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The 6 activists arrested during police raids in advance of the Republican National Convention are being held without charge by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, the Minnesota Independent reports.
The arrestees are being held on probable cause holds. These holds give the authorities 36 hours to charge them or let them go. Holds are typically used to give investigators more time to gather evidence before filing formal charges.
Holds allow police to charge first and ask questions later. Sometimes that's a good thing. Arrest opportunities are unpredictable. A suspect could slip away in the time it takes to turn a solid suspicion into sufficient evidence to file charges. A probable cause hold buys the police some time to dot the i's and cross the t's.
However, it doesn't take a genius to see how the power to detain people without charge can be abused. For example, unethical police officers have been known to use frivolous holds as quickie jail terms. Piss off the police, spend 3 days in jail—no trial required.
In Minnesota, a probable cause hold can be issued by an officer without review by a judge or a prosecutor. The 36-hour window doesn't include weekends and holidays. So the protesters arrested over the long weekend could be locked up until Wednesday.
The National Lawyers Guild is asking a judge to review these detentions in the hopes of getting the arrestees out sooner.
Imagine if the police could hold these protesters as long as they wanted.
The United States is holding suspects without charge at Guantanamo—many of whom were apprehended without anything approaching probable cause. Of course, Bush administration asserts the right to put off their trials forever.
Scenarios like these illustrate why habeas corpus is vital to the rule of law.
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SEE YOU AT THE MARCH TOMORROW!
Once again my country and its inhabitants cause me shame.
Thank you for covering this Lindsay.
Off topic…
An Alaskan KKK meeting with Sarah Palin attending:
http://s144.photobucket.com/al.....ikings.jpg
LOL!
Lindsay, what is the reason the reich wingers are using such force against people BEFORE a protest happens? Is it possible to make their egos feel better, they’re arresting these protesters so the media won’t be able to film how much Americans really do hate the republic Party? Could be.
Lindsay, I can’t imagine being held in a jail cell for three days. I hope you get a chance to interview these people and ask what it was like.
Then, imagine the GTMO detainees…
OT Link tv currently doing a piece on Meet the Bloggers. Currently Robert Greenwald interviewing Michael Moore.
Borrowing from an old Mothers of Invention song (Zappa):
Here’s a rich one:
Welcome to the United States of AmeriKKKa. Makes me feel young again, but not in a good way. It just takes my back to the Nixon era.
What is the probably cause? They might express their opinions or that they might hurt someone ?
Habeas Corpus, ain’t that down there around Padre Island?
I think you will only find it down south of the border these days.
Citizen DrDick:
Is that south of the Mason Dixon Line border?
Lindsay - thank you for the super reporting … wow!
Why must police act like a rock band that just signed to major label when they get all this federal dough? Anarchists and dirty fucking hippies are already on the lowest rung of white society. Why the need to elevate them to victim status? Especially when the most damage they could do would be one-tenth of the damage left after the gophers beat the badgers at football!
I was rather thinking of the Rio Grande. Also north of the Canadian border.
Obama just said that he is looking for ways his network of reaching people can help out after the hurricane without getting in the way.
Smart man, pointing out exactly what McCane will be doing!
typical republican response to those that don’t agree with them.The Patriot act was passed to protect us from terrorists not hippies with peace signs on their shirts.
Peterr is upstairs at the Mothership!
The Last Line of Obama’s Speech
While the protection of habeas corpus has been shredded, people don’t seem to care or understand. Instead of rioting during the convention, 68, the cops are out of control before the covention. It chills me to see a campaign slogan “Country First”, to hear the chant of “USA, USA, USA”! I have lived through all the xenophobic garbage from the 60’s to today and it isn’t getting any better. These latest euphemisms are nothing more than a substitute for the fatherland and the superior race, Americans! Sieg Heil Fuhrer McCain.
To the outraged: [Cross posted on Majikthise]
None of this is new. There was plenty of it during the antiwar protests of the 60s and early 70s. During a mass protest in Washington hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters were arrested at the order of Nixon’s Attorney General, and subsequent felon, John Mitchell. Law suits brought on behalf of the protesters determined that the arrests were illegal. Payments of $10,000 per plaintiff were awarded. Of course, the violators of our rights were never disciplined. The payments to the winning plaintiffs came from taxes paid by the citizens of this country, not the pockets of the corrupt politicians and office holders.
The riots in Chicago in 1968 during the Democratic Party Convention were police riots. The kids got bloodied and broken, not Richard Daley’s cops. Subsequent legal suits and failed prosecutions of the protesters vindicated the protesters. Did Richard Daley have to answer for his command of the police riots? Of course not.
Fast forward to the RNC Convention in NYC in 2004. Bloomberg did the same thing. Protesters were arrested. A number of law suits later and the protesters were vindicated and payments made to those illegally arrested. Did Bloomberg or the police spend a single day in jail or produce money from their pockets to compensate the victims of illegal police activity? No.
So what’s the moral of the story? The politicians and the police can do whatever they want, anytime they want, to anyone they chose. Will they be held accountable, personally, for their illegal actions? No. Even if later court judgments side with the protesters, the damage had already been done. No one in St. Paul or among the RNC will pay one red cent out of their pockets or spend one day in jail. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Le plus ca le change, le plus ca le meme chose. Kiss your sweet habeus corpus goodbye.