Sep 4, 2008 9:20 pm US/Central
Dozens Of Protesters Arrested At Minn. Capital
ST. PAUL, Minn (CBS) ―
Police in riot gear skirmished with a rowdy band of protesters around the state Capitol and Xcel Center in St. Paul, Minn. firing tear gas and "flash bang" canisters trying to disperse and control the crowd.
Officials estimated that at little more than 50 people had been arrested by 9:15 p.m. Thursday. Officers closed in on groups throughout the night, taking some into custody then swirling around other pockets of people roaming the streets.
The scene was a stark contrast to the scene inside the nearby Xcel Center where Senator John McCain accepted his party's nomination for president.
Earlier, police in riot gear arrested three people on the grounds of the state Capitol and during a standoff with anti-war protesters on top of the John Ireland Bridge in St. Paul Thursday evening.
Officers on horseback also blocked access to the site of the National Republican Convention as hundreds of protesters roamed around the state Capitol in an evening standoff hours before Senator John McCain was due to accept the GOP nomination for president.
Protesters didn't start their march until just before their permit for the event expired. When they tried to cross a bridge over Interstate 94 to head toward the Xcel Energy Center, police blocked it off. After an hour-long standstill, marked by protesters playing hopscotch and chanting, police warned that they would fire pepper spray if the crowd didn't disperse.
The hundreds who were left then went to another intersection, where they were also blocked by police.
"The important thing is even though we didn't have a permit to march, people have decided they want to keep protesting despite all these riot police," said Meredith Aby, a member of the Anti-War Committee.
Police donned gas masks and riot gear for a possible confrontation. Protesters chanted "Whose war? Their war. Whose streets? Our streets." Others chanted, "This is what a police state looks like."
Earlier in in the afternoon, employees were being allowed to leave work early in St. Paul Thursday so they could avoid any problems with possible street violence on the last day of the Republican National Convention.
The First National Bank building warned its tenants of "riotous conditions" and suggested employees be allowed to leave early.
The Department of Economic And Employment Development said it had given employees the option of leaving at 1 p.m. Employees were told they could work from home or use vacation time.
Ramsey County also closed two of its buildings that are along the protest route. The Juvenile and Family Justice Center and the Public Health Facility are both closed to the public.
Several other companies in the area around the Xcel Center had also allowed workers to take the afternoon off.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty blamed the violence this week on a small group of "anarchists, nihilists, and goofballs who want to break stuff and hurt people."
"They need to be dealt with," Pawlenty said in an interview with WCCO-AM of Minneapolis. "When you want to break stuff and hurt people, you can't do that."
Police arrested 102 protesters in downtown Minneapolis early Thursday after a concert by the rock group Rage Against the Machine.
An intersection was blocked off as police processed those arrested. Young people sat on a sidewalk, their backs against a building, or stood quietly in line, their hands in plastic cuffs behind their backs.
In a warmup to Thursday's expected main protest, about 50 college and high school students staged an anti-war rally at the Capitol at midday. Eight police officers watched the rally from afar, with most leaning against their cars. None wore riot gear.
Organizers said they were trying to put on a safe, nonviolent event for the whole family. When a musician singing and playing a guitar uttered a profanity, she was chastised by the crowd and quickly promised to clean up her language.
Including the Minneapolis protest, police have arrested 422 people since Saturday in pre-emptive raids and at protests in downtown St. Paul that were marred by violence. St. Paul was quieter on the convention's third day, when four women from the peace group CodePink were arrested after crawling under a fence a couple blocks from the Xcel Center where the convention is being held. They were released.
CodePink also took credit for disrupting Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's speech on Wednesday night. The group said two of its members were given tickets to the speech by a Republican delegate who was frustrated with the party and Palin.
The CodePink members, Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, were escorted from the Xcel Center after yelling and displaying a banner. They said they were held until after her speech but not arrested.
Police said they broke up more serious plans to disrupt the convention.
Search warrants and other police documents made public this week claim that anarchists discussed plans to throw Molotov cocktails, sabotage the Xcel Energy Center or the St. Paul Downtown Airport, stretch metal chains across freeways and kidnap delegates.
Authorities filed felony charges Wednesday against eight people they said were core members of the RNC Welcoming Committee, a group that has worked to plan and support efforts to attack the convention. The eight, swept up in weekend police raids at houses and a Welcoming Committee workspace, were each charged with conspiracy to commit riot.
Four remained in custody Thursday while four were released, according to Celia Kutz with the Welcoming Committee.
Members of the Welcoming Committee denied committing any violence.
"There are no terrorists up here. There are no terrorists in the Ramsey County Jail," said Betsy Raasch-Gilman with the group. "There are terrorists in the Xcel Energy Center. There are terrorists in the White House."
Also Wednesday, federal authorities announced charges against another man accused of planning to use Molotov cocktails to attack the Xcel Center.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
