Defeating Constitutional Right to Protest--Arrest, but Don't Charge
Most arrested at RNC in Minnesota won't be charged The Associated Press Friday, February 20, 2009; 9:21 PM ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Most of the nearly 400 people arrested on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Minnesota won't face charges. St. Paul City Attorney John Choi said Friday that his office has declined to prosecute 323 of the 396 people arrested Sept. 4. Twenty cases are still being investigated and could end up resulting in charges. The status of the rest of the cases wasn't immediately known. Choi says the decision to decline or dismiss a criminal case does not mean police acted inappropriately or didn't have probable cause to make an arrest. The city attorney's office has reviewed 672 convention-related cases and has brought charges in 104 cases.
--no link, this is the article in full--
____________________________________________________ The brief article speaks to the subject eloquently enough. Herd perfectly legally organized protesters off into police vans, charge them, hold them overnight and--90 days later require they come back to St. Paul in order to have their cases dismissed. That ought to keep our political smile sparkly clean. Admittedly, we already suffer too many lawsuits in this country. But there certainly ought to be grounds here for a class-action suit against the city of St. Paul on Constitutional grounds . How else to rebut a civil argument forged in Chicago in 1968?