Saint Paul, MN RNC City Hall “Community Meeting” to exclude community members

[Submitted directly to IFP via email]

Commentary by Lydia Howell follows EVENT info

EVENT:TONIGHT/WED.Sept. 24, 5:30pm
ST.Paul CITY HALL Community Conversation about RNC & the Police

ST. PAUL CITY HALL, 15 Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul

You can also call your St. Paul City Council member or Mayor Chris
Coleman: (651)266-8989
NOTE: St. Paul City Hall has said that if not enough people get to speak
at this meeting, another one will be scheduled soon. For more info:
http://www.stpaul.gov

Democracy or Public Relations at City Hall
by Lydia Howell

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the
government fears the people, there is liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson

Tonight St. Paul City Hall is holding what they’re calling a “community
conversation” about the actions and role that police played at the
Republican National Convention. However, St. Paul city officials have
already pre-selected who the “community representatives” are who will be
allowed to speak. This leads one to wonder just how those who are
elected to represent citizens define “community” and “conversation”.

Like the repressive police tactics at the RNC and the pre-RNC secret
meetings that Mayors and City Councils of both St. Paul and Minneapolis
held, this “conversation” calls into question about the state of our
democracy.

Ordinary citizens and groups working to organize peaceful protest at the
RNC were excluded from the decision-making process in St. Paul and
Minneapolis City Halls, that gave authority over local police to the
Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Secret Service. After
years of reporting on police accountability issues, that members of the
public were not part of this decision is no surprise to this writer.

In spite of voters creating the Civilian Review Authority (CRA) to
Minneapolis in 1990 referendum, Mayors, city council members, un-elected
officials, members of State legislators and the Police Federation (union
of police officers) have steadily worked to destroy the CRA’s ability to
be effective in addressing un-armed citizen complains of abuses,
brutality and murder at the hands of police. Police violence towards
unarmed, peaceful citizens exercising Constitutional rights of free
speech and freedom of assembly at the RNC was simply a variation on
police abuses that occur every day on Twin Cities streets–usually
against unarmed people of color and the poor.

St.Paul Mayor has appointed former United States Attorney Thomas
Heffelfinger and former Assistant United States Attorney Andy Luger to
conduct an “independent review of police actions at the RNC. (See the
press release from the City of St. Paul below) Heffelfinger has a
position with the re-election campaign of Republican U.S. Senator Norm
Coleman, which puts into question how “independent” he can be. So far,no
civil liberties attorneys or community members who have long worked on
police accountability to the community are part of this “independent”
review.

For citizens to be told that only pre-selected “community
representatives” can speak at St. Paul City Hall adds offensive insult
to the gross injuries by police at the RNC. To be told we have no right
to speak at a City Hall public meeting is to further have our First
Amendment rights violated. For “ordinary citizens” voices to once again
be censored, after what happened at the RNC protests, is another direct
assault on democracy.

Unfortunately, democracy has been taking hits like for many years.

For over 10 years, some have warned about the state of American
democracy at a national level. Ralph Nader, in his first presidential
campaign in 1996 and over the years since, has observed how corporate
lobbyists have access to members of Congress while grassroots
organizations and “ordinary citizens” are excluded. Anti-war activists
were ignored when they opposed the 2003 U.S. attack on Iraq–although,
opponents’ predictions about the failures of the invasion have proven
true—and the lies peace activists said that were being used to justify
the invasion, have been exposed.

But, the unraveling of American democracy didn’t start with George
W.Bush in the White House or ant it’s not just going on in Washington.

But, what I’ve discovered as a longtime community activist and as an
independent journalist, is that democracy is in deep trouble even closer
to home: at your local City Hall. Too often, city council members and
Mayors represent corporations and wealthy constituents to the detriment
to the rest of us. In fact, non-wealthy citizens and the grassroots
organizations they’ve formed are excluded from having any real input
into decisions impacting our neighborhoods, our schools, our public
services, our local economy, how our taxes are spent and, as we saw at
the RNC, whether our civil liberties will be respected.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are shoveled to already-fabulously
wealthy owners of professional sports team to build
Hundreds of millions of dollars to stadiums that most people can’t even
afford to go to. Meanwhile, public services all of us need have have
their budgets cut or eliminated. Public libraries, public park
recreational centers and community health clinics shorten hours. Schools
close.

Big developers get millions of tax dollars every year, with the promise
they will build “affordable housing”, but, the question is never asked,
“Affordable for WHO?” So, even as homelessness rises, condominiums—
built in-part with tax dollars–spring like mushrooms with price tags of
$200,000 to $1M. With the housing foreclosure crisis, more families face
the challenges of keeping a roof over their head with fewer and fewer
people able to find any kind of housing they can afford. The Department
of Housing and Urban Development says is “affordable” means paying 30%
of one’s income but, many people pay 50% to 70% of their income and live
on the edge financially, as a result.

“Economic development” is another corporate scam that our elected
officials, from City Hall to the State Legislature, use to give hundreds
of millions to corporations—with more (often unmet) promises to
“create jobs”– and often through threats to re-locate if their demands
for public money are not met. Think of it as a kind of corporate racket
to extort funds from the public. Take Target, who not only got somewhere
between $60M and $100M (the exact amount has never been disclosed) from
the Minneapolis City Council to build their new downtown store and
Corporate Headquarters. They also got an exemption form the local
ordinance that says corporations who get public money must pay the
living wage of at least $750 an hour. Taxpayers only helped create
mostly part-time $6-an-hour sales clerk jobs.

