Don't Tase Me, Bro!

One of my favorite protest signs I found in Rice Park during the RNC 2008 was this one a well dress gentleman was holding up. There was a different message on the front of the sign that he had on display for the MSNBC crowd, but the back of the sign had this classic phrase, "Don't Taze Me, Bro!"

For those of you unfamiliar with this phrase, it is taken from a video that was shot during a John Kerry question and answer session on September 17, 2007 at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 21 year old, Andrew Meyer spoke these words as he was removed by campus police after, well, you'll have to watch the video for yourself to see why he was removed....

RNC 2008 - Cut The Pork

Rice Park, a location I have posted many photos from in my two and a half years of Twin Cities Daily Photos, became the scene of the MSNBC live studio broadcast during the RNC 2008. One could have spent all week taking photos of all of the "Protests Of One" that were on display. The costumes and signs were outstanding to say the least. In the next few days, I'll post photos of some of my favorites. While I personally don't agree with many of the messages, I found their means of attention worthy of a photo to my blog.

These two, dressed in, attention gathering, fabulous pink pig suits, while holding signs to 'Tax Meat'. Quoted from their website:

PETA is calling on members of Congress to support a "sin" tax on meat. Why? Among other reasons, meat is the number one cause of global warming, a looming environmental disaster that threatens the United States with billions of dollars in damages from rising sea levels, worsening storms, and increased droughts.

When I read this on their web site that [eating] "meat is the number one cause of global warming', it made me wonder, is this true? So it's not the automobiles we drive that are causing global warming? Thank goodness. So many causes are now claiming to be the number one cause, it's beyond laughable at this point to me.

I do appreciate the effort they took for this, even if I do not agree with the message. Sorry.

RNC 2008 - Day 4 - Final Day Of Protests

Wow. Simply wow. What I witnessed tonight in the Capital city of St Paul was amazing. Bravo to the police force and their presence that kept the protesting crowd from entering the downtown area. I was able to make it down to the RNC area on the final evening. Myself and two local bloggers, Mitch of Minneapolis Photography and Snapshutter of TwinCitiesPhotos.com met around the time the protesters permit on the capital grounds was active. From my understanding, the permit to protest expired at 5:00. Their plan was to march to the Xcel Energy Center without a permit. The police force prohibited their march into the downtown area. Judging by the last three days, broken windows, vandalism, riots and more, who knows what would have happened on the final day of the Republican National Convention, it was a smart plan.

We watched a good portion of the evenings events good distance away from all of the action. We spent nearly three hours watching everything play out. When we first saw the group of protesters, we had heard they were sitting, blocking traffic on John Ireland Boulevard bridge that crosses Interstate 94. We found a parking ramp that was nearby and made our way up about six floors. We must have watched about 15 minutes before we realized that the protesters were not sitting on the bridge blocking traffic. Look closely at the photo below, I cropped it into a large panoramic photo so you can see it better. Take note of the right side of the bridge, lots of color in the clothing, now follow that along to the left side of the bridge. See the group of dark blue clothing? That my friends was the police not allowing the permitless protesters from marching beyond the bridge. This went on for 35-45 minutes when a car pulled up and the ramp security guards asked us to leave the ramp. After they checked our id's and made sure we were not taking photos for any protesting related group, they let us go.


For the first time I can recall, I saw snow plows in St Paul in the month of September. No, they were not clearing snow, but we had joking said that they were going to use the snow plows to clear the bridge of protesters. No, what they used them for was planting them at the ends of the bridges that lead into the downtown area and ultimately the Xcel Energy Center.
 

Once we had moved from the ramp, we made our way to one of the bridges that lead into the downtown area. Across Interstate 94, the police kept the protesters at bay. The number of officers had to be over 300 on the other side of the bridge. As the protesters moved from bridge to bridge, so too would the police. In the area we were at, the spectators watching and waiting for something to happen started to grow. Some of the protesters who had gotten there late or found away around started chanting from our side of the bridge. There was a bit of concern as some of the shouters started yelling for the crowd to approach the police from their backside. Within minutes of the yelling and scream, up pulls a city truck with barricades. Another vehicle pulls up and I realize it Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher giving orders and taking control of this side of the bridge. I was rather surprised to see the Sheriff right in the thick of things.


After a long, long, long wait for the starring contest to end between the police and the protesters, we decided to grab a bite to eat and rest our feet. One of the final photos I took in this area does show a few of the protesters taken into custody and sitting on the median on the bridge.


I'll finish up today's posting with a brief ending to the protesting night. Once we finished eating, we noticed all of the bridges had cleared. The police and protesters were nowhere to be found. Vanished, gone, poof. I was confused. What I have learned is, around 7:30-8:00, the police had enough and started using concussion grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd. That pushed the crowd back to the Sears parking lot [which was open for business at the time]. I'm not sure how they did it, but the only exit to the area was to cross over the Marion Street Bridge. Many of the protesters wanted to get out of there and crossed the bridge. They were met by a police blockade on the other side of the bridge. In the end, both sides of the bridge had a police blockade, thus trapping the protesters on the Marion Street Bridge. All of the protesters on the bridge were arrested. Wow....

