RNC Welcoming Committee

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 2008-09-05 18:49.

I've been following the protests in the Twin Cities this week. As usual, the Po-po have been ultra-violent, while the protesters have been mostly peaceful. Yes, a few protesters broke windows, and one even pushed a cop who deserved a lot more than that, but the biggest "crime" of most of them was blocking traffic, and many who were assaulted, arrested, and tortured in lock-up didn't even do that.

Stories and links at Twin Cities Indymedia. Videos at subMedia.tv.

A lot of the pig attention went to the RNC Welcoming Committee, a small group of anarchists who have been working for over a year to plan this week's civil disobedience. The police broke down some of their doors, and marched in with guns drawn, with a search warrant for all sorts of things that nearly everybody has in their house, but that could be used violently. Yeah. Right. And I can kill a man with my bare hands in 10 seconds. Does that make my hands illegal? Not unless I have the intention of committing murder.

The RNC Welcoming Committee members who are not in jail decided to hold a press conference with the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. It's available, in nine parts, on three pages at IndyBay.org: Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3. It's about an hour and twenty minutes all told, but part 8 was my favorite. Shamako Noble speaks very well in the ten minute clip below.

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I transcribed his conclusion:

Quote:
There is no reason for 400 armored, tear-gassed-up, cops to be out here doing what they're doing. There's no reason for it. And all they're trying to do is find ways to convince you that there is. And if you guys are gonna let them do so, with explosives and urine that they have not been able to produce, you're not leaving the America people with many options. And that's what this is really about. This is not about the protesters. It is in some degree about the police. But let me tell you somethin'. What's happening here in this city is happening all, over, America. All over America police are tasing people like they have lost their minds. They are shooting people, and they are not being held accountable. They are beating. They are unjustifiably incarcerating. And you know what? This isn't even new. You know what? It's not even political all the time. You guys have watched crime shows. You guys have seen [sotto voice], "Oh, and it turns out the detective ten years later found out that this other detective was completely wrong. In the meantime, this person's been in jail for ten years. Woops." Well, you know, at one point or another, "Woops" has gotta stop being acceptable.

You do not have to look that hard to find that we have a broken justice system. It is obvious. It is obvious. And if you guys would like me to provide you with documentation, web sites, individuals, experts, lawyers, come see me, after this press conference, and we can work on this. We can turn it into an exposé. We can turn it into a special report. Whatever we need to do to make that happen, let's make it happen. But let's stop pretending that the people, who are simply trying to fight, so that we can survive, are wrong. We are just the American people, trying to take our country back. Can you report that, please? Thank you.

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Complete transcript of Noble's Speech
Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 2008-09-07 06:44.

There's a complete transcript of Mr. Noble's speech at Daily Kos.

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