The Election Cut
[terrorizingdissent.org] Glass Bead Collective, Twin Cities
Indymedia, and other independent media activists have released a new
film, ‚Terrorizing Dissent‘, an exposé of events at the 2008 Republican
National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Featuring
first-person accounts and footage from more than forty cameras on the
streets, ‚Terrorizing Dissent‘ focuses on the story of dissent
suppressed. People charged with "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of
terrorism" speak out against the government’s campaign to manipulate
media coverage and label civil disobedience and community organizing as
terrorism.
"If civil disobedience becomes framed
as ‚terrorism‘ … that’s baloney. And the reason they’re waving the
T-word around, there’s one reason and one reason only, because they
want to squash dissent and they want to justify what the police do in
the effort of squashing that dissent."
Michelle Gross, Communities United Against Police Brutality
‚Terrorizing
Dissent‘ shows the results of the $50 million dollars the Department of
Homeland Security gave to local authorities for security — a large
chunk of which went to weaponize the police — and the $10 million
insurance policy contract between the RNC Host Committee and the City
of St. Paul, which shattered Minnesota’s civil compact between
protesters and police.
Effectively, the Republican National
Committee provided financial cover for the widespread, organized
suppression of dissent. The FBI and Secret Service coordinated with
local police to raid homes and work spaces before the RNC even began.
On the streets, the government’s intimidation strategy shut down
peaceful protests through the heavy use of tear gas, pepper spray, stun
grenades, rubber bullets, and other projectiles. This excessive use of
force followed months of harassment and surveillance of community
activists. At every stage, local officials have refused to release the
documentation behind what they did, from the origins of dubious search
warrants to joint powers agreements.
The Republican Party’s
efforts to control the message and crush dissenting voices were led by
one of the top local Republicans, troubled Ramsey County Sheriff Bob
Fletcher, who personally spearheaded the "pre-emptive raid" strategy
and spun the media by claiming captured household items were weapons
(most notably, the buckets of recycled grey water he dubbed "urine").
At every stage, from fake urine to riot threats, messages of fear were
distributed to chill Minnesotans from exercising their First Amendment
rights.
Just days before Fletcher launched high-profile
preemptive raids against protesters, two of his closest aides, Mark
Naylon and Timothy Rehak, were found guilty on federal charges after
they attempted to steal $6,000 in an FBI sting. To shore up his murky
political future, Fletcher staged an authoritarian spectacle
unparalleled in Minnesota history.
"We have
unlawful search and seizure. We have unlawful arrest without probably
cause…. Mass arrest and detention without probable cause…. Then you
have excessive force. Spraying people point blank range with mace who
aren’t resisting and who are peaceful is excessive force. Beating
people in jail is excessive force… Those all should be criminal
complaints. They’ll never be charged as such by any prosecutor."
Bruce Nestor, National Lawyers Guild
As
local Democratic officials cautiously stepped back, Fletcher put
himself in front of a classic "security theater" media campaign to
create a non-existent enemy, equate civil disobedience with terrorism,
and move in to attack peaceful protests. This plan culminated with the
blocking and flashbang bombing of a peaceful march organized by
anti-war activists on September 4th as John McCain delivered his
acceptance speech at the Xcel Center.
Within weeks, John
McCain’s campaign turned to attacking Barack Obama on the same grounds
as the RNC Welcoming Committee, a group that provided logistical help
such as housing, food and a convergence center for demonstrators.
This
rapidly produced "election cut" shows how the government — even in a
liberal state like Minnesota — easily rolled over to domestic
militarization and criminal abandonment of Constitutional freedoms. As
the Republican National Convention paved the way for a fall of
terrifying national instability and financial chaos, Americans need to
know about the techniques used to silence Minnesota.
Cut from
hundreds of hours of donated footage, "Terrorizing Dissent" has been
released for free on the Internet in HD, FLV and Quicktime formats,
under the Creative Commons / CopyLeft license, and its producers
encourage everyone to share this important film. More video releases
are planned; stay tuned to this website for updates.
Glassbead Collective (glassbeadcollective.org), based in New York City,
brings together individuals from diverse academic and professional
backgrounds including video art, film, theater, architecture, photography,
music, mathematics, fine arts and philosophy to create works which
re-contextualize culture and the world in which we find ourselves today.
Twin Cities Indymedia (twincities.indymedia.org)
is the local chapter of the international Indymedia network, a
collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of
journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a
democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and
passionate tellings of truth. Twin Cities Indymedia provided
up-to-the-minute coverage of the St. Paul’s Republican National
Convention with news and media straight from the streets. As an
entirely volunteer-run organization, the Tech Collective handles the
Web platform, and the passionate observers of the Editorial Collective
write stories and fend off spam. TC Indymedia plans to organize a new
video project collective as an extension of the work behind producing
‚Terrorizing Dissent.‘
