There are 13 documents in the RNC Commission Archive category... See anything missing? Mass Arrests and the Heffelfinger-Luger Report  The phrase “mass arrest” appears in the main body of the Heffelfinger-Luger report 11 times. At the official presentation of the report at the St. Paul City Council on January 14th, the phrase was used hesitantly, almost reverentially as if to state the obvious would somehow have been the wrong thing to do.... The RNC Review Commission report deals with one of the clearest problems with police actions—three mass arrests—in a completely unsatisfying way. Mass arrests are illegitimate and unconstitutional because people should only be arrested if they have committed a crime. Mass arrests target the innocent as well as the guilty. They are a form of lazy, intimidating, and civil rights-abusing police work. They expose and exploit the innocent rather than protect and serve them. [Read more]RNC Photos: Exhibit 2 (8_31_08 evidence) Exhibits from the RNC Commission Report  There is no index in the online RNC Public Safety Review Commission's report of what these items are. Exhibits are referred to throughout the text of the report. The 48 photographs only titled "Exhibit 2 (8_31_08 evidence)". There were no August 31st raids to the best of our knowledge. This is therefore most likely to be a massed collection of "evidence" from several of the raids of items Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher paraded repeatedly on television in the days after the pre-Convention raids. [Read more]Initial Reactions to the Heffelfinger-Luger RNC Commission Report  I was tempted to preface the title of this article with "Some Very Initial Reactions..." simply because of the sheer size of of the report and its attachments. The Executive Summary is 15 pages long and the Main Report text reaches 82 pages, not including a 6-page index and "Exhibits" which include 21 multipage PDF files, 58 video files ranging in length from 5 seconds to over an hour, and 8 galleries of extremely slow-loading, poorly labeled, high resolution images. Although I was already familiar with around one-quarter of the supplementary documents listed, I'll still need another week to get through it all. [Read more]Report of the Republican National Convention Public Safety Planning and Implementation Review Commission On January 14th, the St. Paul City Council heard a presentation by former United States Attorney Tom Heffelfinger and former Assistant United States Attorney Andy Luger on their review of public safety planning and implementation during the Republican National Convention. The report text is available here. [Read more] Presentation of the Heffelfinger-Luger Commission report at the St. Paul City Council  A 70 minute video. In a dramatic public meeting, former United States Attorney Tom Heffelfinger and former Assistant United States Attorney Andy Luger present the findings from their review of public safety planning and implementation during the Republican National Convention. Introduction by Mayor Chris Coleman. Among other classic moments includes Tom Heffelfinger claiming that "urine and feces was utilized as a weapon against the police" and Andy Luger advising other cities planning to have a similar convention to "prepare" the population by showing them pictures of riot police. [Read more]Preparing for the worst: The coming Heffelfinger/Luger report on RNC policing Due on December 15th, most observers assume a frustrating result  LET THE RNC '08 REPORT ARCHIVE YOUR SUBMISSION TO THE RNC PUBLIC REVIEW SAFETY COMMISSION! Just a few days after the RNC dust settled, it was announced that the City of St. Paul hired former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger and former assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Luger to review police plans and how they were carried out during the Republican National Convention. What became immediately clear was that the independent review would not be a fact-finding mission to explore allegations of police wrongdoing or violations of people's rights... [Read more] Cover letter to RNC Commission with list of attachments I did not have time to write you a short submission, so I wrote you a long submission. This length is due, in part, to the fact that I have detailed factual information that you have not received from any other person which should be very relevant to your inquiry into the treatment of journalists during the convention. Because I and two other lawyers were retained by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press specifically to help with RNC planning and performance regarding treatment of journalists, we were uniquely situated to witness facts relevant to that inquiry. [Read more] Comments for Ad Hoc St. Paul RNC Review Commission I am a 61 year old attorney, practicing 31 years in St. Paul, where I grew up. I believe I have facts relevant to your Committee’s charge based upon my own personal involvement with pre- RNC planning activities by government personnel regarding treatment of journalists; and based upon my own direct observation of and participation in events during the RNC on Sept 1 and Sept 4. I also believe I have some relevant comments and observations for the Committee. I urge you to consider that some ominous and unfortunate events transpired in St. Paul, and they must be understood so mistakes may be corrected whenever possible. [Read more] Submission to RNC Public Safety Commission: Loitering with intent to jaywalk Thursday afternoon, September 4, 2008, I spent helping photographer Jason Nicholas (released from jail the night before after being arrested on Monday) get fed, get back his equipment (personally delivered by Tom Walsh), get money at Western Union and new contact lenses, and returned to where he was staying. Then I thought I would circle the area around downtown to see how things were winding down, hoping to get a glimpse at the remnants of the event at the Capitol and of what sort of gathering was occurring at the Free Speech triangle near Xcel, hoping to then make it to Peace/Harriet Island to partake in the making of a planned huge human formation of a peace sign. [Read more] Letter to Andrew Luger In connection with Mr. Hefflefinger’s and your ongoing evaluation of police planning and actions during the RNC, I was wondering if you might be checking as to whether any of the law enforcement and/or intelligence agencies involved in security for the RNC have collected information on peace and/or social activist organizations. Such improperly overbroad collection was recently uncovered in Maryland and there have been other known instances in the country post 9-11 as well. [Read more] Submission to the RNC Public Review Safety Commission  While the deadline for submissions to the RNC Commission has passed, the very way the Commission has gone about engaging the public has made it very difficult for the deadline to be met or the Commission to gather the testimony it needs to come to an informed conclusion. Despite a declared $100,000 budget, there were no advertisements in the local media concerning the existence, mandate, nor any submission information for the Commission. If encouraging people to testify to the Commission was important to the Commission this would not have been the case. [Read more]Letter to RNC Review Public Safety Commission Thank you for your interest in meeting to discuss the Republican National Convention. During the convention I spent more than 50 hours on the streets of St. Paul and Minneapolis, I witnessed, first-hand, the events as they unfolded. Since the convention, I have reviewed over 100 hours of video depicting protester actions and police conduct. I observed countless acts of professionalism on behalf of the police officers assigned to this endeavor. They were extremely disciplined and performed in an exemplary fashion. Mobile field force members followed their training and performed as directed by the plan. While the overall plan was sound there was, however, one significant shortcoming that impacted the public's perception and the tactics of police intervention. I offer this observation in the hopes that your review will lay the groundwork for improved planning of future events. [Read more] |
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