Form Barrier to Protect Defensless Backhoe from Dangerous Area Residents
Either Governor Carlson was particularly sly or the protesters, only 66 days into the occupation and having yet to encounter any major problems with the law, were particularly gullible in the days leading up to that raid. My guess is probably a little of both. The state had informed the members of the encampment that they would have to obtain a permit before they could rally on the steps of the Capitol in St. Paul. The permit would state the exact place, time and day that the rally would take place. The rerouters, not wishing to bring an illegal aspect to their nonviolent occupation, agreed. Now the governor knew exactly where and when the point of least resistance would be.
So while Earth First! and AIM members crowded onto the steps of the Capitol, an estimated 150-200 Minneapolis city police and State Troopers marched into the peaceful camp (now containing 6 people) in full riot gear, brandishing clubs a thick as a man's arm and as long as his leg, painting a picture not unlike that of the WWII Nazis storming neighboring countries in Europe. A call went out from the camp to the rally to tell the others what was happening, and soon the rally was over... cut short so that they might save their overpowered friends back at camp.
Bob Greenberg (Earth First!) informs everyone at the rally that police have raided the camp and erected barriers.
While protesters hurried back, squad cars were dispatched to block off all roads leading to the area. By the time I got there, I had to park 1/2 mile away and sneak in through the woods, past the police patrols and the helicopter circling overhead. When I finally got in I noticed that a good number of the cops present had removed their badges.
While the work crews dug into the street from within a circle of squad cars, protesters pounded out the AIM Song. Everything was at a stalemate. The cops weren't moving, neither were the real people. It looked like the entire day was going to go on like this... that is, until the first arrest was made.
There was no doubt that the police had gone there with every intention of arresting everyone they could get their hooves on. Aside from the kevlar, the clubs and the tear gas, each of them carried about a dozen pairs of disposable riot cuffs strapped to their belts, and an MTC bus had been brought in to load arrested protesters onto. The only thing they needed to start the beatings was an excuse, and the protesters weren't giving them one. The camp's nonviolent principles actually seemed to be winning out. Although they taunted and provoked the protesters every way they knew, the cops just grew more and more frustrated with everyone's refusal to take the bait. No one was lifting a finger to them.
Minneapolis police, having failed to arrest any protesters, turn to a local resident to vent their frustrations.
A window of opportunity opened for the police when a young mother, who had been out on errands when the roads leading to her home were barricaded, approached an officer and asked what was happening. Rather than explain, they chose to place the woman under arrest. As her arms (delicate from recent surgery) were pulled nearly out of their sockets and her neck was held in a choke hold, she was dragged to the waiting paddy wagon. As an Earth First!er followed behind the police, shouting to them that this woman hadn't done anything to warrant the treatment she was receiving, he too was arrested and dragged off.
As the woman struggled to get free, we could hear her shouting, "I'm just trying to get home to my kids," in between the whacks and shoves, until she was finally thrown down in the street, still insisting that she hadn't done anything wrong. Trying quiet her down, one of the arresting officers dropped from a standing position to the ground, his knee connecting squarely with the back of her head, and blood was plainly visible on her face as she was loaded into the wagon. Six more arrests were made that day: five of them protesters and one of them a man who was arrested for riding his bike through nearby Minnehaha Park. None of the people arrested ever posed a threat to the police or the work crews, and the only resistance offered by anyone was from a confused, frightened local resident trying to escape the beating of her lifetime.
In what was probably their most organized attempt to arrest everyone there, the police moved to block a group of about 60 protesters into an area by forming a line of police on two sides and then backing them slowly into a barrier of squad cars on another side with a police van on the final side. When the protesters found themselves trapped in a space that was only getting smaller, they tried to get out. While some of the cops held and pushed them back in place with their clubs, another group started shouting that they would be arrested if they didn't move out of the way. Plenty of the protesters got hurt, but eventually they were able to break through one of the lines of cops and get out of the area without anymore arrests.
All in all, you could say we were lucky more of us weren't taken away that day. The police were doing everything they could think of to provoke us. Three Native girls ages 15-17 were beaten by an officer who was shouting for them to move as other officers blocked their way. They were lucky enough to get away from him in all of the pandemonium before they were severely injured. Another older woman standing next to me was attacked when she bent over to pick up a dropped feather (obviously a very threatening move to the 250 lb cop who went after her with his club), and being there, I jumped in front of her after the first hit. I probably would have been hauled off myself if there hadn't been more big Indians coming to my rescue than there were big cops coming to his.
I was later scolded for having jumped in front of that woman. Apparently my actions looked to some of the protesters as if they might border on violence, and I was asked to remember the nonviolent principles of the camp. What kind of people could stand up to such brutality and still refuse to take part in any form of violence?
A very brave kind of people, if you ask me. A very, very brave kind.
