Politicos, cops and intolerance
Nick Coleman, Star Tribune
July 30, 2004 NICK0730
DULUTH -- The Ringsred brothers of Duluth may turn out to be poster boys for the 2004 presidential election.
All three of the teens -- twins Odin and Anders, 14, and their big brother Miles, 18, -- ended up in the back of police cars on the evening of July 13 when President Bush made a campaign stop in Duluth. The Ringsred boys had gone down to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center to demonstrate against the president and wound up getting free rides to police headquarters, where they were held and interrogated.
If the cops wanted to make an example of them, they succeeded: The Ringsreds offer a splendid example of why you better keep your mouth shut this election. The politicians and police are in no mood to tolerate protest. You raise your voice, you may have to raise bail. And although the Ringsreds got in trouble for giving the Republicans the raspberry, the ongoing curtailment of free speech is completely bipartisan.
At this week's Democratic National Lovefest in Boston, anyone who opposed Democratic dogma was confined to a cagelike dungeon of razor wire and fencing out of sight of the heavily guarded arena in which the Democrats were calling for unity while quashing all internal disagreement. They even handcuffed and dragged off the convention floor an antiwar activist who dared to unfurl a banner against the war in Iraq -- a view that is in accord with the beliefs of most Democrats but which was ruled out of order in front of the TV cameras.
In this climate, any sharp teenager knows that dressing up like Adolf Hitler can push adults to the boiling point.
On July 13, Odin Ringsred, one of the twins, pasted his shaggy hair to one side and painted a Hitler mustache on his face. While Bush was inside the arena speaking to 7,000 supporters, Odin was outside, holding a handmade sign that had the president's name and swastikas on it. It wasn't very subtle. But it was within the rights of Americans who object to the direction their country is going and who want to jab Republicans for blindly supporting the president (that's how Odin sees them).
One of the president's supporters went bonkers when he saw Odin's cardboard sign and grabbed it. The guy tried to tear the sign in two, but he didn't have the hand strength. Odin grabbed it back, and there was some more jostling as the guy tried to push Odin behind him and Odin squirmed back in front of him to wave the sign. Curses started flying, along with insults from all sides, including from the so-called grownups.
"They were yelling, 'Go back to your meth lab,' " Miles says. " 'Get a job,' 'Baby killers' -- things like that."
Miles, it must be noted, was wearing a dress, which he figured was another sure-fire way to irritate Republicans. There is nothing like a teenager for understanding how to needle an adult.
Police have not finished their report on the incident. Deputy Chief James Wright says the cops were not trying to quash protest but just trying to "maintain a safety area." The Ringsreds have not been charged with any crimes, he says, but adds that charges could still come if the officer handling the case decides so. In the meantime, here's the story the Ringsreds tell:
As the president's motorcade prepared to leave, police pushed onlookers, including Bush supporters and protesters, off the street. That's when the tussle over Odin's sign occurred.
After the president had departed, Odin, still steamed by the tug-of-war over the sign, tossed it at the guy who had been grabbing it and said, "Here, you want it so much, take it!"
At that point, a cop came up and asked Odin what his name was. Odin had a perfect 14-year-old wise-guy answer at the ready: He said his name was Adolf.
As fast as you can say "Nazi jokes are verboten," he found himself shoved into the back of a squad car.
Odin's twin, Anders, came over to argue that the cops should be going after the alleged grownup who had tried to swipe Odin's sign. A gaggle of cops answered Anders' pleas by roughly tossing him inside the car with his brother.
"Fine, you can join him," a cop said.
Sixty-seven percent of the Ringsred Gang was now in custody, and the rest of the bunch was not far behind. When Miles realized what had happened, he ran over to the cops and demanded that his little brothers be released. "This is none of your business," a cop told him."Yes it is," Miles insisted.
The cop ordered him to go home and swore at him, Miles says. So Miles responded by making a Nazi salute and saying, "Yes, Mein Fuhrer!"
You can guess what happened next. The only difference was that Miles got his own squad car.
The Ringsreds come from a prominent family. Their father, Eric, is an emergency room doctor and former school board member who was the driving force behind the reinstallation of the Duluth harbor foghorn (loved by many, cursed by some). Eric Ringsred was on hand for the Bush bash but lost track of his kids. He went home, wondering where they were. They were at police headquarters, being photographed and getting the third degree.
The kids told the cops they didn't do anything wrong. The cops told the kids they could be charged with assault (because Odin threw the sign), disorderly conduct and failure to identify themselves. One cop told Miles that his younger brothers would face only juvenile charges but that Miles could end up in an adult jail.
" 'After the doors close, a pretty boy like you would be fresh meat,' " Miles says the cop leered at him.
Two and a half weeks later, Eric Ringsred, the boys' father, is still mad.
"I understand [the cops] trying to do their job, but there's a bigger principle at stake, a free-speech issue," he says. "The boys are mischief-makers, but they're good kids. Odin does a pretty good Hitler impression. But they were no threat to the president. That's clear. So what gives here?"
Eric Ringsred says he's thinking about proposing a city free-speech ordinance that would guarantee protesters the right to be seen and be heard so that future political rallies in Duluth don't turn into sanitized events like the Democratic National Convention. But mostly he just finds himself shaking his head over the heavy-handed response to a band of high-spirited teenage brothers who thought they had a right to their opinions.
"Presidents either have to stay away from here or else they have to allow people who oppose them better access," the elder Ringsred says. "This wasn't like Chicago in 1968. There was no threat of violence. This was just three kids trying to make a point.
"There's a definite lack of humor in this campaign."
That's for sure. This election is humor-impaired and free-speech impaired. But I wouldn't protest too loudly.
Unless you want to go to jail.
Nick Coleman is at
[email protected].
