RNC – Day 4

We wandered to the State Capitol building at around 3:30 pm and within 15 minutes the police swarmed in on bikes and horses and arrested a couple of young looking kids who were just sitting there on the lawn. The police wouldn’t answer as to why they were being arrested. It was just a show of force to let people know that they were ready to go on the final day, a day that had been predicted to have the largest show of violence of the week.

That event kicked off a march. The permit had expired by this time, but it didn’t stop people from marching. It was cut off by the police at every bridge leading downtown. They had to keep delegates and protesters separated, and they did. There were about three standoffs which, despite a few pepper-spray instances, broke down without a large incident.

We broke off to head to the convention when we saw that the group began marching again and was coming toward us. We asked if we could be let through the police line to head downtown and were laughed at by a smug officer who reveled in his ability to make us walk an extra 3/4 mile to get around the police line. Then, while walking off, I believe we intentionally got REALLY bad directions (which we thankfully chose to ignore) from another officer. Whatever. Some of the police had a good nature despite the situation, and some didn’t.

That smug officer actually did me a favor though. At Sunset, while walking all the way around the world to get to the Excel Energy Center to catch McCain’s speech I ran into Mark Jensen, an old friend and mentor who I hadn’t seen since a few years after college. He is an insightful documentary photographer who got me hooked on photography while teaching me how to print b&w photos for the Instructional Support Services department at the University of St. Thomas. He was there with his wife Abbey. We were talking about the scene around town this week when, from about a half-mile away, we began to hear the firing of the smoke grenades and tear gas canisters.

We said goodbye and I told them I was going to go check out the Marion bridge. Police had the each entrance of the bridge blocked. The south entrance was barricaded with two snowplows and a couple other vehicles. On the north side of the bridge stood a thick line of police officers. Sitting down in between, on the bridge, were the 290 people being arrested one-by-one, while further to the north people could be seen moving around in a well-lit parking lot.

Police kept onlookers at a pretty good distance, and without a long lens, it was difficult to see anything. It was getting late and McCain’s speech was starting soon, so I went to the Excel Energy Center.

I got in and made a couple of laps around the 100 level. I couldn’t get on to the floor so I was stuck in the cheap seats, which was just fine. I was able to make a couple of pictures from the hallway around the convention and after the balloons dropped I headed down to the floor where there were all kinds of TV interviews happening and balloons popping, and people tearing down and cleaning up. I met a couple very nice people down there and had fun hanging out on the stage.

The night ended at The Smiling Gnome where we discoverd the wonders of Cliff Richard and watched a so-bad-its-good Billy Squire video. The bar was open until 4 am and had food and wireless access. We were there until about 3:45 when my sister-in-law took me to the airport for a 6 am flight. Plane..sleep…over.

RNC – Day 3

Wednesday, Day 3, at the RNC was relatively calm for me, and it was just what I needed after the previous night. Tuesday was a strange night because within a half hour I went from being in the middle of a police action, in which I inhaled tear gas and was pepper sprayed, to eating dinner with my family at the Green Mill restaurant in St. Paul. I almost didn’t make it to dinner but I got some great help from a couple of protesters who let me use their phone (mine was out of juice) to call my sister-in-law to let her know where I was. She and my brother then picked me up on John Ireland Boulevard while I tried to circumvent the police lines and make it to our meeting place so we could go to dinner. We were 5 minutes late, but I think that was a victory. I got to see my ENTIRE immediate family and my cousin who came out to meet us. It’s always great to hang out with family. It’s even better when my mom has a couple beers, which she did. This time was just as much fun, but it was definitely an odd feeling sitting in a restaurant enjoying the time while knowing what had just happened downtown. The dichotomy between freedom and a police state became strikingly clear. At one point, footage from earlier in the night came on television and I saw myself running away from the police while sitting in the restaurant eating my meal.

I spent most of Wednesday hanging out in Rice Park where the light was beautiful and bouncing around between the tall, light colored buildings that acted like giant reflectors. It was nice to be able to slow down for a minute. On top of that I ran into a couple of friends from Minnesota who I haven’t seen in a while. Mentally it was a good day, and I made a few photos before heading into the Excel Energy Center just in time to hear speeches by Rudy “drill baby drill” Giuliani and Sarah Palin.

RNC – Day 2

Day 2 at the RNC got started with a concert up the street at the State Capitol building. Anti-Flag played the last set, but Rage Against The Machine is in town and once word got out that the group was there on the grounds, anticipation began to build in the crowd in hopes of a show. The police felt the anticipation too as was evident by the third helicopter that began circling the area following the Anti-Flag show. Despite plenty of encouragement from the crowd, they did not play. However, Zack de la Rocha still came out to address the group and RATM blue balls was somewhat avoided. He asked people to be thoughtful about their protests, and spoke about the working class commonalities between the protesters and many of the police, encouraging opposition to be aimed toward the people INSIDE the Excel Energy Center. He then held a memorable two-song a capella show with a mega-phone.

The march that followed began and ended peacefully, but once it broke up it was designated an unlawful assembly by the chief of police, who made the announcement over a loudspeaker with nearly a hundred riot police lined up at the intersection. Next to the famous Mickey’s Diner people were warned about the use of chemical agents if they did not disperse. The crowd began to leave…slowly. They must not have been moving quickly enough however because after about 10 minutes a concussion grenade was launched, followed by smoke bombs, tear gas, and pepper spray. I did not see any sort of instigation for the action (unlike the day before where protesters ran directly into a police line), and heard the same report echoed on CNN later that night.