The Wilson family calls it the “Permibus”: a 1984 Bluebird school bus painted green and converted into a traveling exhibit of sustainable living. The Wilsons - Stan, 52, Delyla, 44, and their daughter Megan, 17 - have lived on the “Permibus” since it went on the road from California in February. They share their home with three dogs, three chickens and a composting bin full of worms.

On Saturday, however, the Wilsons were evicted from the Permibus after it was pulled over and impounded by police on Interstate 94. Caught up in last weekend’s security sweep ahead of the Republican National Convention, the Permibus is now parked in the city of Minneapolis impound lot, illegal to drive until 23 alleged safety violations are fixed.

It’s another confrontation in a week that has put the balance of maintaining order and ensuring free expression to the test in the Twin Cities.

From Wilson’s perspective, “they took the bus because they’re trying to quash dissent.”

Nonsense, said Minneapolis police Sgt. William Palmer: The impoundment doesn’t restrict Wilson’s ability to speak out or “to go to the protests. He just can’t drive this bus to get there.”

Earlier on Saturday, the bus had been delivering its portable message of eco-independence, called the “Skills for a New Millenium Tour,” at the Bedlam Theatre in Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. There, Stan Wilson told me, the family was giving its “urban permaculture” workshop - demonstrations of sustainable gardening, recycling and water conservation in an urban environment. In addition to the chickens and worm composter, the biodiesel-fueled bus has solar power, water recycling and a hydroponic garden, he said.

The Minneapolis police were watching the scene as well, Palmer, the police spokesman, said. Officers saw people going in and out of the bus carrying plywood, metal rods and other items that could be used to create “cages” that they could chain themselves in to block traffic, Palmer said. They also “observed large containers of what they felt was feces,” Palmer said, presumably a potential noxious weapon. Then, when another officer came by, the people around the bus appeared to try to conceal what they were doing, Palmer said.

Wilson knew the police were watching. In fact, he typically alerts the police when the bus is parked somewhere, lest the authorities think it’s squatting illegally. He said he recalls moving bicycles, welded wire panels from a portable chicken pen and someone bringing a backpack on board. He also said they were moving buckets of food scraps that they use to feed the chickens. There was, in fact, a bucket of feces on the bus: part of the “humanure” toilet that turns human waste into compost.

Wilson doesn’t deny that the family were involved with the RNC protests: his wife is part of the medical team to treat protesters who were pepper-sprayed or otherwise injured. But they are all about sustainable living and legal expressions of protest, he said. “I consider myself a pacifist,” Wilson said.

When the bus left Cedar-Riverside, it was headed to what the protesters called the “convergence center,” the former theater in St. Paul that was raided Friday night. Wilson said he was taking four people to retrieve their belongings from the building.

The Permibus never got there. On I-94, a police car turned on its lights behind him. He pulled off on an exit and found two more police cars waiting. Everyone got off the bus. An officer with the State Patrol arrived, inspected the bus and said it would be impounded.

Palmer told me the bus was pulled over because a brake light was out and a muffler was hanging on by a wire, not a bracket. Wilson said he wasn’t given a reason, other than a “routine traffic stop,” although he said an officer’s first question was about whether he loved his country. Palmer said he couldn’t speak to that claim.

“They allowed us to take our chickens off the bus, the three dogs and some food,” Wilson said. “They hauled the bus off and left us by the side of the road.”

Palmer said he didn’t know whether anything was seized from the bus. Wilson went to the impound lot on Tuesday, and said nothing appeared to have been taken.

The violations in question mostly apply to commercial vehicles, even though the bus’s Montana registration is not commercial, Wilson said. For now, Wilson and his family are staying with friends in St. Paul. They have a workshop scheduled for Thursday at Harriet Island, but he doesn’t know if the Permibus will be back on the road by then.

What about the creatures still living there? “The worms are still on the bus,” Wilson said. Having just been fed Saturday, “they’re fine.”

If you know about other interesting confrontations this week, please let me know.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Civil liberties, Complaint sagas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.