First Arrest of RNC Protesters Reported

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TAMPA, Florida
Reported by Kameel Stanley of the St. Petersburg Times:

Two suspected protesters were arrested after they were found playing with a BB gun atop a downtown parking garage, authorities said.
They are the first arrests in the city tied to the Republican National Convention, which kicks off tonight with a huge welcome party at Tropicana Field.
St. Petersburg police spokesman Mike Puetz said the agency got a call late Thursday from a concerned citizen who saw people on the roof of a parking garage at 100 Second Ave. S.
“That unto itself is odd,” Puetz said.
The caller also claimed to have seen the people playing with a gun.
Officers found two men and a female teen runaway hanging out.
They also found several items indicating the people were protesters, including antigovernment T-shirts and a backpack stuffed with a large machete, a pocketknife, tin snips and a pry tool, Puetz said.
The backpack belonged to Trevor Swanson, 19, of St. Petersburg, who is prohibited from having weapons because of a domestic violence injunction.
Police said the other man on the roof, Kyle Shaw, 21, had a BB gun in his waistband.
Authorities also found bandanas, black gloves and a putty that Swanson admitted was for securing a mask, police said.
Shaw, listed as a transient from Largo, was arrested on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. Swanson was arrested on charges of possessing burglary tools, violating an injunction and being a delinquent felon in possession of a weapon.

Hmmm. A 19-year-old with a domestic violence injunction? Burglary tools? Gloves? A machete? Weird stuff, and undoubtedly the tip of a very large iceberg of weirdness among the anarchists and “Occupy” scum expected to descend on Tampa this week.

UPDATE: Brandon Darby reports that the anti-RNC protesters have “a coms group that is trying to shut down the EMS communications structure for the city. That’s really happening. They’re trying to shut down the communications structure for the city for law enforcement and emergency medical personnel.”

Isn’t that wonderful? With a hurricane approaching Tampa — and as Bryan Preston notes, there are already trees down in Miami — the Left is trying to shut down 911!

26 comments

  3. RE update: So the lefties are protesting against Hurricane Isaac, huh?

    /sarcasm

    I’d like to call them idiots, but they are just tools who think they are making a difference.

  5. I think the 19 year old had the “tools of his trade” along – that sounds like a burglar’s bag.

    Of course, all of it translates very well to property damage and doing harm to the unfortunate attendees of the convention, too.

  9. With a hurricane approaching Tampa … the Left is trying to shut down 911!

    Anyone still believe the Left cares about people or the environment?

    Will this make the news anywhere but here? #occupytruth

  11. Small correction — it’s the Tampa Bay Times now. And said paper has been running a full slate of front page articles for weeks on how and where to protest, fully supporting the nonsense that these occupy clowns are planning.

  20. St. Petersburg police spokesman Mike Puetz said the agency got a call late Thursday from a concerned citizen who saw people on the roof of a parking garage at 100 Second Ave. S.
    “That unto itself is odd,” Puetz said.

    This particular parking garage has no roof. The top level is a exposed parking deck. It’s odd for the police to say it’s odd for there to be people in a parking garage.
    Stop reading the news in your room and hit the streets for some reporting.

  22. A machete? Gimme a break. They should be staging open carry marches by the thousands with assault weapons and rifles. Guarantee the police would think twice about swinging batons and launching tear gas grenades.

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