some shots at the riot

I liked the everyone poops t-shirt. I did not so much like the part a little after all of these when I got a bit of tear gas in my nose. It was just a whiff, but quite unpleasant. Then I had to walk all around the capitol to avoid blockading lines of police, and was so disoriented that I missed where my car was, and was a bit grumpy by the time I found my way back to the Xcel center. The protestors were trying to disrupt the convention, and in a way they succeeded in my case. Of course I knew there was a high likelihood of a riot, and sought one out.

Should mention that despite the word "riot" the whole thing that I saw was relatively peaceful. Saw a few arrests, and one guy getting sprayed with something. Think I saw a CS grenade fall into a crowd (that quickly started running away). The first main confrontation was when the marchers were stopped on a bridge, then sat down. The cops just watched them.

Later a different intersection was blocked, and that is when the gas was used. More effective than the gas were the police tactics. They would use horses and bicycles and men in the riot gear to split off different groups of protestors, and block them in. Once they had a small group sitting down they started to arrest them one at a time, although even then they were very patient. I did not wait to see the entire group taken in.

I left about 7:00, but when I came back at around 11:00 there were still a large number of protesters being arrested. Only found that out because they were blocking the on ramp I was trying to use to get back to my hotel. Rolled down the window of my rental car to ask a cop if there was any way to walk over to take pictures, was told no, and just to look on yahoo. Told him I was planning on putting mine on yahoo (I know of course that blogger is a google thing). He laughed.