As St. Paul, Minnesota, gears up to host the Republican National Convention, local law enforcement agencies are engaging in a series of draconian crack-downs on local activist centers and homes (including the local homeless-feeding Food Not Bombs chapter) in hopes of intimidating groups planning to protest the convention. Pagan author and activist Starhawk, who is there with the Pagan Cluster to protest, files this report on the raids.

“One by one, protesters trickle out. Now we get more pieces of the story. The cops burst in, with no warning. They pulled drew their guns on everyone—including a five year old child who was there with his mother, forced everyone down on the floor. It was terrifying. They had a warrant, apparently, from the county, not the city, to search for ‘bomb making materials.’ They were searching everyone in the building, then one by one releasing them as they found nothing. They continue to find nothing, as we wait through long hours … And now it’s morning. I wake up to the news that cops have been raiding houses where activists are staying, bursting in with the same bogus warrant and arresting people, including a four year old child. They’ve arrested people at the Food Not Bombs house—a group dedicated to feeding protesters and the homeless. They’ve arrested others, presumably just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Looking at the latest from progressive news-wires, it is clear that a campaign of harassment and intimidation is being employed to stifle protest, and find members of the anarchist “RNC Welcoming Committee” that are planning to “crash” the convention on the first day. Bruce Nestor of the National Lawyer’s Guild says the raids are politically motivated sweeps that are unique in Minnesota’s history.

“We’re not in this country yet where we’re having mass detentions of people like this, so it really is about sending a message. I think what it really is designed to do is to send a message to people who agree with some of the viewpoints of people organizing activity and to say - you know what? You can write an email, it’s okay to write a letter, to vote, but don’t go out in the street, don’t organize public activity, because do you want us bursting into your house? Do you want to be associated with people who are getting arrested? It’s designed to somehow say these aren’t citizens engaged in the exercise of political freedom, but that they’re kooks, they’re freaks, they’re dangerous, stay away from them, don’t get involved.”

Starhawk is asking people to call the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul to protest the treatment of non-violent protesters by law enforcement officials. If things keep going in this direction, it may make the actions against protesters in Denver look quaint by comparison. Are these harbingers of the McCain/Palin ticket? After all what does a president who cozies up to Christian conspiracy theorists, equates his opponent with the Antichrist, and appoints a VP with dominionist ties care if some Pagans, anarchists, hippies, and progressives get locked up, harassed, and have their civil rights suspended?

Tags: activism, John McCain, law, Pagan Cluster, Paganistan, Presidential election, Republican Party, Starhawk