Your papers, please.

You have the right to free speech, as long as you're not dumb enough to actually use it.

Have you heard what's going on in St. Paul?

According to the Indy-media reports, Ramsey County/St. Paul police are detaining people without charges and taking video cameras and other equipment. There have been FBI agents photographed at the scene. They are breaking down doors and waving guns at people who aren't doing anything illegal - but they are members of organized protest groups. While many have been release, some are still being held under charges like "conspiracy to riot."

The organizers and journalists aren't arrested, only detained, which means that they can be held for 48 hours. The consensus seems to be that the police and FBI are trying to get organized groups with video cameras off the streets.

The more I dig into this story the more I think I'll have nightmares when I go to sleep.

Democracy Now journalist Arrested

I-Witness Video members arrested. The NYC-based video collective is in St. Paul to document the policing of the protests at the Republican National Convention.

St. Paul newspaper story about the arrests


These images and scenes are downright dystopian, like something out of a science fiction movie about a bleak police state of the future.