Typhoon of Repression Warnings: The RNC Should Just Stay Home

This is a response to the recent star tribune article that refers to several local RNC protest groups and likens the threat of radical protest to "chemical attacks" and "terrorist attacks." Read the strib article here:
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/conventions/20620054.html?location_refer=$urlTrackSectionName

Typhoon of Repression Warnings: The RNC Should Just Stay Home

Regarding “St. Paul and cops gear up for worst at GOP convention,” (6.21)
Matt Bostrom and other government officials have their facts wrong. In the
history of protest in the Twin Cities, police have always been the ones to
instigate violence. It is the police who will come equipped with chemical
agents, firearms, tasers, and other weapons of mass repression.

Protest RNC 2008 Coalition is a broad-based network of groups including
the Anti-War Committee, The RNC Welcoming Committee, Welfare Rights
Committee, Communities United against Police Brutality and many others. We
reject efforts to create a false division of good vs. bad protesters.
Furthermore, we reject placing civil disobedience including blockades in
the same category as “suicide bombers,” “lone gunmen,” or “chemical
attacks.” This is especially offensive in light of the Bush
Administration’s numerous crimes against humanity. If police are looking
for violent criminals, they need look no further than inside the Xcel
Center and within their own ranks.

Organizations in the Coalition have signed onto the St. Paul Principles,
which call for the separation of actions by time or space. Therefore,
during the time of the permitted march all groups have agreed to abide by
terms of the permit. We can only hope police will do the same.

It is ridiculous for the City of St. Paul to claim that granting the
Coalition’s permit request would lead to “immeasurable risks.” However, we
do find merit in the suggestion that RNC delegates just “stay home” to
spare Twin Cities and US residents such potential calamities as breached
levee walls, typhoons, killer bee attacks, job shortages, environmental
degradation and preemptive strikes from the U.S. military.

--The Protest RNC 2008 Coalition