For anyone who thinks that they have the right to protest in America, consider the accounts coming out of St. Paul and Minneapolis of members of various protest groups being handcuffed and detained by police for the “crime” of being part of this week’s planned demonstrations at the Republican National Convention (RNC). It’s another abuse of our civil rights, brought to us by the folks who gave us the war on terror.

Six raids took place within a 24-hour-period last Friday and Saturday, with at least five people arrested for alleged conspiracy to riot, commit civil disorder and damage property.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune that the target of the raids was the RNC Welcoming Committee, an activist group he described as being “made up of 35 self-described anarchists...intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention.” More criminal than starting two illegal wars in the Middle East?

St. Paul Councilman Dave Thune, whose district includes a meeting space for activists that was raided, disagreed with the mayor: “Regardless of how you feel about these people...they have a right to be there.”

The Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is asking for “prompt judicial review” of the arrests which are being characterized by police as “probable cause holds.”

The Guild’s press release explains that in Minnesota “a probable cause hold can be ordered by a police officer without a prosecutor or a judge reviewing a criminal complaint. Due to the arrest occurring on a weekend holiday, all six citizens can be held until Wednesday, September 3, 2008, without the filing of a formal charge.”

If it sounds vaguely familiar, think Guantánamo.

Among those who were handcuffed and detained but not arrested at one of the raids was Democracy Now Producer Elizabeth Press. She was meeting with members of I Witness, a group that videos police abuse at demos. “They came in with pistols drawn,” Press told The Uptake, an alternative press source, “I was pointing my video camera back. They said ‘St. Paul Police, put your hands on your head’ and then we were all detained for the next several hours in the back yard.”

The raids were coordinated with the FBI and possibly other federal agencies. Spies were recruited by the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force to attend meetings of groups that are planning actions at the convention.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, in a display of 1984 doublespeak, defended the raids. He told CBS News: “We are making sure that people here to legitimately protest have the right to do that, but people engaging in criminal activity are not going to be able to do that.” By intimidating and violating the civil rights of hundreds who were merely engaging in their Constitutional right to organize protests? By seizing laptops, searching personal possessions and taking materials intended for distribution at demonstrations?

Another stellar moment in post-9/11 America.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical southern Italian atheist queer. His website: www.avicollimecca.com