From the Welcoming Committee:
We Will Not Be Intimidated, 9/03/07
On Friday, August 31, nineteen people were arrested after police brutally attacked cyclists with Tasers, pepper spray, and excessive physical force. The cyclists were part of the monthly Critical Mass bike ride.
This month’s Critical Mass was a kick-off for the pReNC, a weekend of organizing against the Republican National Convention to be held in St. Paul in 2008. The RNC Welcoming Committee (RNC-WC), a group hosting the pReNC, gave a public speech before the ride exhorting riders to avoid confrontation throughout the weekend. While the police as a whole use excessive and brutal force in our communities on a daily basis, we feel that yesterday’s police response was highly inconsistent with their usual behavior.
The bikers did not provoke this incident, as they committed no violent or destructive acts. Unmarked cars filmed and targeted specific people. A State Patrol helicopter accompanied the entire event. Three police cars followed throughout the ride, attempting to intimidate the riders by sounding their sirens regularly and driving into the crowd, but issued no official dispersal orders.
Two cruisers- #993 and #998- drove into the back of the Mass at the corner of LaSalle and Grand. Witnesses report that at least one bicyclist was hit by a squad car. At this point, the police began to arrest and pepper spray those who had gathered at the site of the accident. They pointed Tasers at a nonviolent crowd, as if to create a sense of panic. Nearly twenty squad cars arrived on the scene. Over forty police created a line formation in which they advanced on bikers, arresting, and brutalizing those who fell behind.
One cyclist was pepper sprayed when she attempted to obey dispersal orders. She was then handcuffed and held to the ground as a third officer Tasered her in the neck. Witnesses were also pepper sprayed and Tasered and one bystander was amongst those arrested. Most of the nineteen arrestees were held on “Probable Cause” for Riot charges and their bail was set at $3000 each.
We believe that the police aggression experienced last night was a pre-meditated attempt to intimidate anti-RNC organizers. Although members of the RNC-WC were the intended recipients of police violence, the officers present exercised no discretion in their brutality. All Critical Mass riders were subject to the police’s use of unrestrained force. This was, with no question, a police practice run for next year’s RNC. When the RNC-WC says that the State brings violence to the streets and leaves people, pacifist or otherwise, with no peaceful option for resistance, these acts of brutal force are what we speak of. We do not expect the police to be held accountable by a system that necessitates their violence; however, we remain committed to confronting this repression wherever it exists and with whatever means available.
We will not be intimidated.
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19 people were attacked and then arrested by Minneapolis police Friday the 31st while participating in a Critical Mass during the pReNC. Tasers, pepperspray and mace were used. As well as severe violence and several attempts to run over cyclists.
A strong critical mass of around 400 or more cyclists were attacked by the police at the corners of LaSalle and Grant as the tail end of the Mass went under the bridge.
“They just drove into the crowd and nearly hit me, it was totally unprovoked” proclaimed a cyclist who was in the last 5 bikes.
After arresting one biker for allegedly “driving straight towards cars,” Massers turned back and swarmed the cops, chanting “let him go.” Unsurprisingly, since they were outnumbered 2 to 500ish, the cops let him go.
Half an hour later, another few bikers are arrested by cops (now following the Mass at the back). After bikers turn back to get legal information and collect badge numbers, suddenly a dozen or so squad cars show up. Unprovoked, the police start attacking the crowd, first with excessively violent arrests, then mace, pepper spray, brandishing batons and using tasers on bikers. They arrested at least one utterly uninvolved bystander just for taking pictures as well as several minors. The cops created a riot style line of police that arrested a cyclist who made the mistake of falling behind the others. According to an eyewitness as she attempted to move from behind the police line to join her friends she was told “Get of your bike and get on the ground.”
Around 20 people were arrested as the police force of Minneapolis flexes its brutality in the midsts of the PreNC anarchist and anti-authoritarian planning happening during this weekend.
