Riot Cops Gas Docile Crowd Outside the RNC

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake at 9:31 AM on September 3, 2008.

Police officers used tear gas on a peaceful crowd that was following instructions in St. Paul on Tuesday evening. In an overwhelming show of force, well over a hundred riot police locked down 7th Street between Wabasha and St. Peter, surrounded protesters in the Poor People's March, media, and bystanders and then proceeded to launch several cannisters of tear gas after the crowd was hemmed in.

The police were clearly in a nasty mood. Shortly before the tear gas started flowing an officer on horseback made his horse lunge at me to force me off a concrete median. The traffic island was public property and nobody said anything to indicate it was off limits. If he'd asked me to move, I would have done so immediately. Luckily, since the intersection was locked down, there weren't any cars coming.

I stress that this wasn't a loud boisterous march like yesterday's, it was just a crowd of about 100 people walking calmly down the street. I wasn't even sure they were demonstrating until I looked at my pictures and saw that some were carrying signs. I remember calling my editor from the scene to tell her that I couldn't see any protesters. Actually, I was looking at them the whole time, they were just very subdued.

The police gradually locked down the intersections on either side, and a number of neighboring intersections as well. They started to push the protesters back down the block. The group backed up. Suddenly, there were at least two very loud explosions and multiple cannisters of tear gas were deployed. I think the noise might have been concussion grenades.

Here's the full photo essay.

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.