Politicos, cops and intolerance

[dflprincess]

This column is a lttle long, but worth the read.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/357/4902095.html

Nick Coleman: Politicos, cops and intolerance

DULUTH -- The Ringsred brothers of Duluth may turn out to be poster boys for the 2004 presidential election.

All three of the teens -- twins Odin and Anders, 14, and their big brother Miles, 18, -- ended up in the back of police cars on the evening of July 13 when President Bush made a campaign stop in Duluth. The Ringsred boys had gone down to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center to demonstrate against the president and wound up getting free rides to police headquarters, where they were held and interrogated.

If the cops wanted to make an example of them, they succeeded: The Ringsreds offer a splendid example of why you better keep your mouth shut this election. The politicians and police are in no mood to tolerate protest. You raise your voice, you may have to raise bail. And although the Ringsreds got in trouble for giving the Republicans the raspberry, the ongoing curtailment of free speech is completely bipartisan.

On July 13, Odin Ringsred, one of the twins, pasted his shaggy hair to one side and painted a Hitler mustache on his face. While Bush was inside the arena speaking to 7,000 supporters, Odin was outside, holding a handmade sign that had the president's name and swastikas on it. It wasn't very subtle. But it was within the rights of Americans who object to the direction their country is going and who want to jab Republicans for blindly supporting the president (that's how Odin sees them).

…The Ringsreds come from a prominent family. Their father, Eric, is an emergency room doctor and former school board member who was the driving force behind the reinstallation of the Duluth harbor foghorn (loved by many, cursed by some). Eric Ringsred was on hand for the Bush bash but lost track of his kids. He went home, wondering where they were. They were at police headquarters, being photographed and getting the third degree.

Two and a half weeks later, Eric Ringsred, the boys' father, is still mad. Eric Ringsred says he's thinking about proposing a city free-speech ordinance that would guarantee protesters the right to be seen and be heard so that future political rallies in Duluth don't turn into sanitized events like the Democratic National Convention. But mostly he just finds himself shaking his head over the heavy-handed response to a band of high-spirited teenage brothers who thought they had a right to their opinions. "Presidents either have to stay away from here or else they have to allow people who oppose them better access," the elder Ringsred says. "This wasn't like Chicago in 1968. There was no threat of violence. This was just three kids trying to make a point.

[NMDemDist2]

1. hmmm IIRC the cops were the ones who started the violence

in Chicago in '68