This is my first, live report from the action in St Paul and Minneapolis. It
will
be brief and followed by more as my primary concern is acting as a Street Medic,
treating some of the victims of police brutality here.

First, let me assure you that despite the flat out lies being portrayed in the
corporate
media, each and every attack by police here was unprovoked and upon peaceful
protesters.
Where there have been acts of violence from the "anarchists" has been
a reaction to these unprovoked attacks. I can personally testify to this as I am
unencumbered by corporate media editors and so am free to tell the truth.
Corporate
media journalists are also witnessing this but not reporting it.


As many of you know, this started a week before the RNC. Minneapolis and St Paul
police raided the houses of local activists, detained some and then raided the
house
where out of town journalists were staying, taking their video equipment.

In the weeks before the Republicans came to town, myself and other local
activists
helped organize clinics and networks for the local and out of town Street
Medics.
We were to be very busy and of course it is not over yet.

Day One

There was a march, thru downtown St Paul that had about 30,000 people. It was
quite
peaceful. Apparently, the police will not attack large marches only smaller
ones,
as we were to find out. I worked Medic duty for this one. We had arrived at the
Capitol in St Paul, when I started getting calls. The police were firing rubber
bullets, concussion grenades and deploying tear gas and other chemical weapons
downtown.
I rushed to get downtown and like all the rest of us, met a wall of police. They
had cordoned off all of downtown. None of us could get in to help our friends in
a smaller march of young people.

I and others went back to the clinic site and waited. After a few hours, no-one
was coming in. It turns out that masses were getting tasered, maced,
pepper-sprayed
and arrested. This of course includes Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Street Medic
duty became jail support. Those of us who were Nurses, worked with NLG lawyers
and
called the jails, with lists of people and did our best to ensure that people
who
needed medications got them. Many had originally not but apparently our work
paid
off.

Day Two

There were events everywhere, including free concerts at the Capitol. I was
deployed
to the Poor People March at Mears Park in St Paul. At first it was quiet, with
speeches
etc. Then the police arrested a journalist with her video camera. Many in the
crowd
ran to this, including myself and my team buddy. Medics worked in teams because
police would snatch up single medics and no-one would know they were gone until
it was too late.

At this point, I was what is called a marked medic. I had on light blue scrub
tops
with a large Red Cross taped on my chest, arms and backpack. I hear "we need
a medic over here" so we responded. Apparently, the police had maced a member
of the "Minnesota Peace Team." These were all people marked in bright
green vests, who were working with the police to contain violence. The two that
were maced, full in the face were both 70 year old men. For the record, the
peace
teams had been very successful in de-escalating violence. I ran over and treated
one and my buddy treated the other one. While I was doing so, someone from the
crowd
ran over and said "buddy, get out of here, I heard the cops say 'get the
medic in blue."

I hightailed out of there, ditching my blue scrubs. Ironically, as I did so a
young
man has a seizure, fell and hit his head hard right in front of me. I was still
a medic, just unmarked now. I and others treated him until an ambulance arrived
and took him to the hospital. Again, for the record we were now getting reports
that the police were specifically targeting journalists and medics all over. We
were also receiving reports of mass arrests of legal marches and people being
beaten
at the SEIU Rally, Whipple Free Concert and elsewhere.

By this time, the Poor People's March had left so I joined them. We marched
to the Ramsey County Jail where hundreds had been taken as a show of solidarity
to them. During this march, there were at least three undercover cops were
discovered
and outed. We then marched to the Capitol. Rage Against The Machine had set up a
free concert there but then the police banned it. So the attendees joined us and
we marched back to downtown St Paul. We marched right up to the Excel Center,
chanted
for a while. At this time the police gave a dispersal order. We knew what that
meant.
They threw gas and concussion grenades into the crowd and then opened up with
rubber
bullets, wooden baton rounds, tear gas etc etc.

My team treated another young lady who had been maced in the face and delivered
her to the clinic, to get cleaned up from the burning chemicals on her face,
eyes,
arms and clothes. By the way, this stuff hurts even when you only put your
exposed
skin on someone who was hit by it.

Day Three

I attended some organizational meeting early in the day, so my morning was
fairly
quiet. Early afternoon I reported to the clinic for duty. We were going to go
downtown
when we got a call. There was a need for Legal and medics STAT. Off went our
little
team.

Dokota Occupation of Clearwater.

The Clearwater Springs area is sacred to the local native American community. Of
course, it was taken over by a government agency, the Federal Land and Mining
Agency
I believe. Well the local Dakota had decided to stage an occupation and take
their
sacred land back.

We arrived and they had a legal team already there. There was also another medic
team with more in route. The police had just issued an order that they would
start
to clear us if we did not leave by 3:00. Since this was Indians, we knew that
the
police would be especially brutal and thuggish. As we waited, more and more
people
arrived. Black people, white people and brown. Standing with our red brothers
and
sisters. All of the colors of the circle were represented. It was beautiful.
Riot
police were ready and it was getting tense. Suddenly twenty minutes before the
deadline,
an NLG Lawyer showed up, with a legal permit. We cheered and the police left.


My buddy was redeployed back to jail support while I went back to more
organizational
meetings. During one, I got paged. Apparently, the police had beaten two of the
protesters in jail so badly that they released them. When they release people
that
they beat, that is bad. They asked me to come help them, as they know I am a
Trauma
Nurse. Then they called back and said that it was OK as a Doctor had showed up
at
the clinic site.. They wanted us, specifically to document the injuries.

After my organizational meetings, I went and visited my 18 year old son, Sean. I
asked him if he wanted to run Street Medic with his old man. He said "yes"
so off we went. The Rage Against The Machine concert was at the Target Center in
Minneapolis. I had promised Sean's mother that I would not enter "the zone"
which is where the police cordon off people and then start attacking. We would
stand
outside and treat people as they left. At this point, the Minneapolis police and
others maced a bunch of people, both inside and outside the zone.

One young man had apparently just returned from serving in Iraq. I treated him
after
the police maced him, full in the eyes. He had been simply walking by, going
somewhere.
As I treated him one of the NLG lawyers came by, took his information and a
picture.
At this time, the wall of police opened up, a commander of some sort pointed at
myself and the lawyer, took a picture of us. I thought, "oh sh*t" and
myself, my son and the lawyer started to walk away. Then a group of about
fifteen
bike cops came after us, surrounded me and pushed my son aside. Sean went to get
the lawyer to help and they apparently threatened to tase him. Thank God, I did
not know this at this time.

They detained me, searched me and questioned me. Then they let me go. I took my
son home and went home to bed.

Welcome to occupied Minneapolis and St Paul. Also, you all need to know that the
100% Democratic City Council in St Paul gave the police the legal authority to
do
this. In the case of Minneapolis, the city Council did the same thing and it is
almost all Democrats. In Minneapolis, the only real opposition party is the
Green
Party, where there is one current sitting Green on the Council. They also gave
them
the legal authority to do this, in a very rotten, sneaky and undemocratic
manner.
I want to all to know that I am completely non partisan in my condemnation of
the
elected officials as I am also speaking of the actions of the so called
"opposition"
to the Democrats which would be the Green Party Councilman in Minneapolis. I
will
report later on the full story behind this betrayal of elected officials here

We now have reports that Minneapolis has been legally put in the hands of the
Department
of Homeland Security.

All of our elected officials and the media have failed us. The question is,
what
do we do about it?

This is your Independent Journalista and Street Medic, Michael Cavlan reporting
from the occupied Twin Cities. I am now off again to continue with my Street
Medic
duties.


Michael Cavlan RN
Street Medic
Independent Journalista