Aaron Landry

With all the various news that was happening yesterday regarding the RNC, the huge peace protest and buzz regarding hurricane Gustov and Governor Palin’s daughter, I ended up tagging along with photographers Stacy Schwartz and Jon Behm, periodically catching up with Noah Kunin of The UpTake. We all were helping with The UpTake’s coverage.

We followed a splinter group unrelated to the primary protest around the streets of Saint Paul. If you’re new to this story, the Minnesota Independent, The UpTake and the mainstream media outlets have been covering it extensively. What I don’t think has been covered though is that this group was incredibly unorganized and continually disagreed with themselves as to what they were doing.

The route we took around Saint Paul around noon was completely on the fly. Police in full riot gear as well as cops in blue shirts on bikes lined certain intersections to try to persuade which direction the mob went. Groups like “Funk The War” pumped loud music from wagons which made a the scene almost feel like being in a film. Kids wearing handkerchiefs and gas masks running around juxtaposed with people dancing as if it was a rave was a moderately surreal scene. Eventually we ended up in Lowertown where there were virtually no visible police. I watched as some people in this mob smashed rear view mirrors of cars, threw bricks through Galtier Plaza and the First Bank building and one tried to rip a door off of a van. I also saw water bottles flung at windows where they bounced off. They surrounded a bus and spray-painted anarchy symbols on the side in light blue.

People yelled at each other within the group, calling the violence “fucking stupid” and the reaction of bricks thrown through the glass at Macy’s “does not help stop the war,” yelled a girl with a torn t-shirt.

At each intersection, the head of the group many times would point in conflicting directions. Some wanted to go back to the Xcel. Someone wanted to “stay away from the police.” Some wanted to turn around and go back the other direction. While there were not police presence at many of the intersections, you could see police blocking off roads a block away. A smart maneuver by law enforcement, I thought: not directly engaging the group but influencing the route they were traveling by showing their presence in the distance. There were few times where tear gas and smoke bombs were use to control the direction of the mob. By the time they made it to Macy’s and the Landmark Center, an entourage of police cars were following them as well as a huge presence of cops in riot gear in most directions so they scattered and dispersed seeing they were now trapped.

I argue that if the police intervened when a few of the rebels threw bricks through windows, the matter could have escalated. Instead, they were able to trap the group, make some arrests and get them to scatter without much intervention at all.

As I was uploading photos from what happened at The UpTake’s offices (and after listening in to a great conversation between Matt Stoller and former congressman Bob Edgar), Utne Reader’s Bennett Gordon alerted me that the group was rebuilding itself near the Cathedral.

I walked up with him and Stacy Schwartz and saw lines of police in riot gear blocking off certain streets but maintaining a distance of about a block from the growing mob. They chanted “join us, join us” until they had a large group. Bennett stayed behind and Stacy and I followed the group to the Cathedral, down towards 35E where they crossed a pedestrian bridge, crossed 7th Street and travelled down towards Irving Park with little or no property damage. Two kids took a dumpster and after a few attempts were able to tip it over in the middle of an intersection. Getting near the perimeter, police stayed a block away in riot gear, forcing the mob to move to the river. A couple folks in masks made a makeshift blockade with a couple detour signs to “stop the cops.”

At the Mississippi, they marched down Shepherd road’s sidewalk, not interfering with traffic. Stacy and I were talking about how difficult it is going to be for this mob to actually get back into downtown and then figured that the only way to get back was to turn around or to go through the tunnel at Jackson street. To the north was a parked train and a bluff and to the south was a river. I said, “this looks like a trap.”

Sure enough, by the time they got to Jackson street, the police in full riot gear were blocking the entrance back into downtown. Stacy and I knew the ramifications of this and stayed back behind the main mob to observe. We saw a reporter for MPR and two people from The UpTake continue on. There was no way out but back the way we came. Then, this happened, as filmed by The UpTake’s Corrine McDermid:

What the video doesn’t show clearly is that the mob threw first. The police responded swiftly with tear gas and smoke bombs. There were other objects thrown at police, one I believe exploded in front of them.

Stacy and I turned around and started heading the other direction, as did many in the mob and cars were beginning to back up, also trapped. While some wanted to peacefully get away, some people in masks were harassing motorists. The helpful were yelling at people to turn around and roll their windows up due to the tear gas. As Shepherd road is divided, there is a curb-sized median to climb over to go the opposite direction. Most cars did this, although one driver of a large SUV yelled to us “I don’t care, I’ll drive those fuckers right over.” Personally, I don’t think that’s a good choice considering all the people that were about to surround his vehicle.

Stacy and I, at this point, were now victims of this trap along with the motorists on Shepherd road. We were telling people to turn around and roll windows up, and one woman in an SUV didn’t seem to understand. I tried to explain and then asked if we could ride with her out of the area. I showed her my press pass and explained who we were and what was going on as fast as I could and she reluctantly let us in.

I immediately told her to turn around and go the other way, driving over the median. As she was driving an SUV, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem but she was scared of damaging her vehicle. It got to the point where I was yelling at her to do so, noting the people in masks that were coming at us and the loud explosives that were going off. She made the turn but it was too late for a clean getaway.

The most unnerving moment was on our way out. A man in a gas mask stood in front of the SUV staring at our driver to her the face, refusing to move. The ugly face of terrorism was standing in front of her vehicle. She froze, with her hands on the wheel and did not honk or try to move. It was a frightening scene. I yelled, “go around him” and Stacy opened her door and yelled, “Get the fuck out of the way, we’re press” and another man yelled, “if you’re press, fucking cover this!” Meanwhile, the mob was coming up behind us.

Stacy’s a concert photographer, lawyer and music blogger. I’m an IT Manager for a design firm, social media consultant and blogger. We were doing citizen photojournalistic roles and the situation changed where we decided that our safety was more important than covering the event.

Finally the guy moved and ran and we drove away. Our driver, who asked her name and occupation to be off the record told us that she was a mother, works downtown and was simply trying to go home in the eastern suburbs. She said she was appalled, disgusted incredibly shaken and said she felt like she was about to throw up. I feel bad that I yelled at her how to maneuver her vehicle but I think if we would have done it any later we would have had to deal with the main mob that were attacking the police. She drove us to Stacy’s car in Highland Park. Stacy and I gave her our cards and if you’re reading this, we are very thankful you got us out of there.

After following around these groups, I think they are fairly unorganized, do not have agreement on their goals and are being controlled and trapped fairly well by the police. It’s unfortunate that the traps both in downtown as well as by the river negatively impacted some normal citizens and storefronts but I think the situation could have been a lot worse.

Of course, seeing our city armed to the teeth with riot gear, police from all over the state and the Minnesota National Guard is almost as unnerving as the rioters. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Visit my photo slideshow on Flickr as well as sets by Jon Behm and Stacy Schwartz. Also visit The UpTake for continuing coverage.

UPDATES: I’ve been asked about my use of the word “kids.” While the group seemed to be younger teenagers to people in their early 20’s, I admit I may have used the word loosely. Note though that my perception wasn’t unique: Corrine McDermid from The UpTake used the same language in the above video and also referred to them as “students.”

Michael Caputo from Minnesota Public Radio and I had two long conversations about what happened. He was closer to the action than I was but we differ on a key part of the story. On the other hand, my version of the story seems to fit with what the police report said. Corrine McDermid, seems to agree with Caputo. He made a five minute piece about the event for MPR. Overall, good conversations regarding the recollection of stories and what really is the truth.