Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Saturday these were among items seized in searches of anarchist leaders' homes and a center used by the RNC Welcoming Committee, which describes itself as an anarchist/anti-authoritarian group and uses the motto "Crash the Convention!" on its Web site.
Fletcher alleges plans are under way "to both shut down the Republican National Convention and actually harm the officers that are working this convention" and says what was found "is only a portion of what is out there."
Five people, whom Fletcher described as core leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee, were arrested Saturday on suspicion of three conspiracy counts — to riot, to commit civil disorder and to damage property.
Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, said he doesn't know whether the people arrested are RNC Welcoming Committee members, but he criticized the searches and arrests.
"To go in and arrest people on conspiracy charges without any solid evidence is to start to criminalize protected political activity and speech," Nestor said.
People planning to protest at the convention and St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune called the actions a pre-emptive strike before the RNC. The convention is slated to start Monday.
"This is all about free speech," Thune said. "It's what my father fought in the war for."
Protesters have pointed to other examples of what they view as police interference in the run-up to the convention. Three videographers who document police activities were detained and their cameras confiscated in Minneapolis, and an activist said he was "viciously attacked" by police while he was observing officers outside a homeless shelter.
No preconvention raids were reported in Denver for the Democratic National Convention last week, but there were similar reports during the last two Republican National Conventions.
Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, said Saturday that his group's concerns are threefold.
"One, this appears this might be a pre-emptive strike to chill protesters on Monday," he said. "Two, we always have concerns about any type of conspiracy arrests, because conspiracy isn't an act in the normal sense of the word. And three, we're concerned ... First Amendment-protected material may have been taken."
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said Saturday that free-speech rights are separate from criminal behavior.
"We have worked very, very hard to make sure we've protected people's right to exercise free speech," he said. "To pick up a protest sign, that's fine. If you're here to pick up a brick or some other instrument, there's a problem."
At a news briefing Saturday, Fletcher said: "We're here to put to rest whether law enforcement is picking on civil protesters. We're not. ... We are aware of literally 250 groups that plan to protest, 250 planned protest groups we haven't investigated, looked at, explored. This is the only group that publicly, on the Internet and in other ways, has indicated, 'We have criminal intent.' "
A Ramsey County sheriff's office task force continues its investigation into the RNC Welcoming Committee, Fletcher said. They are working "in close communication with the FBI," he said. At the briefing, the task force showed the media some of the evidence it confiscated in several house raids Friday and Saturday.
"Long before we recovered this evidence here, we began an investigation into an obvious attempt to block the entrances into downtown St. Paul," Fletcher said.
Fletcher in the past questioned whether there would be enough officers to secure the convention and ensure overall safety during the event. Nestor questioned whether Fletcher's office taking the lead in the raids and arrests were part of a self-fulfilling doom-and-gloom forecast.
Fletcher maintains the RNC Welcoming Committee is a legitimate threat. He said it comprises 35 people who live locally but have recruited "literally hundreds of anarchists from around the country ... all with the same goal of blocking the streets and stopping delegates from getting into the convention."
Nestor said the group is a "much larger, looser organization" than 35 people and said, despite Fletcher's description, that it is not a criminal enterprise.
The RNC Welcoming Committee's Web site has never stated or discussed plans for violence during the RNC, including violence against law enforcement, Nestor said.
At 8 a.m. Saturday, the Ramsey County sheriff's office executed search warrants at three Minneapolis homes — 2301 23rd Ave. S., 3500 Harriet Ave. and 3240 17th Ave. S.
About 9:15 p.m. Friday, the sheriff's office executed a warrant at 627 Smith Ave. in St. Paul. The building is a former theater that the RNC Welcoming Committee and other groups are using as a center.
Some of the materials found could be regarded as ordinary household items. But Fletcher said his office has intelligence that people were intending to use them for criminal acts.
"We know that these items were going to be used because we had sources that were working inside," Fletcher said.
Fletcher said officers found large amounts of urine, including three- to five-gallon buckets, and they had information it would be thrown at police during the convention.
Nestor said he believes some of the alleged urine came from a garage that someone was living in at one of the Minneapolis homes. The garage doesn't have plumbing and the resident, who isn't involved in the case, urinates in a bucket, Nestor said.
Other buckets seized may not have been urine at all, Nestor said. There were buckets of water next to a toilet that people use to flush, in order to conserve water, he said.
The items seized, according to Fletcher's office, include: materials for creating "sleeping dragons" (PVC pipe, chicken wire, duct tape), a method by which protesters lock themselves together; wrist rocket slingshots; a gas mask and filter; homemade caltrops (devices Fletcher said could be used to disable buses on roads); empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields; and materials that Fletcher said could be made into Molotov cocktails.
Arrested at the 17th Avenue home were Monica Rachel Bicking, 23; Erin Chase Trimmer, 23; and Garrett Scott Fitzgerald, 25, Nestor said.
Nathanael David Secor, 26, was arrested at the 23rd Avenue South home.
Erik Charles Oseland, 21, was arrested at an undisclosed location, the sheriff's office said.
A judge has to review the case by Monday morning to determine whether there's probable cause to continue to hold them, Fletcher said.
David Bicking, of Minneapolis, said his daughter and her boyfriend were among those arrested. Monica Bicking has devoted herself to standing up for her rights and the rights of others, and he couldn't be more proud, her father said.
"In the last 24 hours, police haven't targeted criminals," David Bicking said Saturday. "These people are some of the best people in our society."
RNC Welcoming Committee member Tony Jones, reading from a statement at a Saturday news conference, said the searches were an effort to "derail RNC protest-organizing efforts and to intimidate and terrorize individuals and groups converging in the Twin Cities to exercise what are supposed to be their basic civil rights."
Separate from the RNC Welcoming Committee searches, other raids happened throughout Saturday.
Police surrounded a duplex at 951 and 949 Iglehart Ave. shortly after 1 p.m. Two women who left the house were handcuffed while officers waited nearly two hours for a search warrant to arrive. The other occupants remained in the house until it was searched, when they were taken to the back yard in handcuffs.
The search was connected to the convention, said St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh. Without elaborating, he said the home was being searched for "probable cause to believe there was illegal activity there."
There were at least 10 people in the home and most were out-of-town visitors who identified themselves as journalists. Some in the home are here to document police activities and possible police improprieties during the convention, said Eileen Clancy, a co-founder of I-Witness Video, a New York-based media group.
The search ended when police found nothing of interest.
Several squad cars pulled over a bus heading eastbound on Interstate 94 near Minnesota 280 around 6:20 p.m. Saturday and impounded the vehicle. No arrests were made.
Delyla Wilson, her husband and daughter live on the bus and use it as a mobile permaculture demonstration, going city to city to teach people about sustainable living practices. They made the RNC part of their tour.
Wilson said police told her at first it was a routine traffic stop, but then later said they were impounding the vehicle to execute a search warrant at a later time. Officers allowed the seven people on board to get their dogs and chickens off the bus, she said, but weren't allowed to retrieve their computers and other personal belongings. They waited about two hours to get a ride from a friend.
"We basically came out of there with our animals and the clothes on the back," Wilson said.
Dave Orrick and Megan Boldt contributed to this report.
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