And, of course, most local officials were putting a positive spin on the whole deal.
"The RNC was the largest event the city has ever hosted," St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said Tuesday. "I'm proud that we were able to host a safe and successful convention, and we took advantage of our time on the world stage. "
Despite that, Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that St. Paul is conducting an independent review of "public safety planning and implementation" during the RNC. The city has hired former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Luger to oversee the review, which Coleman said will give St. Paul and its residents "better insight on what opportunities were seized, and what lessons were learned. "
"Our intent from the very beginning was to make this event and our policing transparent," St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said. "From participating in the community meetings, to the imbedded reporters, we intended to make sure our peacekeeping was an open book.
"This review is an important part of continuing to provide excellent service to our community. "
The police department will end up on the winning end of the RNC in one way: Some of the equipment purchased with a $50 million federal grant to assist with security during the convention will remain with the department. About $34 million of that grant, for which the department was eligible because the RNC was deemed a "national special security event," was set aside for overtime salaries for police officers. Exact figures for overtime were not yet available. But the rest should translate into cost savings for the department, St. Paul City Councilman David Thune said.
"We've asked [how the new equipment and supplies will affect the budget], and are waiting for an answer," said Thune, who said he also plans to conduct hearings to determine who made law enforcement decisions during the convention, which resulted in sporadic downtown rioting and more than 800 arrests.
"I've never seen the city drop to such a low in terms of trust, and I really believe that St. Paul's law enforcement is top-notch," Thune said. "It just hurts me to see this having happened. " Police department spokesman Tom Walsh called the overall impact for both police officers and citizens a positive one.
In addition to gaining equipment and supplies - including a security camera system for the downtown area, which the city had been hoping to purchase for several years but didn't get to until the RNC came to town - officers gained significant experience, Walsh said.
"The long-term benefit is that we acquired some equipment and some training that were an invaluable tool, and (some experience) working with other agencies. "
As for criticism leveled at the department for its handling of law enforcement during the convention, Walsh said,
"When people sort out what actually happened here and separate myth from fact, they will actually be quite happy. "
You probably can't put in the "quite happy" column members of the former RNC Welcoming Committee - the group of self-described anarchists who some blame for most of the violence during the convention - or the ColdsnapLegal Collective, a Twin Cities-based group whose purpose is to "educate, empower and support the radical community" and whose members have been working with those arrested during the RNC.
The collective's website is offering advice and contact information for those who left town without property that was confiscated during last week's raids and arrests. They advise that if arrestees don't get their property back this week, they'll likely have to make an appointment to retrieve it.
And, officially, the RNC Welcoming Committee is no more. On its website, the group refers to itself as "your friends and lovers formerly known as the RNC Welcoming Committee," and offers updates on legal support and ongoing efforts to "build radical infrastructure in the Twin Cities. " A meeting of arrestees was held Saturday; another one is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday at Walker Community United Methodist Church, 3104 16th Ave. S., Minneapolis.
The Sierra Club isn't writing fan letters to the police this week, either. In a statement, the local chapter decried the arrest of "prominent professional journalists" during the convention - including the host and producers of public radio's "Democracy Now" and Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke - and condemns "the patently excessive use of force," "the smashing in of doors" and "the violent manhandling and personal injury done to innocent citizens" at various times throughout the week.
"We lament the city and the county's failure to limit the use of force to those proportional, foresighted, and appropriate measures that could have preserved the rights of citizens, the integrity of property, and the general peace and welfare," the club's statement said.
Inside the Xcel, Qwest Communications, the official "communications provider" of the RNC (and the Democratic National Convention in Denver), said it's still negotiating to decide how much of the equipment that it installed for the RNC will remain in the building, and how much Qwest will be paid for it. "Work is being done this week to pull cables from Xcel Center so that all unused lines are out by the end of this week," Qwest spokeswoman Joanna Hjelmeland said.
Depending on what kind of cable it is, most will be reused; other cable will be recycled or disposed of. Hjelmeland said 100 percent of the copper cable inside the building can be reused, along with some of the coaxial cable. Fiber cables will be recycled for plastic, and everything else, down to the wall jacks, will be evaluated for possible reuse. She couldn't give an estimate of how much it will cost Qwest to dismantle the setup, because workers are still in the middle of the project. Qwest is performing all the work itself and has not hired any local companies to assist, she said.
On the medical front, Twin Cities hospitals reported Tuesday that they treated 87 "RNC-related patients" during the week, including conventioneers, protesters and others. Most of those patients were treated for minor injuries, some of them resulting from "clashes with police. "
Volunteers at a makeshift health care center inside the Xcel staffed during the RNC by personnel from cooperating local hospitals treated 248 people with complaints ranging from flulike symptoms to dehydration. Eight of those people were sent to area hospitals. The hospitals involved worked together before and during the convention.
The hospital response was coordinated by Regions Hospital in St. Paul, a Level I trauma center, which treated 37 RNC-related patients. Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis saw 26 RNC-related cases; United Hospital in St. Paul, 14; St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, seven; and the St. Paul campus of Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, three.
"We're all competitors in the market, no doubt, but we've all become such strong partners in this whole thing," Rick Huston, Regions' director of operations, said. "We can put aside competitiveness and handle things like this very well. "
Staff writer Arundhati Parmar contributed to this story.
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