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Police have essentially been waging preemptive war by infiltrating, tracking and disrupting every-day Americans who disagree with the current administration’s policies.

As former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald wrote on August 31st:

“We have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do.”

As Greenwald and others note, those targeted were little old ladies and grandfathers, vegetarians, and other people who are not a threat to anyone.

And as law school professor and President of the well-respected legal group National Lawyers Guild, Marjorie Cohn, writes:

“Local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted preemptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the targeting of protestors by ‘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.’ Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene.’I was personally present and saw officers with riot gear and assault rifles, pump action shotguns,’ said Bruce Nestor, the President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, who is representing several of the protestors. ‘The neighbor of one of the houses had a gun pointed in her face when she walked out on her back porch to see what was going on. There were children in all of these houses, and children were held at gunpoint.’”

Cohn notes that “preventive detention violates the Fourth Amendment” (you’re supposed to have a justification for imprisonment, not just thought crimes).

Then today, the police set out to publicly intimidate Americans before any protests had even begun outside the Republican National Convention:

“The brigades of police officers would periodically chant military terms and march around in formation (’Double Time!’), while helicopters hovered overhead and Humvees drove by frequently.

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Clearly, and particularly in the wake of this weekend’s thuggish raids, the intent was to create a highly intimidating, militarized and high-tension climate.”

Once the protests started, the police fired rubber bullets, teargas, pepper spray and concussion grenades at protesters, then arrested them en masse.

Coldsnap Legal Collective
August 30, 2008

In an outrageous series of state-sanctioned actions, police raided an activist “Convergence Space” and several homes in the past 24 hours, detaining multiple people on extraordinarily flimsy pretences, arresting several, confiscating computers and laptops, and even handcuffing a small child.

Beginning at 9:17 p.m. last night, with the raid on the St. Paul Convergence Space, and continuing throughout the day today, police harassment and brutality towards the local community has proceeded at an alarming pace. At least five separate raids have been reported throughout the Twin Cities, with the primary focus appearing to be the confiscation of computers and personal affects.

“These actions are clearly intended to have a chilling effect on dissent prior to the launch of the Republican National Convention,” said Natalia, a local activist and mother of two, who asked that her surname be withheld. “The message being conveyed is: ‘If need be, we will terrorize your children to dissuade you from voicing your opinion.’”