about 2 weeks ago, a coworker of mine and me drove up to Minneapolis to see Rage Against the Machine.
it's a 7 hour drive from here, it rained plenty, but we made it.
before the concert, the police presence was noteworthy.
the distance between venues for the concert and the RNC was all of about 8 blocks.
thankfully the concert was ****s out awesome.
the band came out dressed in Gitmo gear, complete with bags over their heads.
they even performed the first song that way.
the set list was bar none grade A fantastic.
but back on rallying cry/point, and more to the point, why I waited so long to post this.
as the show ended, the lead singer said basically, "don't do anything. they expect you to do something. prove to them otherwise."
right when we walked out, there's about 100-200 cops outside in riot gear, carrying:
full body armor, ken-do stick batons, armed with rubber bullets and tear gas. so no, they were not messing around.
we spend the next few hours walking in and out of bars, taking in the nightlife.
but during the night, we see people being "talked to".
the cops are calling each other on their radios giving descriptions of people they want to detain.
it gets more bogus. we're walking back to the car, when a street is shut down between us and the hotel.
the cops have shut it down for arrests, about 100 people. my friend asked "why are they being arrested?"
cop - "don't know, we'll think of something". OHHHHHH really?
so we go another way, and find a news crew filming the incident and taking pictures.
it seems the paddy wagons were on the way, and so we booked out of there.
we go back to the hotel, where the parking lot is barren. could we get a room? nope.
booked. huh. go to another hotel. as we enter, a guy in a suit walks to the night clerk, points at us and shakes his head no.
that seemed odd. but again, the lot is empty, so there's sure to be a room available right? no.
this one didn't even check the computer, just said it like his life depended on it.
so rights aside, we're fubared. it's 4 in the morning, we've nowhere to go.
would the people of Minnesota hate us that much or is something else going on?
is it so wrong for concert folk and Republican folk to share the same hotel for the night?
we drive an hour outside of town, and surprise surprise. a motel that will take our American dollars. woohoo!
since then, I have been waiting for some kind of news story, a Daily show skit, something for some kind of coverage about this.
but since I got nothing, and the situation still rubs me raw, I'll just throw some links about it.
in a cathartic kind of way.
Nice Picture.Nice Comments.
