The question being asked, even by some Republican National Convention officials, is “What are the St. Paul police thinking?” While McCain and Palin have been holding one spotlight, police in riot gear have tear gassed crowds within the “protest” lot, far from the convention center and under permit, have jailed more than 300 people in the first three-days of the RNC including accredited journalists and been accused of multiple beatings.
Since protesters are expected, allowed and given their own space at every Convention or major gathering from the Oscars to the Superbowl, no alleged police brutality like this has happened in four decades. Police detained, and in some cases clubbed according to videos, reporters from PBS to the local colleges. Sometimes the protesters were charged, other times just held in jail for 48 hours and released. The comparison just became inevitable to Chicago Mayor Daley’s notoriously violent police actions at the ‘68 Democratic Convention, where the tear gas and clubbing of activists became part of history as well as every 60s montage ever seen on the decade. more
