Harassment of convention protesters continues

It's bad enough the Twin Cities had to be blighted by the 2008 Republican National Convention, but the stink still hasn't worn off 7 months later.

Before and during the convention, police charged folks just for organizing peaceful protests against the event. A group of 8 people who were charged now calls themselves the RNC 8.

On Saturday, the RNC 8 organized a bike tour of the places where they were raided. This event drew dozens of locals. Nothing illegal about this outing at all. It's a bit like the Tim Brown Expulsion Tour, in which we show folks the schools I got kicked out of by driving past them.

Nonetheless, when the cyclists stopped at a local church for a scheduled lunch, they noticed the cops were on their tail. They found 6 bike cops and several police vehicles waiting for them outside the church. It appeared to be a joint effort by 20 to 30 local and federal law enforcement officers.

Although the cyclists broke no laws, Minneapolis police had the chance to arrest one of them for disorderly conduct when he had to leave the event early.

Doesn't the city have anything better to do than harass people over last year's GOP convention?

All this after the FBI informant who is central to the case against the RNC 8 was found guilty on assault and property damage charges in an unrelated case.

With so many RNC protesters being acquitted, you'd think authorities would figure out by now that they don't have a case against them.

(Source: http://twincities.indymedia.org/2009/mar/letter-minneapolis-police-chief-tim-dolan-about-continuing-post-rnc-harassment)