RNC '08 Report Note
November 19th, 2008—The photo repeatedly mentioned is the first in the series below. All three photos are from Getty Images photographer Max Whittaker and, while the police may have found it on the Internet, it is not a "public domain" image as claimed, and the police certainly has no authority to grant use for the photo as Sheriff Fletcher does.
At the press conference, Police Chief John Harrington repeatedly asserts that the man "didn't seem much in terms of a counter protester in my experience... I really have not seen much about that, either in my reports or in the news coverage of that", and repeatedly asserts that he was "a peaceful protester" from the March Against the RNC to Stop the War earlier in the day. The original photographer's caption attached to the image of the man--carrying a "Victory over terrorism: Let our soldiers WIN!" poster--states that he is "a counter protester".
The other incident given key attention during the press conference was of a protester banging on the hood and window of a silver car. Similar situations occur regularly on intersections in the Twin Cities, when cars accelerate towards a pedestrian or cut them off.
You don't see this that immediately from the footage but, if you watch it cyclically, you eventually notice that the protester in question is initially hidden from our view point by the bridge--but not hidden from the driver's view. In other words, prior to the incident, the driver is rapidly accelerating directly towards the protester.
I have seen pedestrians react in a similar situation on cross-walks in the Twin Cities. While that doesn't make it right, we need to recognize that nothing being presented here is a major crime that deserves the breathless attention it is getting, or rather has been given. This is clearly an attempt to divert attention from the more prevalent police public relations problem: widely-documented and excessive force against nonviolent protesters as standard police policy during the RNC. This press conference is about making a lot of smoke where--if we're honest with ourselves--there's not really much of a fire.
This press conference took place the same day as the RNC Public Review Safety Commission's public hearing to hear testimonies about police behavior. Fletcher and Harrington have a noticeable pattern of holding police press conferences on the same day as events where members of the public are being encouraged testifying about police brutality. This issue is discussed in the RNC '08 Report's submission to the RNC Public Review Safety Commission.
An anarchist/anti-authoritarian group in Milwaukee produced a B&W zine, Becoming Riot, that Sheriff Fletcher distributed as part of the media handouts during the press conference as it mentioned the attack on the counter protester. The zine strangely--when considering this is being handed out at a Fletcher press conference--includes some anti-Fletcher narrative that characterizes him as a media spotlight-seeker who "made a spectacle of himself on television" during the RNC.
The zine also contains parts of the story of "Panda", the paid and presumably to-be-kept-anonymous "Confidential Reliable Informant" whose testimony was quoted in the application for several RNC-related search warrants and in the legal charges against the "RNC 8", members of the RNC Welcoming Committee who were charged with "conspiracy to riot... in furtherance of terrorism." As an undercover infiltrator, "Panda" was involved in building the case against the RNC Welcoming Committee.
Considering the "Panda" narrative in the zine tells the same story told by several people who personally knew him and know the key role he played in facilitating direct action protests that the police were supposedly trying to stop, one would imagine the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department would not want to draw any attention to this man. If the trial of the RNC 8 goes ahead, the "Panda" story will end up being one of the most interesting aspects of the case.
Image Gallery
Click for larger images.
ST. PAUL, MN - SEPTEMBER 1: Protestors and a counter-protestor struggle in the streets outside the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Xcel Energy Center September 1, 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The RNC began today and runs through September 4. (Photo by Max Whittaker/Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - SEPTEMBER 1: Protestors and a counter-protestor struggle in the streets outside the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Xcel Energy Center September 1, 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The RNC began today and runs through September 4. (Photo by Max Whittaker/Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - SEPTEMBER 1: Protestors and a counter-protestor struggle in the streets outside the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Xcel Energy Center September 1, 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The RNC began today and runs through September 4. (Photo by Max Whittaker/Getty Images)
Related Links
Becoming Riot - the zine distributed during the press conference.