Last Night's Riots in St. Paul

This is from Josh, a friend of ours who just moved from Pahrump to Minnesota, timing his move to coincide with the Republican Convention. He is a 22-year journalist, very smart and a wonderful person. He is also a Ron Paul supporter.

Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 6:47 AM
Subject: Last Nights Riots in St. Paul

Okay, well, it seems there won't be much coverage of last night's riots in St. Paul, which, by the way, were pretty brutal.

Tear gas was everywhere. Smoke was all around and explosions seemed to be going off constantly. With the green tint that some of the smoke bombs gave the night sky, it looked almost like the Bombing of Fallujah that we all watched on TV through infared cameras.

What really angers me about it though, is all the reports I've read are talking about the riots on Rice and Marion Street. There was a riot there. Apparently 200 people got arrested, including quite a few journalists.

Which would explain why there has been virtually no coverage of the infinitely more massive riot that took place maybe 10 minutes later, as the protesters advanced to Rice and University, a dense, highly populated area.

There, hundreds of cars were stopped and I'm sure plenty of non-participants were gassed. You could smell it everywhere. My father-in-law and I tried to run for a McDonald's, but just as we got there, and employee came up and locked us out.

We tried to get to our car (nearly getting run over by cops as they drove 30 mph backwards). We finally got in there, Joe started it, and a cop yelled "Hey you! Stop!" He came up and held us there for a little while. He checked our IDs and I'm sure put us on the Terror Watch List or some other BS List.

Then he yelled, "Get out of the area or you will be arrested!"

We got the hell out of the area, then drove to a gas station on the edge of St. Paul and Maplewood. Just after we turned in, three motorcycle cops pulled in behind us. One drove right up to the back of the car and just stared right at my face (I had gotten out to go to the bathroom). He then looked at our license plate.

He was trying to tell us to get out. So, we did. I got back in the car and we left.

PLEASE REMEMBER: The cops are arresting journalists en masse. So, the stories you hear are often only half as bad, because the journalists never made it to the Big One.