Police Seize Permibus in Minneapolis

[Manifestor_of_Light]

Could some talented lightworkers kindly straighten this out?

http://www.dailykos .com/story/ 2008/9/1/ 14256/57318/ 498/582237

Terrorist Super-chickens? POLICE SEIZE PERMIBUS
by Athena Sword
Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 11:18:52 AM PDT

Photos:
http://minneapolis. indymedia. org/2008/ aug/photos- permabus- raid-sat- and-critical- mass-fri

A dear friend passed this on to me with the request to pass it on
where it will get the most exposure. Where else but Daily Kos? Please
recommend, Digg, whatever to keep this on top and in the spot light.

Police Seize Permabus
At approximately 6:25 pm on August 30, 2008 Minneapolis Police,
Minnesota State Troopers, Ramsey County Sheriffs, Saint Paul Police,
and University of Minnesota Police pulled over the Earth Activist
Training Permaculture Demonstration Bus (Permibus) by exit 237 on
Interstate 94. Initially the police told the people on the bus to
exit. When the people on the bus asked if they were being detained
they were told that they were but police wereunable to provide
justification.

Follow me after the fold to read a bizarre tale. Are the chickens
suspected of terrorism?

* Athena Sword's diary :: ::
*

When asked why they pulled the bus over they refused to answer. After
repeated requests to explain why the bus had been stopped Officer
Honican of the Minneapolis Police explained that this was just a
routine traffic stop though he did not explain the reason for the
traffic stop. The police then told Stan Wilson, the driver and
registered owner of the Permibus, that they were going to impound the
bus in case they wanted to execute a search warrant later. After more
than an hour of being questioned by Stan and Delyla Wilson as to the
legalities of their detainment and the impoundment of the Permibus,
the police then informed Stan that the bus, which is legally
registered as a passenger vehicle in the state of Montana, was being
impounded for a commercial vehicle inspection. Shortly afterward
Sergeant Paul Davis, a commercial vehicle inspector arrived on scene.
Despite the polices insistence that the reason for impoundment was for
a commercial vehicle inspection the Permibus crew were not allowed to
remove anything from the bus including computers, toiletries, and
17-year-old Megan Wilson's shoes. The police finally allowed the
animals to be removed from the Permibus before it was towed, leaving
the Permibus family standing beside their chickens and dogs, homeless
on the highway.

The Permibus was relocating from the Bedlam Theatre in Minneapolis,
where they had spent the day teaching Urban Permaculture, to a
friend's house in Saint Paul for a well deserved break. The Permibus
has been in the Minneapolis area since August 2nd when the crew
appeared at the Midtown Farmers Market for a morning of Permaculture
education including Permaculture 101, chicken care, seed ball making
for kids, and the Permi-puppet show. During the past month the
Permibus has parked at several local businesses and, as a neighborly
gesture of respect for local police, Mr. Wilson contacted the
appropriate precincts just to let them know the Permibus was in the
area and had permission from the business owners to be parked on their
lot. Through this, as well as other casual discussions with
Minneapolis and Saint Paul police officers, the Permibus crew found
the local police to be interested and respectful. However on August
30th all that changed when, for no apparent valid reason the police
pulled over and seized the Permibus. After the incident Stan Wilson
said, "If the combined law enforcement of Minneapolis, Saint Paul,
Ramsey County, and the State of Minnesota can pull over and impound a
vehicle and home used to teach organic gardening and sustainability,
one has to wonder what it is our government really fears. After all,
we seek to teach people that the real meaning of homeland security is
local food, fuel and energy production. For that we have had our lives
stolen by government men with guns."

As of now, after repeated requests to be present at any vehicle
inspection, with an list of what they are inspecting for, as well as
requests to be served any warrants for searches of the vehicles prior
to a search and to be present during the search the Permi-family has
been unable to ascertain the current status of the Permibus. On site
Mr. Wilson was told that Officer Palmerranky was the inspector in
charge of the case and would determine if the Permi-family' s rights
protecting them from unreasonable search and seizure would be
respected. Neither Officer Palmerranky nor his supervisor has yet to
return Mr. Wilson's calls. The loss of her home and possessions is
particularly difficult on seventeen-year- old Megan Wilson. Megan, a
shining example of what this country asks of today's youth, has dedicated
herself to making positive changes in the world. She was the youth
keynote speaker at the Local to Global conference in Phoenix AZ, has
taught conflict resolution at youth shelters and is the outreach
coordinator for the Skills for a New Millennium Tour, the family
traveling educational project. Megan believes that, "While I
understand that the world we live in is not as it should be I strive
to live and teach in a way that shows the world how life could be.
What I don't understand is why I can't get dressed for an evening out
with friends in my own home without armed men stealing my life out
from under me." The Permi-family, along with their dogs and
Permaculture super-hero chickens are currently being housed by folks
in the Twin Cities.