RNC 2008 - Day 3

Of the photos I took on Monday during the aftermath of the first day of protests, this was my personal favorite. The protest sign was fitting for my eyes. We've voiced our views, we've marched the streets, we've said our peace....now lets move on and get back to normal. I was glad to see the sign properly disposed of instead of thrown into the streets for someone else to pick up. After seeing what some of the out of towner protesters have done to the downtown St Paul area, hummmm, is calling those who are here to cause destruction and disruption 'protesters' am I disrespecting those who are actually here to protest? Protest all you want, it's your right as a US Citizen [you'd be killed in other countries for doing so], but do in civil and leave the needless destruction out of it.

RNC 2008 - Day 2

I was not able to make it down to the downtown area for photo taking on Day 2, nor will I make it down for Day 3, the evening of Day 4 is on my calender. The convention was in full swing today with protesters marching, delegates assembled and a full night of videos and speeches taking place inside the Xcel Energy Center.

One of the oddest protests signs from Day 1 as this one pictured that reads "Impeach Nixon". Ummmm, hello....that's several decades ago eh? The other sign reads "Warning: The change you decide" I never made out the folded over side of the sign, perhaps it made more sense? Do note the double rows of fencing that surrounds the Xcel Energy Center.


About 5:00 on day 1, the capital grounds was rather empty. There was a few small pockets of protesters still sitting on the lawn, but generally there was nothing happening here. I was expecting to see litter, signs and who knows what else, but I was surprised to see very little destruction here.


These two gentlemen were headed into downtown St Paul carrying signs. There was a lot of information on them and you had to stop for a minute or two to read everything that was on the sign. I never was able to catch up with them unfortunately.


One question that had been on my mind the past week was where would all of the protesters eat, drink, and where would they go when they needed to use the restroom? My questions were answered here. There was rows and rows of port-a-potties, several food and water stands, plus many extra garbage cans for their garbage. I was impressed by the city in their planning so far to make things as convenient for the protesters as possible. Still many 'splinter cells' as the local media is calling them, are hell bent on causing destruction to various public buildings, police cars and stopping the delegates buses from entering and leaving the Xcel grounds.


There was this one group that I found interesting to watch. One has a guitar, one has a bongo drum, one has a flag, and all of them were dancing and singing something I couldn't quite make out. Mitch from Daily Minneapolis Photography was there capturing the Day One evetnts of one the 'splinter cells' causing a ruckus on Kellogg and Wabasha. One thing I remarked from his post, please do stop by his site and see his excellent photos, was the off-key singing. Mitch, you would have loved to listen to this bunch and see you Thursday.


More tomorrow....stay tuned

RNC 2008 Day 1 Has Begun

Well, the RNC Convention 2008 has begun, but only the basic duties were carried out today. Due to hurricane Gustav coming ashore in Louisiana, all of the speakers were canceled. I made it to the convention area late in the afternoon as bus after bus after bus made it's way into the parking areas around the Xcel Energy Center. By this time, the main anti-war protest had just completed. There was a 'peace' march from the Capital, to the Xcel, around downtown and back to the Capital building. As this was the largest of the protests, they had anticipated 50,000 people to attend. I've read reports of 2,000 to 5,000 protesters showed up for the rally. Not much of a rally I guess.

What I found interested was the dress of the typical protester. Dressed in black was the typical color of choice and wearing a backpack. Some had bandanna's covering their face....why did they not want to be identified if they have strong belief's in their cause? Some of the protesters did have their cause printed in their t-shirts, which was rather smart. I know there are rules to carrying a sign with a stick attached. The stick could only be so large or it could be considered a weapon. But if you're hands were free from carrying a sign and your bandanna started to fall, your free hands could easily pull it back in place.

The strangest part of my walk around the area was when I was on my way home for the evening. I was walking towards the Minnesota Historical Society building when I well groomed man approached me wearing a blue polo shirt. He asked me this question "Sir, I'm from out of town, do you know where a good place to get some coffee is around here?" Whoa! Time out! What? It's 90 degrees outside, I'm sweating my ass off walking around and a well groomed man asks me where I can get a cup of coffee! The first thing that came to mind was: Is that code for something? Is this a Larry Craig episode unfolding? Is this guy an undercover officer looking to nab someone? Is this an undercover news reporter trying to relive the Larry Craig episode? They guy wasn't trying to tap my foot or anything, but I told him to try downtown and got the hell out of there. The first police officer I found, I pointed the guy out to him and told him what had just happened and said the guy seams out of place for what is going on around here.

One thing I noticed while looking at this batch of photos. If you look closely at the photos, you can see officers standing on the roof of the Xcel Energy Center. I hadn't noticed them while taking the photos.

  

My First Encounter Of The RNC

And there he was, protest sign and all, about a block away from the Xcel Energy Center where the Republicans will host the Republican National Convention September 1-4, my first protester sighting of the RNC. While I am not a protester of any kind, nor am I promoting any protest group, I am only posting photos as it relates to the Twin Cities and what's going on around town. The stir in town is huge. Traffic into and around the Xcel Energy Center has been severely altered until 6:00 AM, Sept 5.