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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
What the fuck??? This report (thankyou Mr. Greenwald)... shows how vital it is to get the criminal Republican cabal out of all public office wherever they might be. This kind of action is proof that the Republican's are the greatest threat to America in the history of our union.
Glenn, please change the headline on the article. As far as I can tell, these raids have all been in Ramsey County, which contains St. Paul but not Minneapolis (which is in Hennepin County). All of the reports have referred to the Ramsey Co. sheriff's office, headed by the controversial Bob Fletcher, carrying out the raids. But have any of the raids occurred in Mpls or anywhere else outside Ramsey County?
I just checked the Star Tribune site and evidently the Ramsey co. sheriff's did raid homes in Minneapolis, acting outside their jurisdiction(!?)
I just checked the Star Tribune site and evidently the Ramsey co. sheriff's did raid homes in Minneapolis, acting outside their jurisdiction(!?)
Yes - that's part of what is so odd about this. I'm not from the area so don't understand the jurisdictional intricacies, but the 2 houses we were at were definitely in Minneapolis. You can see that the police officer posted outside the house that we spoke with was with the MPD, and there seems to be some Minneapolis politicians angry that the Sheriff's Office is acting outside their jurisdiction. There's some indication that there's a federal connection there, which I'm trying to understand and get a clearer sense of.
Just like they did on FISA -- hey if you keep voting Democratics and Republicans-- this is what is going to happen, coming to your home soon.....
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and believing you will get a different result. It is time for 3rd party's to get elected. The current parties didn't use to exist , as time goes by parties are replaced -- and it is time to replace the current main parties.
NOTHING will change if you don't give up on both of these parties, they are to far gone, and to corrupt.
Take a risk and do something sane.
When religion is in every stump speech from both parties, and religion has more influence than science on all government policy, theocracy is not far behind. The religious wacko's on the right might be more vocal, but they exist in the Democratic houses to.... they are not going to repeal any of the Republican power grabs from the last 40 years -- especially the limiting of women's rights, repealing affirmative action laws -- they are going to keep doing no matter which major party is in office.
Let's work backwards from that assumption.
A place to start, at least?
So, both journalists and lawyers -- in addition to protesters -- have been detained and arrested even though not a single violent or criminal act has occurred. (Glenn G.)
There has to be a joke about lawyers, journalists, and being conflicted in that sentence someplace; but I'll let The Daily Show handle it for now.
The story is not getting much play (yet) in the places that I would expect a little help. One would hope to see Raw Story have it on their site by now.
The only assumption I can see worth "working back" from is that the raiders were not worried about backlash. Why should they, when the media report their illegal raids as routine?
And when the police don't need to worry about being widely perceived as heavy-handed, how can one conclude that they feel more threatened than before, as some have commented?
I doubt there is any precedent for such behavior anyway. Criminals back down when they are surrounded. Did the cops in Birmingham suspect that the entire nation would be shamed?
Dear Glenn,
thanks as always for your excellent work.
What can I do to bring the people who invaded these homes to justice ?
We fought a war of independence partly because of armed men invading
our homes. I want the names of the armed uniformed men who assaulted
these citizens, and I want them to be criminally charged. How do we do this ?
Of course I will continue to support the ACLU to defend the victims.
But what do we do about pursuing the criminals ? I don't simply want
the politicians to be embarrassed. People should know that if they invade
americans' homes and point semi-automatic weapons in our faces, they
will have to go to jail. This is the only deterrent. There is a whole police/ political
class that has never seen any democratic feedback. So they are in effect
not part of the democracy.
These people have brought Iraq back to america, into our homes.
I cannot accept this.
best,
Joseph Walsh, previous Minneapolis resident
p.s. They were wearing masks, so they were aware of their culpability.
The local law enforcement in this story confounds me. What interest do they really have in carrying out these ill-advised raids? You'd think on a local level, a commander or incident commander would simply say "I'm not risking my men for this nonsense." You're trained to think about these things first so that you don't take your group out unnecessarily. Anytime a SWAT team goes out with live automatic weapons, your team members are in a risky situation, even if it's only with regard to an accidental shooting among the group. Which is why you don't deploy over nothing. Which is what they did, knowingly.
Great reporting on an important story. Thanks.
If a warrant lists the presence of feces as a possible terrorist weapon, then that's an ingenious way to arrest absolutely everybody.
"Defendant was found to be in possession of feces, your honor."
"In a bag? In a bucket?"
"He was hiding them, your honor."
In addition to the FBI, the Secret Service could have jurisdiction. So that would muddy who can do what although I suspect the authorities had it worked out before they raided.
This kind of raid happens dozens, if not hundreds, of times every day in the land of the free.
It may draw a few headlines in some minor places but it won't hit the big time.
Rather like the literal WMD that was found in the possession of a terrorist cell in Tyler Texas in the fall of 2002 never made the national media. The reason such a find never made the media? It was the KKK which had the sodium cyanide bomb capable of killing thousands of people.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p02s01-usju.html
Can you imagine the headlines if this anarchist group had been found with a sodium cyanide bomb? FUX, MSRNC, CBS, ABC, and all the rest would talk about little else for weeks on end.
It isn't the event or behavior itself that collects headlines so much as it is the identity of those involved in the event.
KKK has WMDs? Ho-hum, boys will be boys.
Earth First burns a couple of SUVs? Scream it from the rooftops with a gigawatt PA system.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
