This is not my America.
September 4th, 2008 4:37 pm by Kelly G.Behind all the patriotic hyperbole that accompanies the conventions, and the thousands of journalists and media workers who arrive to cover the staged events, there are serious violations of the basic right of freedom of the press. Here on the streets of St. Paul, the press is free to report on the official proceedings of the RNC, but not to report on the police violence and mass arrests directed at those who have come to petition their government, to protest. [...]
Nicole was videotaping. Her tape of her own violent arrest is chilling. Police in riot gear charged her, yelling, “Get down on your face.” You hear her voice, clearly and repeatedly announcing “Press! Press! Where are we supposed to go?” She was trapped between parked cars. The camera drops to the pavement amidst Nicole’s screams of pain. Her face was smashed into the pavement, and she was bleeding from the nose, with the heavy officer with a boot or knee on her back. Another officer was pulling on her leg. Sharif was thrown up against the wall and kicked in the chest, and he was bleeding from his arm.
I was at the Xcel Center on the convention floor, interviewing delegates. I had just made it to the Minnesota delegation when I got a call on my cell phone with news that Sharif and Nicole were being bloody arrested, in every sense. Filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and I raced on foot to the scene. Out of breath, we arrived at the parking lot. I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.
Within seconds, they grabbed me, pulled me behind the police line and forcibly twisted my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, the rigid plastic cuffs digging into my wrists. I saw Sharif, his arm bloody, his credentials hanging from his neck. I repeated we were accredited journalists, whereupon a Secret Service agent came over and ripped my convention credential from my neck. I was taken to the St. Paul police garage where cages were set up for protesters. I was charged with obstruction of a peace officer. Nicole and Sharif were taken to jail, facing riot charges.
The attack on and arrest of me and the “Democracy Now!” producers was not an isolated event. A video group called I-Witness Video was raided two days earlier. Another video documentary group, the Glass Bead Collective, was detained, with its computers and video cameras confiscated. On Wednesday, I-Witness Video was again raided, forced out of its office location. When I asked St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington how reporters are to operate in this atmosphere, he suggested, “By embedding reporters in our mobile field force.”
On Monday night, hours after we were arrested, after much public outcry, Nicole, Sharif and I were released. That was our Labor Day. It’s all in a day’s work.
That’s an excerpt from Amy Goodman’s Why We Were Falsely Arrested. You can read the whole thing over at truthdig.
Here’s the video of her arrest:
(You can view more RNC videos here.)
Since there’s been precious little reporting of police brutality and repression in the msm, here are some resources y’all should check out:
Lindsay Beyerstein has a ton of photos - with firsthand accounts - up on her Flickr photostream, as well as on her blog Majikthise.
Lindsay, along with Jane Hamsher (who’s live blogging the RNC), is also talking about the raids and arrests on firedoglake.
Glenn Greenwald has been blogging the conventions, including police misconduct, over at Salon.
Over on Theuptake, you can view a live video stream from their reporters’ cameras at the RNC. (The Republican hack they’re interviewing at the moment is *this close* to making me vomit in my own mouth.)
Also check out Twin Cities Indymedia, indymedia.us and Green is the New Red for more.
And, of course, there’s also Democracy Now! and I-Witness Video.
Finally, pattrice jones offers a History of Activist Repression to give us all a little perspective.
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Tagged: 2008 elections civil liberties police brutality censorship first amendment protest activism dnc rnc democrats republicans st. paul minnesota democratic national convention republican national convention democracy amy goodman democracy now theuptake i-witness video indymedia msm video youtube politics repression journalism
September 6th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I counted the police telling her to get to the sidewalk 4 times. The one officer tried to move her to the sidewalk, and when she turned around and walked toward them again they arrested her.
If she had simply listened to the officers I doubt they would have arrested her. They gave her at least 4 opportunities to get on the sidewalk. Falsely Arrested? Hardly.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Yeah, those fucking journalists trying to report on the news and shit. Just who do they think they are?