I don’t have an MBA but, it seems to me our tax dollars can be far
better spent to positively impact far more of our citizens. Low-interest
loans and grants for neighborhood-based local small businesses would
crate far more jobs. Investing in youth sports and other after-school
programs for ALL our kids should be a higher local government priority
than enriching the owners of the Twins and the Vikings.

How long can it be justified to subsidize big corporations while
starving public services that serve all of us–and too-often serve the
most vulnerable and needy? How long will people accept being excluded
from the decisions made by people we elect and who’s salaries we pay?

This is a reversal of democracy –which means no democracy at all.

Special interests–that is corporations and the wealthy–along with the
elected and appointed officials that serve them locally and nationally
would prefer that the rest of us leave the decision-making to them (as
we foot the bill.)

But, democracy is not a spectator sport. Democracy requires citizens’
participation beyond simply casting ballot for pre-selected candidates
every two to four years. Democracy demands accountability of those who
are elected to represent us.

Referring to the Thomas Jefferson quote at the beginning of this essay,
I wonder what it is St. Paul politicians are afraid to hear from
citizens? One way or another, at City hall meetings, by phone or letter,
make your voice heard—while you still can. Real democracy depends on it.

Lydia Howell is a Minneapolis independent journalist, winner of the 2007
Premack Award for Public Interest Journalism. She is also producer-host
of Catalyst on KFAI Radio. http://www.kfai.org

[The following generic letter received in response to my complaint to the mayor of St. Paul, Chris Coleman ~ Mikael]

Dear Mikael,
Thank you for contacting my office with concerns about public safety and first amendment rights with respect to the recent Republican National Convention in Saint Paul. I appreciate the opportunity to share our approach to accomplishing our main goal surrounding the convention ““ to maintain public safety while ensuring two critical functions: the convention be allowed to successfully conduct its business and protesters be able to exercise their first amendment rights.
Meeting the public safety needs of the convention with a multi-agency police force of 3,800 officers from around the state and country was no small feat. Law enforcement officials worked for nearly two years leading up to the RNC to determine the realm of potential threats to public safety and were firmly committed to preventing them from becoming reality. Thanks to their efforts, FBI, county and local agents executed search warrants at specific locations prior to the convention, and seized items intended to harm and harass police, visitors and businesses, from buckets of urine to explosive materials.
Saint Paul took a decidedly different approach to its police presence than other cities had in previous conventions, including the Democratic National Convention in Denver the previous week. We made a strategic decision to deploy the minimum amount of force necessary to ensure public safety. Instead of greeting visitors with police dressed in full riot gear, we employed officers dressed in ordinary police uniforms, riding bicycles and on horseback, and directed them to remain in small groups so their presence would be less prominent.
Our hope was that this strategy would suffice for the duration of the convention and the police presence on the streets of Saint Paul would be friendly and minimally visible. However, on Monday, our officers were confronted by rioters, intent on doing harm to persons and property in our city and thwarting the convention. At that time we had no choice but for our officers to wear protective riot gear as the escalated threat required a greater show of force and protection.
Despite being spit on, taunted, hit, kicked, and otherwise provoked, law enforcement professionals were patient and exercised restraint by not responding unless and until necessary to ensure public safety. Many of the suspects of crimes committed early in the week were apprehended in subsequent days, thus the arrests were not random but due to their alleged misconduct in previous incidents.
Those who chose to riot not only damaged property in the city, but they interfered with peaceful protesters legitimately attempting to express their opinions and right to free speech. Our efforts ensured that, despite rioters’ attempts, tens of thousands of people were able to exercise their first amendment rights in the form of legal protest marches and demonstrations and a free speech stage, all within sight and sound of the convention, an unprecedented achievement ““ and something we are very proud of.
Throughout the convention, our officers performed with professionalism, maintaining high integrity in the face of agitators, rioters intent on causing damage, and constant press scrutiny. At the time of an incident, police are trained to control the situation. They err on the side of caution and make their best individual judgments in doing so; however, officers are human. That is why we have a process in place to ensure that we prosecute only those for whom we can provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt of criminal wrongdoing. Without question, there were those who came to the RNC to express themselves peacefully and were pulled into the middle of chaotic scenes and arrested, which is regrettable. We are working diligently with the police and the City Attorney’s office to expedite the legal process as best we can to ensure that justice is served for everyone involved.
This experience is a learning opportunity for our city. We will thoroughly evaluate all of the public safety practices and policies we implemented. An independent review, led by former U.S. Attorney Thomas Heffelfinger and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, is already underway to help us discover the opportunities seized and lessons learned. If the review reveals evidence to substantiate any instances of police misconduct, the individuals involved will be held accountable. Any individuals with firsthand knowledge of specific incidents should contact the Police-Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission as soon as possible at (651) 266-5583.
Overall, the 2008 Republican National Convention was a success. We were able to showcase our city to 45,000 visitors, including 15,000 members of national and international media. Thousands raised their voices of dissent while the convention successfully conducted its business and delegates were left with a positive experience and impression of our region. In hosting an event of global significance, we planted a seed. We have told our story to the world and positioned Saint Paul well to host future events. On a national and international stage, our city shone in the spotlight, and Saint Paul stands to reap the rewards for years to come.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact my office. Your feedback is invaluable as we work to make Saint Paul the Most Livable City in America.
Sincerely,
§¨©ª
Christopher B. Coleman
Mayor