Why We Were Falsely Arrested by: Amy Goodman, Truthdig Wednesday 03 September 2008
http://www.truthout.org/article/why-we-were-falsely-arrested?print
Excerpt:
"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."
Why We Were Falsely Arrested
Wednesday 03 September 2008
by: Amy Goodman, Truthdig
St. Paul, Minnesota - Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy. As the Republican National Convention meets in St. Paul, Minn., this week, police are systematically targeting journalists. I was arrested with my two colleagues, "Democracy Now!" producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, while reporting on the first day of the RNC. I have been wrongly charged with a misdemeanor. My co-workers, who were simply reporting, may be charged with felony riot.
The Democratic and Republican national conventions have become very expensive and protracted acts of political theater, essentially four-day-long advertisements for the major presidential candidates. Outside the fences, they have become major gatherings for grass-roots movements-for people to come, amidst the banners, bunting, flags and confetti, to express the rights enumerated in the Constitution's First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
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.
It was Labor Day, and there was an anti-war march, with a huge turnout, with local families, students, veterans and people from around the country gathered to oppose the war. The protesters greatly outnumbered the Republican delegates.
There was a positive, festive feeling, coupled with a growing anxiety about the course that Hurricane Gustav was taking, and whether New Orleans would be devastated anew. Later in the day, there was a splinter march. The police-clad in full body armor, with helmets, face shields, batons and canisters of pepper spray-charged. They forced marchers, onlookers and working journalists into a nearby parking lot, then surrounded the people and began handcuffing them.
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.
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Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 700 stations in North America.
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Seems like the authorities in Minnesota were ordered to begin
acclimating journalists & others to a police state! Very alarming indeed!
I wish Goodman had ended her above essay with something other than, "It's all in a day's work." (It was more like a day's work in 1930s Germany, IMO!)
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Consider mass emailing truth messages. More info here: http://www.911blogger.com/node/13321
Why You Were Falsely Arrested
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/08/20080828-7.html
Clearly a sort of low-visibility Martial Law has been in effect since 9/11. What is to stop McCain or Obama from continuing to renew it, as they both support the "war on terror"?
How do Amy and her fans expect to keep their Bill of Rights when they refuse to expose the 9/11 Reichstag Fire?
Comments at Truthdig seem to have been suspended.
“On the altar of God, I swear eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson
Its the elite's vision of the future
They dine on Salmon in a domed palace while storm troopers beat back the angry masses.
Peter B Collins interviews Amy Goodman and Nicole Salazar
http://www.911blogger.com/node/17497
Onward
This will go on until Establishment Tool Amy Goodman gets a clue and wakes up to what she is and what she's done.
Let me throw you a clue Amy in case you feel a bit lost: 9-11 was an inside job.
Mockingbird Amy knows full well what 9/11 really was.
She always has.
Her assignment is to keep her listeners in the dark, while making them imagine she's on their side and enlightening them.
She's not on your side. She's an agent of the CIA doing undercover work for one of hundreds of such operations established by her real employer. In other words, she's your enemy, a conscious and willing operative on behalf of torture and mass murder.
When you "throw [her] a clue," you confirm what Mockingbird spends so many billions of our taxes trying to fool us about: that its agents are seeking the truth for the public, and that if those "journalists" don't always get things right, it's only because they don't have enough information.
Mockingbird Now! is a con to fool you and waste your time. Take the red pill, then create and distribute your own media.
"When you "throw [her] a
"When you "throw [her] a clue," you confirm what Mockingbird spends so many billions of our taxes trying to fool us about: that its agents are seeking the truth for the public, and that if those "journalists" don't always get things right, it's only because they don't have enough information."
Yes, this (above) is really good. I was being a bit sarcastic but your point stands and is the only important one.
The one thing I don't know for sure is whether tools like Goodman are consciously aware of their role or not (useful idiots?). Are they just the best of the "marine snow", dead stuff that eventually makes it to the very bottom? Self-selection based on their unconscious instinct for "doing the right thing" without needing explicit direction? Or at some point are they explicitly brought into the operation with a full briefing or what?
I wish we had more of a true insider detailed account of this Mockingbird stuff.
I wonder if.
she starting to open her eye's yet?
Amnesty International press release
PRESS STATEMENT
For immediate release:
Friday, September 5, 2008
Contact: AIUSA media office
202-544-0200 x302
Use of Force Against RNC Protesters "Disproportionate," Charges Amnesty International
[London]--Amnesty International is concerned by allegations of excessive use of force and mass arrests by police at demonstrations in St. Paul, Minnesota during the Republican National Convention (RNC) from September 1-4, 2008. The human rights organization is calling on the city and county authorities to ensure that all allegations of ill-treatment and other abuses are impartially investigated, with a review of police tactics and weapons in the policing of demonstrations.
The organization's concerns arise from media reports, video and photographic images which appear to show police officers deploying unnecessary and disproportionate use of non-lethal weapons on non-violent protestors marching through the streets or congregating outside the arena where the Convention was being held.
Amnesty International urges that an inquiry be carried out promptly, that its findings and recommendations be made public in a timely manner. If the force used is found to have been excessive and to have contravened the principles of necessity and proportionality, then those involved should be disciplined, measures put in place and training given to ensure future policing operations conform to international standards.
Police are reported to have fired rubber bullets and used batons, pepper spray, tear gas canisters and concussion grenades on peaceful demonstrators and journalists. Amnesty International has also received unconfirmed reports that some of those arrested during the demonstrations may have been ill-treated while held at Ramsey county jail.
Amnesty International is also concerned at reports that several journalists who were covering the RNC were arbitrarily arrested while filming and reporting on the demonstrations. They include host of independent news program Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman, and two of the program's producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, who were both allegedly subjected to violence during their arrest. A photographer for the Associated Press (AP) and other journalists were also arrested while covering the demonstrations.
Kouddous described his arrest to media, "Štwo or three police officers tackled me. They threw me violently against a wall. Then they threw me to the ground. I was kicked in the chest several times. A police officer ground his knee into my backŠI was also, the entire time, telling them, 'I'm media. I'm pressŠ.,' butŠthat didn't seem to matter at all."
Amnesty International recognizes the challenges involved in policing large scale demonstrations and that some protestors may have been involved in acts of violence or obstruction. However, some of the police actions appear to have breached United Nations (U.N.) standards on the use of force by law enforcement officials. These stipulate, among other things, that force should be used only as a last resort, in proportion to the threat posed, and should be designed to minimize damage or injury. Some of the treatment also appears to have contravened U.S. laws and guidelines on the use of force. The U.N. standards also stress that everyone is allowed to participate in lawful and peaceful assemblies, in accordance with the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more information, please contact the AIUSA media office at 202-544-0200 x302 or visit our website at www.amnestyusa.org.