Eight people who claim they were victims of overzealous cops using illegal tactics during the Republican National Convention filed a rash of federal lawsuits Thursday over the alleged incidents.

The plaintiffs include three self-styled journalists, a Minneapolis bookstore owner and four people who took part in street protests during the convention, held in St. Paul in September.

All told, the defendants in the seven lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in St. Paul include the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Ramsey County, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, 17 named law-enforcement officers and 38 officers identified only as letters of the alphabet.

The suits are the latest legal actions spawned by the convention, which saw hundreds of demonstrators take to St. Paul’s streets. Just last week, the St. Paul city attorney’s office said it was declining to prosecute 323 people arrested on a couple of bridges downtown on the convention’s last day.

In dropping the cases, City Attorney John Choi said it wasn’t a sign that police had acted improperly in the mass arrests. But the civil suits, filed by St. Paul attorney Ted Dooley and Minneapolis lawyer Peter Nickitas, allege illegal acts on the part of law enforcement, including assault, use of excessive force, unreasonable search and seizure, false arrest and imprisonment and invasion of privacy.

The plaintiffs also allege their constitutional rights of free speech, assembly and freedom of the press were violated.

One plaintiff is Michael Whalen, 60, who owns the St. Paul duplex that was raided by law enforcement Aug. 30. St. Paul police who obtained a warrant claimed Whalen “supported Irish independence” and co-owned the Arise Bookstore in Minneapolis with former domestic terrorist Sara Jane Olson 20 years ago, and had received “large, heavy boxes” in the mail, the suit claims.

The boxes contained vegan literature. Officers entered the home, detained the occupants and searched the residence but arrested no one and seized no property.

“The individual defendants’ actions … served no legitimate law-enforcement purpose,” the suit contends. The complaint says the police actions “reflected calculated, unlawful efforts to punish plaintiff for his exercise of freedom of speech and association with journalists known to document police abuses.”

Indeed, three plaintiffs consider themselves journalists. Vladimir Teichberg, of New York, and Olivia Katz, of New Jersey, stated in their joint complaint that they are part of the Glassbead Collective, “an independent newsgathering organization that gathers audio, video, photographic, and other evidence of unlawful police conduct.”

The two claim they came to St. Paul to “record events connected with” the convention and that at 1:42 a.m. Aug. 26, two Minneapolis police officers stopped them while they were walking and seized their personal property, including cameras, cell phones, a laptop computer, notebooks and money.

They claim they were held for 30 to 60 minutes, that neither was ever charged and that Minneapolis officers held their possessions for 14 hours before returning everything except a $100 bill and Katz’s driver’s license.

Wendy Binion, an Oregonian who works for an online publication called Portland IndyMedia, claims in her suit that several St. Paul officers subjected her to excessive and unreasonable force, false arrest and imprisonment “while peacefully carrying on her duties as a journalist” Sept. 2.

The incident involved a demonstration near Mears Park that evening. She said a police officer wrote her a citation for “obstruction of legal process” but that the case was dismissed and she was released.

The Sept. 2 demonstration was also the genesis of lawsuits filed by Rebecca Sang, of Cerritos, Calif., and Jason Johnson, of Cedar Lake, Ind. Both claim they were victims of excessive force and false arrest by St. Paul police. Johnson also claims he was shocked repeatedly with a stun gun, suffered burns and “suffered seven separate wounds from the Tasering.”

Sang and Johnson were also issued citations for allegedly obstructing police; both cases were dismissed.

Minneapolis resident Michael Kelly alleges in his suit that he was carrying an antiwar banner during a protest Sept. 4 in downtown St. Paul when officers ripped the banner from his hands and another policeman shot him with a nonlethal weapon that caused bruising and injury. He was arrested, but the citation was later dismissed.

Another Minneapolis resident, Michelle Gross, claims in her suit that on Aug. 29, she was seized and, for no reason, was “strip-searched in the presence of men in a nonprivate location.” She claims a sheriff’s deputy touched her under her bra “in a sexually offensive manner.”

She said in her suit that she later filed a request under the Minnesota Data Practices Act seeking records of the incident but that Fletcher and the sheriff’s office refused to respond. The refusal, the suit claims, “reflected willful, malicious disregard for plaintiff’s clearly established right to petition for redress of grievances and right to access of private and public data concerning herself.”

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.