: Media Intim­id­a­tion Con­demned’ added.