Late Wednesday night, May 16th, Chicago police broke down the door of an apartment and arrested nine activists who have been held without charges. Other NATO protesters have also been harassed and/or arrested by the Chicago police in the days leading up to the NATO summit in Chicago.

Despite the opposition of the majority of the American people to the U.S.-NATO war and occupation in Afghanistan, Congress has just voted by a two to one margin to continue the war. More and more the government is resorting to using the FBI, police, Grand Juries, and the courts to repress a growing protest movement against the war and growing economic inequality that serves the 1%, not the 99%.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) condemns these raids that are designed to disrupt organizing for the protests and to discourage people from participating by portraying organizers as violent. We urge all people who are opposed to the U.S.-NATO war and occupation in Afghanistan to attend the permitted march on Sunday, May 20th.

We also want to extend our solidarity to those who have been arrested. In the days leading up the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2008, police infiltrated the anti-war coalitions that were planning protests at the RNC. Right before the convention and protests were to begin, police arrested eight activists with the RNC Welcoming Committee. In 2010, the FBI raided and served Grand Jury subpoenas to 14 activists (later expanded to 23) who helped to organize the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. These raids and subpoenas led to the formation of the CSFR and a nationwide fight back against FBI repression of antiwar and international solidarity activists. Then in 2011, the FBI and Los Angeles sheriffs broke down the door and arrested long-time Chicano activist Carlos Montes, who also protested the RNC.

No to NATO and War!

No to FBI and Police Repression!

#ChicagoIL #CarlosMontes #PoliceRaid #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #2008RepublicanNationalConventionRNC #ChicagoNATOSummit #AntiWar23

St. Paul, MN – The case of Mick Kelly, whose lawyers filed the first lawsuit resulting from police violence at the 2008 Republican National Convention on his behalf, was resolved in a settlement conference at the U.S. Courthouse here.

In a widely publicized incident, police, standing only feet away, shot Kelly in his belly with a high velocity marking projectile. Kelly was at the demonstration organized by the Anti-War Committee on the fourth day of the RNC, Sept. 4, 2008.

“This is a partial victory,” states Kelly. “Before, during and afterwards, the authorities attempted to quash dissent at the Republican National Convention. The settlement in this case indicates the police did something wrong. We had every right to speak out against U.S. wars at the Republican National Convention.”

Mick Kelly, one of the main organizers of the massive march and rally on the first day of the Republican National Convention, earlier prevailed in a separate lawsuit against the city of Saint Paul after his arrest for leafleting at a June 2008 Obama rally. He is also one of the Twin Cities anti-war and international solidarity activists whose home was raided by the FBI on Sept. 24, 2010.

While the exact dollar amount of the settlement is undisclosed, Kelly states that he intends to make a $5000 donation to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression – the organization that is defending the anti-war activists whose homes were raided on Sept. 24, 2010 and others served with subpoenas by the Chicago U.S. Attorney.

Kelly agreed to settle when the judge overseeing the case ruled against Kelly’s moves to subpoena a police infiltrator in the anti-war movement who went by the name of ‘Karen Sullivan.’ Officer Sullivan joined the Anti-War Committee in the months prior to the RNC and was present at the protest where the shooting took place. “We hoped to find out more about how Karen Sullivan, who helped target activists for FBI raids, was involved in the repression that took place at the RNC,” said Kelly.

#SaintPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #ProtestRNC2008 #StateRepression #RepublicanNationalConvention2008 #AntiWarCommittee #lawsuit #MickKelly #KarenSullivan #2008RepublicanNationalConventionRNC #RNC2008 #infiltration

The Saint Paul house raid was one of several police actions taken against protesters days before the RNC began, including the search and seizure of a central political meeting space, which is also the subject of pending litigation.

“The City of Saint Paul and the federal government were forced to pay for their politically-motivated attack on organizers,” said Sarah Coffey, one of the plaintiffs. “Rather than spend years in court fighting the government over its political surveillance program, we decided to use settlement money to invest in projects that oppose such repressive tactics.”

The lawsuit, which was filed in August 2009 and accused the Saint Paul Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of violating plaintiffs' First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights, is so far the largest settlement of its kind stemming from the convention protests. “We hope this sends a message to law enforcement officials who would enter homes illegally or suppress political dissent,” said Coffey, “there is a cost to their actions.”

The raid garnered significant media attention at the time due to an hours-long standoff between 10 activists and residents and a heavily armed police force that had surrounded the duplex. Because the police attempted to raid the home without a search warrant, those inside refused them entry. After allegedly getting verbal authority from a local judge, the police used force to enter 949 Iglehart Avenue and detained everyone inside. The owner, several tenants and activists, including members of the I-Witness Video collective were detained for hours. No illegal items were found, no one was arrested and nothing was visibly seized, although computers and camera equipment were searched.

The search warrant affidavit, which was under seal until a month after the raid in a likely attempt to avoid media scrutiny, relied solely on a confidential informant who made the claim that weapons were being shipped to 951 Iglehart using the U.S. Postal Service. In a sensationalist move, the police also tried to tie property owner Michael Whalen to a defunct 1970s political group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, in order to bolster the warrant's outrageous claim of arms shipments. However, once inside 951 Iglehart, police discovered that the boxes contained only vegan literature. Unsatisfied, police broke through a locked attic door to enter the neighboring but separate 949 Iglehart, which plaintiffs claimed was the operation's true objective.

Saint Paul Police Officer David Langfellow was in charge of the operation as a cross-deputized FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) agent. Langfellow testified during a deposition that although the FBI had been surveilling the duplex for more than a week before the convention, the investigation was not targeting Whalen, the main subject of the search warrant affidavit. Langfellow either was not told or refused to reveal details about the underlying investigation, which plaintiffs speculate had nothing to do with the shipment of boxes.

Plaintiffs' attorneys also contributed a portion of the award to the Impact Fund, which provides money to small law firms and nonprofits for lawsuits involving issues of civil rights, environmental justice, and poverty.

Tom Burke of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression states, “We are grateful for the contribution to our effort to defend the anti-war and international solidarity activists who were raided by the FBI or received subpoenas to the grand jury. Last week we saw an escalation of the attacks with the LA raid on the home of immigrants’ rights leader Carlos Montes. We need all the resources we can muster.”

#StPaulMN #RepublicanNationalConvention2008 #FederalBureauOfInvestigationFBI #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #2008RepublicanNationalConventionRNC #SaintPaulPoliceDepartment