After a chaotic 4 days in St. Paul, we’ve packed up our things and left. Not because we got everything we needed (although we got some good stuff), but because the police environment has become too hostile for us to continue our work. We’ve already told most of you about the Tuesday night search of our car (when cops shined flashlights in our camera lens to stop us from filming). We thought we had seen the worst of it. Last night, however, we got more than we bargained for.
We drove into St. Paul to meet up with our friends at Current, based inside the convention center. We parked our car at Mickey’s diner, the local eatery we’ve come to know so well…in part because we’ve been parking there a lot. We spent about 5 hours working with Current on a piece that should air in the next day or so (links to come), and upon returning we found that our car had been towed. That sucks, but it’s not world-ending, obviously. But then, before we could even call the towing company and find our where our car had been towed to, we were surrounded by cops who asked if we were carrying weapons. We told them no and then were immediately frisked. It’s not a pleasant experience. One of the officers asked Nathan if he was from another country, and he said, “Yes, Maryland.” We were then told to wait for the Secret Service. We asked what the problem was, but were told only that the SS wanted to talk to us.
The SS showed up and immediately separated Nathan from Evan, and Evan from Nathan, and Oscar from Meyer. They rummaged through our bags, took our cell phones, read our text messages, and proceeded to question us for about 45 minutes. Where were we staying? Who’s house? What’s the address? How do we feel about anarchists? One SS agent took Nathan aside and told him he was trying to help him, and that Nathan would be safe if he just told him what was in his car. We both explained to our interrogators that we had nothing in the car except for bags of food and a tripod, but still the questions came. At one point they just gave up the charade and started speaking in German. I mean, not really, but that’s what if felt like.
After about 40 minutes (during which several of our friends from the diner passed by and gave us confused looks), we were released. Inside the diner, we related our tale of molestation to the staff and customers and were given complimentary ice cream floats. Evan’s was Coca-cola, Nathan’s was black cherry. Evan really wanted a black cherry, but Nathan got the last bottle in the diner, which was kinda weird, seeing as how he had already had 3 black cherry floats since we got to St. Paul and Evan had had 0. But it just wasn’t Evan’s night.
We ended up walking the 3 miles to the car-towing place. The SS had warned us that it was in a bad neighborhood (but declined our request for a ride). We tried our best to smooth-talk the receptionist, and we almost got her, but ultimately the system won. We forked over a good sum of cash, got the car back, and headed to our make-shift home.
We regrouped and retold the story to our friends. The more we told it, the more we realized that we had dodged a bullet. All of our friends – journalists, both independent and accredited – were getting arrested left and right. Cops raided an independent journalism office because they claimed that anarchists were holding hostages inside…based on an “anonymous” tip. Of course, there were no hostages, but after the cops bashed in the door with a battering ram, the landlord kicked the journalists out. With the situation only getting worse, we decided to pack up our things and go. That was at 2 AM.
We’re currently on our way back to Maryland and DC, respectively. We hope to see you all soon, show you our work, and swap stories over some black cherry ice cream floats. For those of you still in St. Paul, we wish you the best of luck and hope for your safety.
We don’t know where the President is,
Spineless Media
(Nathan and Evan)
