Cops find a few bad apples at RNC protest

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 2, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

A protester jumps down from a police car with a broken rear window in downtown St. Paul.

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

A cop pulls a protester out of the crowd as he sprays a chemical at others trying to pull back the protester before the start of the RNC in St. Paul on Monday.

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Small street skirmishes between protesters and police made up for a shortage of action inside the Republican National Convention.

As Hurricane Gustav made landfall Monday along the Gulf Coast, President Bush canceled a scheduled appearance at his party's convention, and delegates performed only a few routine duties. But the massive storm didn't stop thousands of anti-war demonstrators from mobilizing a march from the Minnesota Capitol to downtown St. Paul.

It was mostly peaceful, but several hundred young demonstrators broke away from the scheduled parade route, broke windows at a Macy's department store, smashed a police car's window and at times drew pepper spray from police in full riot gear.

"Our streets! Their war!" some young protesters shouted as they diverted from the permitted parade route and tried to sneak around police lines to get closer to the Xcel Energy Center convention site.

Property damage was minimal, although a concrete trash container was toppled into a street a few blocks from the convention arena, and Macy's workers spent much of the afternoon replacing smashed storefront windows.

With 15,000 journalists in town and little convention action to cover, the reporters and photographers outnumbered police and protesters at some locations.

Against the war

The day's events began with a diverse collection of anti-war groups mobilizing for a permitted protest on the grassy hill south of the Capitol.

The crowd was made up of activists of all ages, including young members of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War, older members of the group Veterans for Peace and parents of U.S. service members serving in the conflict.

Mike Starr, 55, a 25-year military veteran from Anoka, Minn., stood with his wife, Sue, in the center of the crowd and held a sign taunting Vice President Dick Cheney. It read: "Thank you, 5X 'Deferment Dick' for sending our son to Iraq."

The couple's 19-year-old son is at Fort Dix, N.J., his unit just a few days from deploying to the war zone, they said.

"I support the troops," Mike Starr said. "I support them more than Bush and Cheney."

Sue Starr, 48, said her son was in eighth grade when the war in Iraq began. "I never dreamed when he was in eighth grade that he would some day go over, but here he is going over," she said. "The war isn't right. I think our 19-year-old son knows that, but he's there doing his job. And I want him home."

The crowd at the base of the Capitol grew all morning, but then a second, energy-filled group of younger people began gathering in a park a few hundred yards away. The younger group bounced to amplified hip-hop music, then began marching toward downtown, disregarding the schedule and preapproved parade route.

This began a series of cat-and- mouse games between police and protesters as the breakaway group tried to reach the convention site and block strategic intersections.

At one point, a young protester climbed atop a parked police car and smashed a window. Nearby, police used chemical agents to keep a crowd at bay.

Dozens of arrests

By day's end, The Associated Press reported at least 56 arrests. According to CNN, 78 people had been arrested, including 22 on misdemeanor charges and 19 on felony charges.

Navy veteran Del Grote, 59, of Maplewood, Minn., stood under a tree wearing a black-striped "convict" costume with Bush's name on the front.

"I think he lied to us at worst. At best, he cooked the books to get us into a war that he thought was going to be a cakewalk," Grote said. "He deceived us in a small way or a big way to get us into war. I think he deserves jail time."

Peter Rhomberg, a student at the University of Illinois, said young students are determined to draw more attention to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he believes Democrats and Republicans have mostly ignored during the summer presidential campaign.

"My personal aim is to send a message across this nation, that this is a nation in a slump right now. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't being talked about at all."

Contact M.E. Sprengelmeyer at sprengelmeyerm@SHNS.com or 202-436-2345.

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