True North

The Minneapolis Police were given an opportunity to get in some real live training in preparation for the upcoming RNC convention.

Police arrested 19 bicyclists, including three juveniles, after a protest ride took an ugly turn in downtown Minneapolis Friday night.

About 200 bicyclists were riding on La Salle Avenue, with two officers monitoring the protest that called for reduced reliance on automobile transportation. The ride was also linked with weekend protests of next year's Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.

When officers tried to arrest a rider they felt had been trying to provoke them, a scuffle broke out, said Minneapolis Police Lt. Marie Przynski.

"When the officer went to arrest him, his buddy came up, and they started to struggle with the officer," Przynski said.

A group surrounded the officers, and begin to chant "Let them go!"Then several people tried to prevent the officers from arresting these individuals," she said, and a skirmish ensued.
Soon, the two officers were surrounded by about 30 people, and they issued the call "officer needs help."

That brought 48 officers from six different law enforcement agencies racing to the scene, where the situation escalated and the officers used chemical Mace in an attempt to control the crowd, Przynski said.

Just the thought of macing those smug, smelly bicyclist will keep a spring in my step all day!

I saw a few of the scofflaws biking to this event. They were biking in a group down Nicollet Ave and were breaking as many traffic laws a possible. They ignored red lights and motioned for cars to wait for them to pass.

Congrats to the MPD for a successful practice run. I hope they can quickly restock on Mace so that they are ready to crack more Anarchist skulls.

Cross Posted on the Anti-Strib