Rage Against the Machine sings at Capitol, leads to strange march as Bush speaks

Late Tuesday afternoon, the news broke that band Rage Against the Machine would play the Ripple Effect concert at the state Capitol grounds, after the veteran antiwar punk rockers Anti-Flag finished their set. Concerts and musical gatherings have attracted all kinds of attention from law enforcement around the clock. Last night, police arrested one outside the Bedlam Theatre in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, as numerous police units circled.

A concert organizer said the state ordered the electricity to the PA system be shut off, on the premise that the band wasn’t on the roster. He said, "What I believe is that this is instigating us to act so that they can react … They basically want to prompt the reaction so they can line up their stormtroopers, blame it on the people having a good time, and my belief is that this is way too peaceful of an event, so they have to come in and start s***. And that’s what the police do, they start s*** and blame us … All we can do is just be more peaceful."

RATM members Zach de la Rocha, Tom Morello and Tim Commerford came down into the crowd and and asked everyone to squat down. De la Rocha grabbed a bullhorn and led some classic RATM chants a capella, including "Now you’re under control, and now you do what they told ya" and the classic "F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me!"

Then they headed east toward a couple of vans, and much of the crowd flocked down toward Cedar Street. Suddenly a march materialized, led by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights campaign. Volunteers in green safety jackets funneled the crowd into downtown, where it turned up West 7th Street and into the protest pen outside the Xcel Center.

There was something strange about this crowd, though. Of course, many people were excited and ready to make a statement, but it seemed apparent that something else was going on. Independent journalists managed to interview undercover cops on tape, and many protesters got edgy and left the pen after a bunch of provocative statements like "go over the fence."

While impossible to corroborate, there was definitely a sense among many that agent provocateurs and undercover police were playing some kind of role in stirring things up, effectively breaking up an otherwise peaceful — if unpermitted — march during President Bush’s speech at the Xcel.

People drifted away, back toward 7th and St. Peter, the Mickey’s Diner corner. An officer in riot gear sat on the roof of the diner, and all the police had gas masks. The cook in the diner kept cooking, and one young woman trapped inside looked out of the entryway in confusion.

They ordered the crowd to disperse up St. Peter Street but some lingered, including a number of journalists. We heard that tear gas, concussion (flash-bang) grenades and some pepper spray got deployed, but at no time did we see anyone attempt to touch an officer.

At many locations, burly guys in sunglasses and plain shirts loomed, watching everything. While on the surface it just seemed like rowdy people making more mainstream protesters nervous, something else — very difficult to define — was happening. There were so many different groups doing things, it was impossible to determine fully what was really going on.