Free Speech Suppressed, Speaker Detained by Police at MPLS City Council Meeting
Submitted by haloka on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 21:59.
7/28: The city of Minneapolis censored the protest from the video of last week's city council meeting! Usually the city posts video from beginning to end for the public to view - but the video for Friday's meeting only begins after protesters left the council chambers. The video is available from Kare 11 here - scroll down to find it.
UPDATE: 10:45 AM: After the "public hearing" on the steps of City Hall, outraged activists and residents entered the City Council chamber at the beginning of their meeting and served each city council member with a statement of reprobation. One activist, Jude Ortiz of Coldsnap Legal Collective, attempted to address the council by reading the statement and promptly was hauled away by police. In the face of claims from council members that they value free speech, the actions in their own chamber provided clear evidence to the contrary.
The police initially indicated that Ortiz would be taken to Hennepin County Jail. However, about 40 minutes later, supporters learned that he was actually detained - not arrested - at MPD's first precinct, and then released without being charged!
Much more info: Press release from Friday's action
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At a Minneapolis City Council committee meeting July 16, a back-room deal by council members resulted in the unanimous passing of a resolution stripping away important protections for free speech and against police brutality. Denied a public hearing of their own, a broad coalition of Twin Cities-based activists will be holding its own public hearing at a 9am rally outside City Hall on Friday morning before the City Council meeting at 9:30.
The meeting comes 8 years plus one day after one of the most notorious instances of police misconduct against activists in MPD history, during the ISAG demonstrations in 2000.
Come downtown at 9am if you can, and come back to TC Indymedia later today for a report on the public hearing and council meeting!
See also: http://tc.indymedia.org/2008/jul/city-council-committee-passes-watered-d...
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At a meeting of the Minneapolis City Council’s Public Safety and Regulatory Services Committee on July 16, the committee unanimously passed an amended resolution that strips away important protections for free speech. The committee passed this amended resolution without a public hearing and the City Council is set to pass it Friday morning, also without a public hearing, thus denying the public the opportunity to participate in the democratic process. With the upcoming Republican National Convention on most activists’ minds, there was broad opposition to the resolution but they were not allowed to voice their opinions.
In response, a broad coalition of Twin Cities-based activists will be holding its own public hearing at a rally outside City Hall on Friday morning before the City Council meeting at 9:30 a.m.
WHERE: Minneapolis City Hall, 350 South 5th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415.
WHEN: Friday, July 25, 9:00 a.m.
The amended resolution gives the police the right to use rubber bullets and other projectiles on protestors when they feel it is reasonable to do so. It also gives them the power to confiscate, destroy, or tamper with cameras if they could be used as evidence. These new powers put demonstrators, legal observers, the public at large, and the media at great risk of harm and repression. By passing this amended resolution without public input, the City Council has demonstrated its contempt for the democratic process, its lack of concern for the safety of its constituents, and its willingness to trample their rights. At the rally Friday morning, the public will have the opportunity to voice opposition to the Council’s outrageous resolution and undemocratic practices.
This public hearing/rally is being organized by a broad coalition of Twin Cities-based activists who oppose the Minneapolis City Council giving the Minneapolis Police Department carte blanche to intimidate and brutalize protestors who are exercising their constitutional rights. The activists in this coalition are members of a variety of organizations that promote different causes and practice different tactics, thus attesting to the sweeping nature of the Council’s actions and the broad-based opposition to this travesty for civil rights.
free speech
The only free speech being suppressed was the Mayors. How can we argue free speech when we refuse to allow those against us to speak. It works both ways, and makes us appear hypocritical.
because...
...the mayor doesn't already have the opportunity to speak anytime he wants to?
or because somehow, standing idly by while cops beat community organizers unconscious qualifies as some kind of "speech" that ought to be protected?
this is the same argument that says we shouldn't shut down the convention because republicans have a right to free speech too - it's not about speech, it's about what they're doing, which is killing the planet. please, it's time to identify with the oppressed, not the oppressors.
Protest video available online
It's through the corporate media, but worth a view anyhow:
http://www.kare11.com/video/default.aspx?menuid=63
Please stop whining.
Thank you.
After all, who needs accountability or the rule of law, anyway?
Lets police Champlin, Maple Grove, or Eden Prairie with police recruited largely from the 3rd and 4th Precincts in Minneapolis, and populate juries hearing the resulting prosecutions by residents of these same precincts. Don't "whine" when police break into peoples' houses, beat or kill them and are rewarded with a nice paid vacation.