from Press TV:
St. Paul police have used tear gas, pepper spray and flash grenades against protestors on the second day of the Republican National Convention.
Several loud bangs heard outside the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, on Tuesday morning were revealed by security officials to be police setting off ‘chemical munitions’ to disperse a crowd.
Commander Doug Holtz of the Joint Information Center in St. Paul, a coalition of secret service and law enforcement officials, told ABC that police had used ‘distraction devices’ which he said included tear gas and ‘flashbangs’ which produce intense light and a deafening bang.
Police also used pepper spray and made three arrests during a protest of about 2,000 people to highlight poverty and homelessness.
The march, which was organized by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, was shadowed by hundreds of law enforcement officers in riot gear and on horseback.
On Monday, St. Paul police arrested nearly 300 people including AP photographer Matt Rourke and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman along with two of her producers.
Goodman was arrested as she asked police in riot gear about the status of producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Footage of her arrest, seemingly only for inquiring about her colleagues, was the number one viewed Youtube video on Tuesday.
Gena Berglund of the National Lawyers Guild said the police action was ‘completely out of proportion’.
WY/MMN
September 6, 2008 at 4:21 am
[...] removed and arrested defending her producers being unlawfully detained. And if this was not enough, chemical weapons were used on demonstrators circa Chicago [...]