The Wake

As you may recall, the Minneapolis City Council just passed an ordinance concerning protesters’ rights at the upcoming Republican National Convention. The new ordinance replaced already existing laws that banned police use of rubber bullets, barred confiscation of cameras and recording devices and prohibited police targeting of activist groups.

When the new law left all these clauses out, Green Party council member Cam Gordon tried to add them back in amendments, and finally succeeded — at least partially — to pass them Friday. Now rubber bullets are again banned and all camera confiscation must hold up to the …

Read more →

Council Member Cam Gordon

Right before an important vote concerning protest protection at the upcoming Republican National Convention, an early morning attempt to speak out at a Minneapolis City Council meeting against the resolution led to the forced removal of an activist from the council room Friday.

Jude Ortiz, a member of Coldsnap Legal Collective, stood in front of City Council members and read a “Reprobation for the City of Minneapolis” criticizing last week’s committee passing of a resolution promising to ban police use …

Read more →

Police use rubber bullets at 1999 WTO protests in Seattle

A handful of activists and future Republican National Convention protesters attended a Minneapolis City Council committee meeting Wednesday to support Green Party council member Cam Gordon’s June 20 proposal banning police use of rubber bullets at upcoming RNC protests this fall. Unfortunately for those planning to protest in St. Paul this September, Gordon’s reformed motion was vastly different from what he proposed …

Read more →

Ah, Cedar-Riverside. The mere mention of that hyphenated name is enough to get a rise out of most Minneapolitans, not to mention the ones who actually live there. It is a divisive area, a place that has been characterized as both a colorful ethnic melting pot and a miniature gangland; the last “real” corridor of the city and a bullet-riddled death trap.

This long-running debate is even more pertinent to students at our fair university, whose daily travels often take them within a stones’ throw of Riverside. For many U students, the area has long been a source of confusion and …

Read more →

Since George Carlin recently died, I figured it’d be best to post some clips of him discussing issues relevant to this blog. In the first clip he talks about the absurdity of the American Dream. In the second, he chimes about why he doesn’t vote. (”If you vote, you have no right to complain!”)