The Skills for a New Millennium Tour is a family education project
that travels around the United States teaching homesteading,
citizenship, and life skills at farmers markets, community gardens,
churches, intentional communities, schools, and in people's living
rooms. The Skills Tour is a donation supported project dedicated to
providing tools for sustainable living, including Permaculture, to
anyone who is interested, regardless of
income. "We believe that any solution that is not accessible to the
poor and urban areas is not a real solution for the future," states
Delyla Wilson. Permaculture is a design system with ethics and
principles that can be applied to food production, home design, and
community building in order to
increase sustainability in food production, energy production, and
social systems. The Permibus is a rolling demonstration of small scale
sustainable living with three people, three dogs, three chickens, and
a box of worms as
permanent residence. The chickens and worms are part of a closed-loop
food productions composting system that supports the Permibus's
traveling garden.

For more information on the seizure of the Permibus, the Skills for
the New Millennium Tour, or Permaculture, the Wilson's can be reached
at 406-721-8427 or through email at skillstour@gmail. com. You can also see
pictures and read stories about the last six months of their
educational adventures at permibus.livejourna l.com.

To our supporters: First we ask that as many people as possible
contact precinct one in Minneapolis, MN at 612-673-5701 and Mayor Rybak at
Phone: [phone] or

call 311 or call [phone] outside Minneapolis.

Also call the Ramsey County Sheriff

Sheriff - Bob Fletcher 651-266-9300

and demand the immediate release of the Permibus.

We are also in desperate need of donations. Though we do not yet know
the full cost of getting the permibus returned we know that it will
include tow fee, impound fees, and legal fees. To donate contact us
directly for a local address or...

Donate On-line:

Go to: www.earthactivisttr aining.org/ donate.htm

Click on: Donate Now!

Under "Gift Information" write: Permibus

Tags: Permiculture, Permibus, Minneapolis police, unreasonable search
and seizure (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Hell, call the ACLU!

[Bob Dobbs]

2. Fascist thuggery

I had been told that the twin cities were "liberal", but their out of control police forces, under the command of the radical right wing federal homeland security SS have forever made the twin cities a historic example of the new fascist reality the republic party seeks to impose on America and the world.

[wvbygod]

3. This lightworker fixed it. They are all set.

http://permibus.livejournal.com/

Today, Wednesday, September 3, the city of Minneapolis has bowed to worldwide pressure and has dropped all violations and charges against the Permibus!

After a long day of negotiations and phone calls between the mayor’s offices, the city attorney, National Lawyers Guild attorneys, and reporters from the Minneapolis Star – Tribune, the city told us we could have the Permibus back. For those of you who have not been able to keep up with the swirl of activity surrounding the Permibus since its unlawful seizure last Saturday, here is a brief update. After the Permibus was taken we were told that it had been inspected (illegally) and found to have 23 separate violations. Just this morning we were finally given a copy of the violations. Most of them pertained to bus only as a commercial vehicle. It of course is licensed in Montana not as a commercial vehicle but as a private car.
----

It was mostly light work except for the dark clouds that kept rolling in whenever I tried
to convince the photon squad that a bus full of chickens, worms, dogs, gardens and people
really was a private car. Tread lightly.

[pleah]

4. Thanks for the update.

I'm so glad they got bus back.

[happydreams]

5. The permibus people should sue the bastards! This thing pissed me

of more than almost all of the other arrests (except Amy Goodman's).

Don't people with private cars leave their barking biting dogs in parking lots all over the US and never get a ticket.

I'll bet the permibus dogs were friendly.

Thanks for reporting back on this. I was really worried about what was going to happen to these people.