Saint Paul 2008

Bob Fletcher, erstwhile Ramsey County Sheriff, says he’s been advised by the Saint Paul Police Department to plan for three-thousand arrests during the 2008 RNC convention, and is asking for more than four million dollars to help do so.

It’s probably overkill, but as Commander Joe Neuberger of the SPPD said, “it’s easier to scale back than it is to ramp up.”

Lest you get too worried that your (local) tax dollars are funding miles of chain-link fencing and thousands of hours of overtime, the budget for convention-related security matters will almost certainly be covered by federal and RNC funds. In that sense, you have to admire Fletcher’s gumption - his department gets (badly needed) new radios, a multitude of other new equipment, and a lot of training, and perennially cash-strapped Ramsey County (where, of course, the city of St. Paul is located) doesn’t have to foot the bill.

It seems odd that the current plan is to house arrestees in an outdoor area, rather than (for example) the old riverfront ADC, but being forced to plan for 3,000 arrests no doubt inhibits his options somewhat.

I do like Fletcher’s views on protestors, though. He estimates ninety-five percent of all protestors will be peaceful; the remaining five percent being split between “passive resisters”, and “what Seattle experienced,” to quote the Sheriff, “the anarchists, the criminal element that intend to damage property.”

Now, it’s obvious that Bob Fletcher and the City of Saint Paul might not be seeing completely eye-to-eye on these matters, but supposing the theoretical three-thousand arrestees were all anarchists and troublemakers, and really did comprise less than five percent of all demonstrators, that would still put the predicted number of protesters at more than sixty thousand. And that, my friends, is a lot of people indeed.