This is the story of how an Impeach for Peace organizer (D. L. Corvin) was, and hundreds of others were unlawfully arrested on the 4th day of the RNC while protesting with the Anti-War Committee.

D. L. Corvin — I was arrested for the Misdemeanor charge of “Presence at an Unlawful Assembly” last night at the RNC in St. Paul. The following is my first attempt to describe what happened literally.

At about 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 4th, I joined the Anti-War march near the Capital building on the edge of downtown St. Paul. I had a sign which read “Neither (R)eason (N)or (C)ompassion” on one side and “Warning: The Change You Deserve” with a skull and crossbones on the other. As I was arriving, somewhere between two and three hundred protesters had already started moving away from their spot at 12th and Cedar, where I understand the police had prevented them from marching into the downtown “free speech zone”. Protesters continued to chant together as we marched. I filmed events as they happened. There were a huge number of police officers: Some on bicycles, some on horseback, some on other vehicles, and many dressed in riot gear. All attempts to get into the downtown area were cut off by large groups of police officers and their vehicles. Periodically, the officers would rush ahead of the crowd in trucks, cars, motorcycles, and bicycles; I assume this was to prevent them from entering downtown. I was feeling very intimidated, but I wanted to continue to participate in the march.

After about a half hour to forty-five minutes of this, the police started to detonate what looked to me like flash grenades. Protesters continued to chant “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated!” I could see a considerable amount of smoke at times, although whether this was from tear gas or something else was unclear to me, and I was able to avoid it. The blasts from flash grenades intensified sometimes in what appeared to be an effort to reroute the protesters, although no directives were issued about what we should do or how to disperse. Some of the protesters panicked and started to run. I heard officers yelling and threatening protesters, including one cop who yelled what sounded to me to be something like “get down and put your hands on your head or you will be killed.” I also heard one say “Get your hands up or get sprayed.” It was hard to hear over the sound of panic and the helicopter overhead.

At this point I was very afraid that I might be assaulted and seriously hurt, but I was not sure what to do, and it was not clear how best to leave the situation. Some people passed me stating that “we’re trying to find a bus” and noting that they weren’t part of the march. Later in the evening I would have the chance to talk to a photo journalist who said he had been blocks away from the march, but had been pushed in with it with no way out.

After a little while, when the crowd arrived at Marion Avenue, officers started herding protesters south. They announced into a megaphone: “This is an unlawful assembly. Go southbound or be subject to arrest.” What appeared to be flash grenades continued to detonate. It was around this time that I saw a flash and felt an abrupt impact on my upper right cheek. I believe that I had been struck with some kind of shrapnel from a flash grenade. Fortunately, this shrapnel narrowly missed my eye. I asked another protester if I was bleeding and he said I seemed to be all right.

Finally, police officers they pushed us south onto the I-94 bridge over Marion near St. Anthony Avenue, where we ran into line of officers in riot gear which stretched across the length of the bridge to the south. We were completely trapped here. After some confusion, protesters began to sit down. Police officers stated clearly through megaphones that we were to put our hands on our heads and that if we were to take them off or stand up, we would be shot. We were also told that we were all going to be arrested.

After a while, things started to seem somewhat less dangerous. At this point, I began a long process of waiting. At around 8:35, I spoke with ImpeachForPeace.org cofounder Michael Rudolph. I spoke with him, while holding the phone from a position with my hands on my head, until an officer ordered me to put the phone away at about ten minutes to 9:00. I was informed by Mr. Rudolph that the permit for the evening’s Anti-War March was “suddenly, arbitrarily and inexplicably shortened to an hour by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.”

Soon started to arrest people, but they seemed to be doing it quite slowly for reasons of which I never became aware. I was one of the last fifty people or so to be arrested. I estimate it took about three and a half hours before I was finally put on a police bus. Protesters sang and talked to pass the time. Some had medical needs, which as far as I could tell appeared to have been mostly ignored, and others had to use the restroom. Those that did have to use it were instructed to urinate into plastic bottles (and some did). I heard from police at one point that a gun had been found on one of the protesters. An officer also stated that no protesters had assaulted any police officers.

The police officer who cuffed me with plastic bands was somewhat friendly, and he helped me to make some phone calls to significant people before processing me. He refused, however, to allow me to bring my sign, which remained on the street. I was photographed, my other possessions were taken, and I was arrested. After being routed to a bus, where I waited for some time, I was taken to Ramsey County Jail. I waited there again for quite a while before being taken inside. I was fingerprinted and my cuffs were removed, and I was finally allowed to urinate. Subsequently I was placed in a cage with perhaps twenty other protesters. Over the next several hours, I was moved with other protesters from one cage to another with no obvious pattern. At around 5:30 a.m., after about 9 hours of waiting, I was finally released onto the street. I was able to walk back to my car from here and make phone calls.