RNC- Friday

The convention is over and today I get stuck in a traffic jam on Shepard Road, go figure.
I stayed downtown last night til 7:00 pm. I have never seen so many police in riot gear in my whole life. Every corner north of 6th Street had 10 -12 cops at every single corner of the intersection. Every street going north had snow plows or dump trucks blocking the intersections so no one could head towards University Avenue or the Capitol. Two helicopters continually circled downtown and the Capitol.

I personally did not see any protesters. I walked up from St.Peter Street and then over to Exchange to get to the MN History Musuem thinking I would have a good view.
Saw nothing but more and more riot police and a mobile decontamination unit.

At this point I got slightly freaked out and decided it would probably be a good time to try to head home. I ended up going south over the Wabasha St bridge to then go west and north. I was right to get nervous almost 400 people were arrested, lots of pepper spray and tear gas was used.

The crowd had a permit to protest until 5:00. At 5:00 they did not disburse and started to march to the X. As you would expect the police wanted to keep the streets open and trouble ensued. I didn't see any of it personally as I was on my way out of downtown.

Please check out the
Pioneer Press and StarTribune for some interesting stories and pictures

From RNC- Thursday Nite