RNC Welcoming Committee's Stash Raided By Police In Minneapolis

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A building was raided last night in St.Paul as well as several homes in Minneapolis by police as they confiscated weapons from the anarchist group RNC Welcoming Committee. The Ramsey County police force which was assisted by Hennepin County and Minneapolis law enforcement as well as the FBI produced a search warrant against the group believed to engage in violent protests against the RNC convention.

WorldNetDaily reports a statement read this morning from Ramsey County Sherriff Bob Fletcher that described the RNC Welcoming Committee: ''a criminal enterprise made up of 35 self-described anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention.''

Many items were seized by the police including PVC pipe, chicken wire and duct tape. The RNC Welcoming Committee wanted to lock themselves together in human barricades called ''sleeping dragons.'' Also included in the raids were knives, flammable liquids, five-gallon buckets of urine, homemade caltrops (which are devices used to puncture bus tires), bolt cutters, sledgehammers, protective padding and plastic buckets that were cut into shields.

The group wants to establish blockades around St. Paul's Excel Center. This is the location of the convention. They also want to use the caltrops to inhibit the delegates' buses and block the bridges that connect Minneapolis to St. Paul.

The RNC Welcoming Committee urges members to do what they feel if they agree with their overall strategy. World Net Daily reports straight from the group: ''Those plugging into this strategy will be free to shape their actions as they see fit, using the tactics they consider appropriate.''

The group is ready for bear despite the police raids last night. They predict violence at the convention site and say that the police raid itself was violent. The police are engaged in efforts to derail their civil rights.

The RNC Welcoming Committee does have its defenders from one local politician. Dave Thune is a St. Paul City Councilman. World Net Daily researched two recent quotes from Mr. Thune: This one is from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper: ''This is not the way to start things off. This is sending the wrong message. Regardless of how you feel about these people...they have a right to be here.''

Thune also spoke to the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper: ''To me, this smacks of preemptive strike against free speech.''

St. Paul Mayor Christopher Coleman defended the police action by saying that it's okay for the protesters to pick up a peace sign but they can't throw bricks or engage in other violent acts that are designed to injure or hurt the convention delegates or anyone else connected to the festivities.

The five people that were arrested last night are in jail charged with suspicion of trying to start a riot, conspiracy to commit civil disorder as well as to damage property. The St. Paul building that the RNC Welcoming Committee was leasing was found by police to be in violation of a fire code and has been turned over to the property owner.

The RNC Welcoming Committee appears to be an organization that strongly supports illegal immigration and doesn't want any type of immigration restricted in any manner. They seem to promote a radical form of environmental extremism. Poor people on a global scale are being exploited and oppressed. I quote from their website: ''For those of you who abhor the rapid growth of racist militarized borders across stolen lands, the raids and deportations, destruction and commodification of our shared and living earth, police brutality and prison industry, fear propaganda and subjugation, exploitation and robbery of peoples worldwide, and all forms of injustice and oppression-we ask you to be prepared for 2008.''

The RNC Welcoming Committee is also protesting with other groups of a similar philosophy who are dedicated to the general idea of overthrowing the present worldwide power structure. They don't want to interfere with other groups' long term projects and desire to continue in the future with these projects.

In conclusion, their aim is to crash the Republican National Convention and make them insignificant in the larger realm of things.