Police, RNC Protesters Clash on University Avenue, St. Paul

Biking through St. Paul at about 7 p.m. on Thursday evening, I was caught up in a clash between an demonstration march and police.

Trying to get from downtown St. Paul to my home, bridges over Interstate 94 were blocked by police and snow plows. I rode west to find an open bridge to get over the freeway and home. The Marion Street bridge was open so I rode across.

At the State Capitol, a crowd had gathered, so I headed towards them to see what was happening. Earlier that evening, a Stop the War rally and march took place at the Capitol, I assumed that the crowd was part of that.

As I approached, the crowd started moving west towards St. Anthony Avenue. Around 300 protesters were shouting "Who's street? Our street!" to police and national guard troops who kept arriving, many armed with batons and pepper spray. The marchers were part of a group without a permit who intended to march from the Capitol to the Xcel Center, but the police had attempted to keep them in the capitol grounds by blocking the bridges over Interstate 94 that separates them.

The police seemed to have decided to let the protesters keep marching, but keep them away from downtown. The marchers turned north on Marion Street, prevented from heading towards downtown by a phalanx of riot police brandishing batons. An officer with a tear gas gun stood on top of a police vehicle, ready to fire.

As the protesters approached University Avenue, several police officers on bicycles overtook the crowd. The protesters turned east on University Avenue, where the bike officers had blocked the road with their bicycles at the intersection of Rice Street and University Avenue. National Guard officers and more policemen reinforced the police line.

The protesters approached, and the police fired a round of tear gas. The protesters kept advancing and shouting abuse at the police. The police began to fire grenades, and more tear gas. Protesters started to cut south across a parking lot back towards the Capitol, and I tried to head back where I came from away from the trouble: but came face to face with a police officer pointing a can of pepper spray at me telling me to MOVE! I turned around. One person who didn't was pepper sprayed in the face.

Link to YouTube Video of Police Firing Tear Gas and Concussion Grenades at Protesters. (Warning: Strong Language)

Police attempted to make people move south, back towards the capitol. Officers threatened passers-by. Once policeman, after telling a bystander caught up on the trouble to move, "if you need me to help you understand, I will."

I turned around again, heading away from the march. The police were trying to make people move in conflicting directions. I was told to head west, then told by other officers that I'd be arrested if I went that way, and had to follow the marchers. Another officer shouted that they would arrest anyone joining the march. Where could those not involved go?

I cut across a parking lot, and found an empty street leading away. I rode several blocks west out of the trouble, listening to police firing more tear gas and grenades, police offices in gas masks, and past more large trucks arriving on the scene, presumably to blockade roads. The police seemed to be attempting to contain the protesters in the parking lot of a store next to the Capitol. Many were arrested.

Back at home, as I write, John McCain is giving his speech, several helicopters circle over downtown St. Paul, and I can still taste and smell the tear gas in my mouth and in my hair.

Live streaming video from handheld cameras in St. Paul at TheUptake.Org

_{Tear gas, police and protesters with the Minnesota State Capitol in the background. Photo Clara James, Video Brett McGraw}