Anarchists Attack at the RNC

Nice touch, throwing bags of cement off the overpass. I'm sure that'll be the least of it.

Classy.

Meanwhile, the peaceful anti-war types turn violent. Now there's a stunner.

Protesters smashed windows, punctured car tires and threw bottles Monday during an anti-war march to the site of the Republican National Convention. Police used pepper spray in confrontations with demonstrators and arrested five.

Instead of the single coherent march that organizers had hoped for, fringe groups of anarchists and others wrought havoc along the streets between the state Capitol and the Xcel Energy Center where the convention was taking place.

Police estimates of the crowd shifted during the event before settling on 8,000 to 10,000. The crowd was clearly in the thousands, many of them marching peacefully.

The arrests occurred in confrontations several blocks from the convention arena. Five people were arrested for lighting a trash bin on fire and pushing it into a police car, St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said.

About 20 anarchists who had started the trash bin fire later tried to block the intersection of St. Peter and Exchange streets. Police quickly dispersed the group, then shot two tear gas canisters at the fleeing anarchists.

Rubber bullets would be nice. You know, just to send a subtle message.

The day's march was organized by a group called the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, whose leaders said they hoped for a peaceful, family-friendly march. But police were on high alert after months of preparations by a self-described anarchist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee, which wasn't among the organizers of the march.

Organized anarchy?

These aren't anarchists. They're urban terrorists and should be treated as enemy combatants.

Update: More here on the moonbattery.

Mary Gleason, a retired church musician from Minneapolis, said Hurricane Gustav "kind of worked in their favor. They won't have to wait for Bush and (Vice President Dick) Cheney to say something stupid."