Blogged by Brad Friedman from the road…
Journalist Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! was arrested today, along with two producers of her radio/television show, while covering protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
Producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar “were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention,” according to a press release issued this afternoon by the independent, progressive daily news program, broadcast on many Pacifica Radio outlets as well as satellite television.
“Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press,” says the release, which adds that “Ramsey County Sherrif Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.”
A short video of Goodman’s arrest follows…
The press release also notes:
Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amenmdent rights of these journalists.
UPDATE: 11:51pm PT: Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar have now been released, according to a late update from Democracy Now!
UPATE 10/5/11: Minneapolis, St. Paul police departments and the Secret Service agree to $100,000 payment to settle federal lawsuits filed by journalists. More details now here…
well, i began the day watching videos at firedoglake of “hippy houses” being raided for no good reason – only to end the day with the heartbreaking video of amy goodman, a woman of whom i spend an hour every day with during my morning walks. not only do we have the right to peaceably protest, but we also have a freedom of the press. i guess it seems fitting that they are both trampled on during the rnc.
GOOD!
The more they cross the line, the stronger we get!
Amy Goodman is the best television journalist out there and now she is going to be better then ever!
FOOLS!
It’s not like this isn’t an unacceptable pattern.
MacArthur Park, 2004 RNC.
Fuck man.
We need cops.
We need protestors.
We need Journalism.
We need Over the Air Broadcast Indy Media.
So let me see, Amy Goodman “inciting a riot.” Who ever said that should never work for any form of government or law enforcement ever again. Whoever FAILED to question that, should never work for government or law enforcement or contract or lobby, or ANYTHING ever again.
I guess having a link to “Democracy Now!” on your website makes you a terrorist.
Or so the Bush / Rovian think would have you think.
In actuality, the cops are being used as a political, and legal pawn for domestic terrorism.
Them, not Me, not You, not Bradblog.
Where does that oath to protect the constitution, against all enemies foreign and domestic stop and civil war begin? How many cops are veterans and KNOW exactly what I am saying!?
Why would anyone want to protest anymore?
It’s offically dangerous. And worse than that, if you can’t protest, what is left?
Don’t sit there and cringe reading this, don’t sit there and try to make me into suggesting something I am not.
I am simply asking a question. I’ve asked this question a lot of times, different ways. Yet I still have not seen an answer to it.
Meanwhile while you ponder that, your ability to run an underground news station is slowly slipping away with the incremental attack on net neutrality. It’s not all just the government bills being passed, now it’s coming from stealth sources, proxies of denial. We’ll give you a data cap, we’ll block a port, we’ll TOS / AUP you. To use a figure of speech, our web communications are dying by “Death by a thousand cuts.”
Yup Larry, they just stepped on the wrong persons toes there
I guess they figure there are only so many people who actually comprehend what the Constitution says and don’t have as much money to fight in court against those that have most of the money and are destroying it!
The new measure of being a true patriot…have you been arrested for defending the original Constitution yet? God, I can’t wait till corporations are no longer considered a person with accompanying rights! That will quickly get us back on track to real democracy again.
THIS IS A FUCKING gop TRAVESTY !!!
#1 SugarMags,
I’m not sure if the police/media/whoemver are calling them hippie houses–probably are– but Tom Hartman just had Amy Goodman & her colleagues on his show & said these were preemptive & very violent raids on SHIT! I knew I’d forget the damn names organizations that go to protests to document. Their computers were taken, cameras etc
Amy said as bad as it was for them, it was worse for protesters. A lot of “scrawney kids” as she said were bloodied & manhandled by police at a peaceful protest
Media were downplaying it & describing it as oh it was just “a few anarchists attacked delegates”.
They, Amy etc, described it as very very violent, their press credentials ripped from their necks, people forced to the ground with a boot in their backs, pepper spray direct to their faces, rubber bullets at pointblank range.
Christ, we’re in 1968 again. Only worse.
The police informed her that if she made an attempt to cross the line then she would be arrested. From a legal standpoint she disobeyed a lawful order from a peace officer. That is obstructing legal process in MN and that seems to be why she was arrested. What she should have done is gone down to the jail after they were booked in and filed a complaint later. However, she didn’t that is why ended up in jail. The police didn’t do anything that was out of the scope of their authority and did not violate her constitutioinal rights.
I always listen to Thom Hartmann He’s The Best !
BH #6
Yeah, the DNC fascists knew better than to arrest Amy. Looks like tit for tat to me. The Denver cops hauled away an ABC journalist too close to capturing Democrats hobnobbing with wealthy donors….
If you go to the Democracy Now and hear the whole report it is quite chilling. After being beaten, (enhanced arresting techniques?) and arrested for filming the events, uniformed thugs who would not identify themselves, took away some of their press passes so they would not have proof that they were approved press. Apparently having a camera constitutes inciting a felony riot. The local police didn’t know who the thugs were for sure, but thought they were Secret Service.
I thought the job of the Secret Service was to protect the president. The President’s job is to protect the Constitution. Who were these characters?
SS ?
(All of this occurred after protest groups, were pre-emptively raided; their literature, computers, etc. confiscated. Apparently having a difference in opinion from the ruling elite is also not permitted.)
yikes!
There were some protesters who were marching peacefully, while others were rioting. I’m all for peaceful marches, but when they turn violent, the game is over. If Amy was photograhping in the mist of rioters, I can see how she’d get swept in to the mix that were arrested. I’d even think she’d expect to be arrested. We also film documentaries and there are boundaries that if you cross them, you are in fact participating in the crime/unrest/riot. No doubt the rioting would make her documentary that much more exciting and her arrest is icing on the cake. You can film confortation without contributing to the problem, but then Amy would miss out on the free publicity.
pretty funny…. 🙂 i listen to demo.now all the time and find most of her views to be about as absurd as can be. if you’re to the right of trotsky, amy g is against ya..
