Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.
...
Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly
...
In the house that had just been raided, those inside described how a team of roughly 25 officers had barged into their homes with masks and black swat gear, holding large semi-automatic rifles, and ordered them to lie on the floor, where they were handcuffed and ordered not to move. The officers refused to state why they were there and, until the very end, refused to show whether they had a search warrant. They were forced to remain on the floor for 45 minutes while the officers took away the laptops, computers, individual journals, and political materials kept in the house.
...
Nestor indicated that only 2 or 3 of the 50 individuals who were handcuffed this morning at the 2 houses were actually arrested and charged with a crime, and the crime they were charged with is "conspiracy to commit riot." Nestor, who has practiced law in Minnesota for many years, said that he had never before heard of that statute being used for anything, and that its parameters are so self-evidently vague, designed to allow pre-emeptive arrests of those who are peacefully protesting, that it is almost certainly unconstitutional, though because it had never been invoked (until now), its constitutionality had not been tested.

As someone who has resided in "hippie houses" for the last decade, the idea of police targeting them is rather disturbing. It could be worse, of course - they could be shooting instead of searching. They could be in jail instead of just been hassled.

But it's a good reminder that, whether your politicians are wearing red or blue, they are still power-hungry bastards happy to wield force to intimidate. And as always the case in human society, those who are different are most likely to be targeted.

Here's the full story.

Makes me want to go back and read Unintended Consequences. I mean, it's a ridiculous impossible Hollywood story (about a bunch of gun nuts who intimidate the US government into changing its laws), but it provides a good fantasy outlet at least. There's a great scene where a bunch of feds, without a warrant, try to raid the protagonist's house on some trumped-up charges. He kills them all and makes the bodies disappear. I wish that happened more. A lot more.

(I mean specifically in the cases without warrants, not anytime a house gets searched. Warrants are important. There's a reason they are in the Constitution.)

W/ help from Joe & Sahana, the hot tub has been broken in. It's nice and big and comfy (6 foot diameter octagon, 2.5 ft deep). 98, the temperature it got up to in 24 hours, was only pleasantly warm, and hopefully it will be hotter tomorrow night. We have it set for 104, and I think it just needs more time. Hopefully that will be a more soakworthy temperature.

The main negative from the reviews was that it loses heat with the cover off as you use it, especially with the jets on. It turns out that if you follow Joe's idea of leaving the cover mostly on, and don't turn on the jets, it loses little to no heat (97 after 2 hours). We'll see if that is still true when it's at a more reasonable temperature.

Now it's bedtime, I guess, since T will be waking me up early tomorrow...

I wrote this for our intentional community wiki:

What Community Means To Me

A place to live

I like living in community much better than living alone. I'm an extrovert, and I like having people around to do things with and share things with. While I think its wonderful that we are so rich that each family can have its own space, I think its sad that the custom is to seperate these spaces, not know your neighbors, and have to meet in other places - bars, clubs, whatever. Why not live around those you hang out with? The tribe is a natural social unit, and I miss it when I don't have it.

A place to raise kids

While dissociated living causes some problems for adults, its particularly unnatural for kids. In our evolutionary past, kids grew up in mixed-age groups, with mothers sharing childcare and kids learning from each other. And all the evidence I've seen suggests that that works best. I want a community as a place to raise a family, perhaps share in homeschooling, or at least giving the kids a normal clan-like environment to thrive in.

A place for the medium-term?

I have some issues with the US, and governments in general, and I doubt I will be happy here forever. At some point, my family & I may run off to the ocean. But that is an uncertain thing in the indefinite future, and my need for a place to live and a place to raise my imminent kids are certain needs for the near future.

A vision made reality

I dream big dreams, and often am unable to bring them to fruition. A community is exciting because its an awesome, visionary, unusual thing, which we *can* make happen, and that means a lot to me. The things I dream about within a community include: hot tub, nudity, rugrats everywhere, spontaneous games and movie watching, inspiring/encouraging/teaching others, climbing wall, building/designing some of our own space, having lots of friends around.