KSTP reports on the various raids on homes of RNC Welcoming Committee organizers and Mike Whalen, hosting cop watch videographers i-Witness Video, the report clumsily conflating all the homes raided and everyone arrested as "anarchists".
While the collection of things seized from the various homes looks frightening when you see them all together, remember this is a police press conference to justify--among other raids--one raid on i-Witness Video (from which nothing at all was seized and no one was arrested) and the August 26th harassment of NY-based videographer group Glassbead Collective which caused a huge outcry.
Additionally, most of the items could be found in any Twin Cities home. How many American homes have a baseball bat, rags, or an axe in them? Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher describes the collection of everything as "tools used by anarchists". Fletcher displays buckets of what the residents' lawyer claims is gray water (kitchen sink water used to flush toilets) seized from one raid and claims "They've been collecting urine for some time".
Authorities raid anarchist group location in St. Paul |