September 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Kelly,
Her being a journalist doesn’t make her immune from having to listen to a police officer’s instructions. That officer repeatedly asked her to get on the sidewalk. Obviously the police did not want anyone past a certain point. You hear one officer say “stay on the sidewalk or you will be arrested” as they were arresting Ms Goodman. I am unsure why she could not have moved onto the sidewalk and asked her questions to the officers form the sidewalk. If you watch the video you see the officers arrest her only after asking her numerous times to get on the sidewalk, and one officer tried to move her to the sidewalk. When she turned around and came back at him, they arrested her.
Contrast this incident to the ABC reporter arrested at the DNC convention.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/Story?id=5678763&page=1
His crew was filming Dem Senators and VIP’s inside the hotel for a story on lobbyists. Here, the reporter is talking on a cell phone on public sidewalk. The video shows him complying with the officers request to leave, chasing him into traffic. He was then arrested two hours later. I think this incident is much more consistent with the spirit of your post.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
What isn’t on the video, was the treatment of her colleagues. She was obviously distraught when she came over to the cops to talk to her friends. I’m not sure one could call wanting to talk to an officer about her friends necessitates an arrest.
The police conduct has been criticized from people on all sides of the spectrum, and while maybe this isn’t as bad as more “popular” incidents at either convention, it’s a very obvious indicator of the overbearing police presence.
From Reason Magazine:
“The police presence in St. Paul was striking, far more pervasive than that of Denver. While Denver’s Pepsi Center was surrounded by a huge perimeter fence, nothing inside but the convention, media tents, parking, and a CNN Grill, the St. Paul XCel Energy Center (and its appendenges) were blocked off from the rest of the city with a labyrinth of gates, some opening out next to bars, some opening out onto busy streets. You could see a friend on one side of a fence and walk ten minutes to find the exit that let you join him. While you did so, cops would leer as if you were smuggling a kilo of china white stuffed inside of novelty dynamite sticks.”
September 6th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I was only commenting on the arrest of Ms Goodman. Since I have not seen the video of her producers getting arrested, I have refrained from comment on their arrest.
September 6th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Josh - Goodman was trying to talk to the officers when she was arrested:
I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.
Her two colleagues had just been roughed up and arrested, and she was trying to find them. Instead of simply answering her question or directing her to someone who could, they chose to arrest her. She was not rioting or acting in a threatening manner, but trying to ask a question, while identifying herself as a journalist.
Did she technically fail “to listen to a police officer’s instructions”? Yeah, sure, wev. But did they seriously have to arrest her? Really? Wouldn’t if have just been easier, more compassionate and just, to have answered her f’in question? She clearly appeared to be in a panic. Why not help a citizen out?
Given that the police were trying to suppress journalists even before the RNC began - for example, raiding the home where members of I-Witness video, in town to document the protests, were staying - I think it’s less likely that the police were genuinely trying to serve the public good and instead were acting like a bunch of lawless thugs, out to suppress dissent. And the lack of media coverage, coupled with a “so what, those hippies deserved it” attitude, only feeds into their sense of being above the law.
And yeah, the police acted like a bunch of thugs at the DNC as well. The Democrats are largely a bunch of power-hungry, freedom-hating douches, too. Republicans certainly don’t corner the market on civil liberties violations.
(I should also add that I have also linked to coverage of the DNC protests; but most of the reports of journalist intimidation are coming out of the RNC, since these protests are larger and more vocal.)
September 6th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Yes the protests at the RNC were much more vocal.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hksHDv1i55R2qYI6dkmMm10uxZ0AD92UBCFO1
“And many of those involved in the more violent activities identified themselves to reporters as anarchists. These protesters, some clad in black, were operating on the streets in addition to a peaceful anti-war march, wreaking havoc by damaging property and setting at least one fire.”
“Members of the Connecticut delegation said they were attacked by protesters when they got off their bus near the Xcel Center, KMSP-TV reported. Delegate Rob Simmons told the station that a group of protesters came toward his delegation and tried to rip the credentials off their necks and sprayed them with a toxic substance that burned their eyes and stained their clothes.”