#12, 99 ~ was that telcom fisa party?
Actually, I think it was another one a day or two later…. The guy was on the sidewalk, public property, and trying to get footage of the Dems rubbing elbows with people who aren’t wild about their support being public…. I think I linked it on the day… or maybe the day after and I think the title of the post was something about fascism…. People were being mistreated in Denver too, and there were some outrageous incidences of them obviously trying to keep stuff under wraps, out of the public eye. So I would like people to bear in mind that it isn’t only Republicans enjoying the ruination of our Constitution.
you far left morons really like to believe your victims..she should have been teargassed and dragged away with the other losers who pretend to be peaceful but try to start trouble any chance they get…if i was governor it would be shoot to kill any liberal who tried to start trouble with violence..then we wouldn’t have to listen to this crying about always being an innocent bystander..lets not vote for more taxes, more government programs, and more dependence on foreign oil…lets let the community organizer go back to doing just that and vote for mccain….
mikeyb said on 9/2/2008 @ 8:33 pm PT…
“if i was governor it would be shoot to kill any liberal who tried to start trouble with violence..”
FYI ~ This blog resides in the United States of America where there are laws against that sort of thing.
I think the police did what was necessary. Just because a person is a journalist does not give them the right to cross lines &/or cause rioting problems.
For those of you who think the police acted reasonably, I strongly suggest you watch the first part of Tuesday’s Democracy Now! before you go any further. They have video of the arrests and there isn’t any way you could construe them as necessary or lawful. If you care about our country, about our Constitution, for crapsakes watch it and don’t continue stumping for a police state on blogs.
Amy was wrong in crossing the line the officers had a job to do and done it. If we dont have rules, and follow them we are in trouble.
She was identifying two of her coworkers the cops had slammed to the ground brutally for simply BEING there with cameras. They were all audibly and visibly identifying themselves as press. If you mean the officers had the job of beating and intimidating and hauling to jail law abiding journalists and innocent people, then, yes, they had a job to do and they did it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d9wmqO2Khw
A cop took away Amy’s press pass to the Republican convention saying “you won’t be needing this.” That’s outrageous.
Whatever happens at this trial, it will be “Democracy Now” against the entire rest of the media which we know will lie, not just because DN is a much better news source and could cut into their profits, but because they are just an arm of our government.
DN showed all of the footage they had and didn’t color it. The other “news” organizations will.
I am always amazed and disgusted at the Reich wing mentality such as (GRW, Oosoom, MikeyB).
Totally unbelievable.
Amy Goodman along with her crew did NOTHING what so ever to be arrested for and especially BEATEN and treated like mass murderers.
Crap such as this will unfortunately not only continue but escalate until about 100+ Million really angry patriotic Americans say enough is enough and put a stop to it.
Sadly that is how this is going to end.
http://www.theuptake.org/
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xHpDQpZ_NAI
The cops are being used as pawns.
The cops are unidentifiable.
The cops are breaking the law.
Police lawlessness denies citizen’s First Amendment Rights.
There can be no law or constitutional rights with this kind of unacceptable behavior.
Who is really behind this lawlessness? It would appear that there hidden powers behind this.
What is behind this seemingly complete lack of common sense? It would seem it was to deny disenting questions and opinion, and stop negative coverage.
Why are Journalists, Press, Media, and non-violent protesters being snared up in such dragnets? It would seem the cops are following unacceptable protocols.
How is this happening? It would seem surveilence and confiscation is alowing FISA type laws to be used politically. It’s well planned, it’s domestic terrorism against citizens.
When is this happening? Specifically durring events that are being protected from negative publicity.
Where is this happening? At any events and protests all across America. It’s the new law enforcement standard operating procedure.
And just like electronic voting, the corporate media considers this a blacklisted topic.
There’s your patterns, there’s your reasons, in fact I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s not just happening in the United States.
When you have people walking around doing illegal activity at police agencies and don’t identify themselves you have lawlessness.
Rubber bullets and chemical weapons are a chicken shit way to deal with violent protestors who mix in with non-violent protestors. Carrying a sign is not violent, blocking a street is not violent, shooting off concussion bombs is violent.
Listen folks, the police interventions and pre-emptions have been accepted practice for a long time. That they grow increasingly pervasive and more violent is being accepted as well. The only thing that will once again grip anybody’s serious attention would be an all out street demonstration of unmanageable numbers of protesters on the night of McCain’s speech. When someone talks about “disrupting” a convention, that means taking all attention off what is inside the halls of the convention center. Now, I seriously doubt that is going to happen because–as I said–not only has the Republican/NeoCon way of business become status quo, but so too is the media coverage and police tactics. People who are indignant will continue to be indignant, but they won’t be hitting the streets. They will continue to think the ballot box will work for them in the final analysis. As Brad has repeatedly pointed out in his excellent reporting, the ballot box has been gamed beyond all redemption. I feel very sorry for Ms Goodman and her colleagues, and all the protesters who have had their rights mauled as well as their bodies. I notice that Ron Paul also drew 15,000 persons across town and nobody covered him either. The status quo is intact–and it’s a goddamned shame.
And look at what is going on today: all we can talk about is Palin-Palin-Palin. She did her job alright. She took your attention away from where the problems lies.
I have also read that the city of St Paul and the RNC cut a deal whereby liability insurance for the cit police was purchased by the RNC. This is likely to embolden them to undertake borderline activities in law “enforcement” if they know the city won’t suffer severe legal consequences which could anger taxpayers. Outsourcing liability is like private contracting.