“One 80-year-old member of the delegation had to be treated for injuries, and several other delegates had to rinse their eyes and clothing, the station reported.”
“Five people were arrested for lighting a trash bin on fire and pushing it into a police car, St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said.”
“Up to 200 people from various groups marched in a noisy “Funk the War” march. Wearing black clothes, bandanas and gas masks, some individuals smashed windows of cars and stores. They tipped over newspaper boxes, pulled a big trash bin into the street, bent the rearview mirrors on a bus and flipped heavy stone garbage bins on the sidewalks.”
“At one point, people pushed a trash bin filled with trash and threw garbage in the streets and at cars. They also took down orange detour road signs. One of them used a screwdriver to puncture the back tire of a limousine waiting at an intersection and threw a wooden board at the vehicle, denting its side. Another hurled a glass bottle at a charter bus that had stopped at an intersection. The bottle smashed into pieces but didn’t appear to damage the bus.”
“Terry Butts, a former Alabama Supreme Court justice who is a convention delegate, was on a bus taking delegates to the arena when a brick through the window sprayed glass on him and two others. Butts said he wasn’t hurt.”
Now obviously Ms. Goodman is not an anarchist, but a journalists. However, journalist or not, if an officer gives you at least four verbal commands, and then escorts you to the sidewalk, and you turn around and come back at him you are going to get arrested. If the officers had arrested her immediately with out warning, I would agree with your characterization of thuggery. In this video, seems like they just wanted her to get on the sidewalk.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Perhaps you should check out some alternative media resources instead of relying solely on the mainstream media. They also bought the prez’s WMD story hook, line and sinker.
Look, I don’t doubt that some protesters were acing violently, but that doesn’t mean that the police have free license to silence all forms of activism, protest and dissent. (And given that so many people *do* think it gives them free license to do just that, I wouldn’t be shocked if they had deliberately planted provocateurs amongst the demonstrates in order to stir the pot. Hey, they’re already infiltrating vegan potlucks. I’m the #1 Domestic Terraist Threat, dontchaknow.)
There’s a clear pattern of police misconduct and journalist suppression that began even before the RNC started. (Not to mention, historically.) Viewed in context, Goodman’s arrest wasn’t done for police safety or the public good. She was a panicked citizen and journalist, looking for friends and colleagues who had been roughed up and arrested, also while acting as reporters. Would it have killed the cops to, you know, *help* her? But she was just a dirty, mouthy librulhippie, so better to cuff her now and answer questions later.
And, you know, the police don’t always act in good faith, either. Sometimes they give citizens unconstitutional (or simply inhumane) orders…does that mean we must always follow, unquestioning?
I’m not calling the St. Paul police jackbooted thugs because they arrested Goodman without cause; I’m calling them jackbooted thugs because they arrested Goodman when they could have just as easily helped her; because they conducted warantless raids on other journalists in the days leading up to the convention; because they continued to harass protesters and journalists during the convention; because they have a long history of doing so, throughout time and across party lines; and because they pretty much continue to do so without impunity. FISA, AETA, Sean Bell, Tarika Wilson, Payton and Chase Calco, Hurricane Katrina and the Saint Bernard Parish dogs - it’s a pattern. A fucking disgusting, undemocratic, unconscionable, pattern.
September 7th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
“Perhaps you should check out some alternative media resources instead of relying solely on the mainstream media.”
I saw the video with my own eyes. No need to rely on “alternative” media.
I happen to think the the cops do a pretty good job overall protecting citizens despite a few isolated incidents of misconduct. Yes there are incidents of brutality, misconduct, etc. But the majority of police are professionals and do their job correctly.
“it’s a pattern. A fucking disgusting, undemocratic, unconscionable, pattern.”
If you take the total number of incidents between police and citizens in a given year, the times when there is misconduct is tiny. Empirically speaking, the pattern is that most police do their jobs correctly.
September 7th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I saw the video with my own eyes. No need to rely on “alternative” media.
That comment was directed at your extensive quoting of the AP article, fwiw.
January 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
[...] Smite Me!: This is not my America. [Reading up on police brutality and repression during the RNC.] [...]