Charges Dropped Against Reporters Arrested At RNC
By Steve Hynd Friday Sep 19, 2008 12:00pm
Charges are being dropped against over two dozen journalists, including Amy Goodman and her two producers, arrested during the crackdown on protests at the Republican convention in St. Paul. Goodman's charge of "obstructing the legal process" has been dropped, as have felony riot charges against her colleagues Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Other dropped charges are mainly for "unlawful assembly".
The city's mayor had a truly gag-worthy Orwellian statement on the subject:
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said Friday that the city attorney's office recommended against prosecuting reporters for the misdemeanor charge.
"This decision reflects the values we have in St. Paul to protect and promote our First Amendment rights to freedom of the press," Coleman said in a statement.
He added, "At the scene, the police did their duty in protecting public safety. In this decision, we are serving the public's interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press."
One has to wonder if this was the plan all along, and the real intention was simply to inhibit reporting of abuses against protestors. Or maybe they're hoping that with the reporters out of court, the media won't be so interested in covering the 800 or so other arrests. With over forty journalists arrested, there should surely be at least some investigation of police officers involved for trumping up charges too:
Upon learning of the news, Democracy Now! Host, Amy Goodman said, “It’s good that these false charges have finally been dropped, but we never should have been arrested to begin with. These violent and unlawful arrests disrupted our work and had a chilling effect on the reporting of dissent. Freedom of the press is also about the public’s right to know what is happening on their streets. There needs to be a full investigation of law enforcement activities during the convention.”
But I'll bet that won't happen.
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this is wonderful news...wonderful news. Although we still need to hammer the MSM to have Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Former Cia analyst Ray McGovern (who has written a great article about this issue) on the MSM to discuss how pre-emptive arrest by the police were used to scramble the protest and trump the united efforts by many groups.
This issue needs to be on National News. Please contact MSM outlets and request, coerce, demand that they do a story on this issue.
The United States of Amerika!
The reporters can sue civilly and take that town to the bank.
And the underlying point is missed: these reporters, and many demonstrators, should not have been arrested and charged in the first place.
And those demonstrators who were trapped into arrest and charged with felony conspiracy to incite a riot...what about their charges?
John McCain Sept 12, 2001 -
"We are greater than our enemies. We are greater because the very virtues our enemies revile and seek to destroy make us so. Our enemies, those who unleashed these attacks, and those who support them, are not our enemies alone. They are the enemies of freedom and independence and justice and peace, and they wage war on the United States because we are and will remain the principal guarantors of freedom for ourselves and for all nations who claim their right to that condition. All people who possess or aspire to freedom were attacked yesterday, and when we answer we do so in their name as well as ours. And answer we will."
John McCain in 2008
"I know how to win wars. I know how to win wars... And if I'm elected President, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory, I know how to do that."
Since John McCain lays out no specifics on how he will win wars, and because he states the our enemies are fighting us only because of our freedoms I will just use McCain-logic and assume that he plans on taking away all of our freedoms so that our enemies have no reason to fight us anymore. Great strategy Johnny Mac!
Another "Mission Accomplished!"
Of course, this was the intent all along. The ends justifies the means.
"This is not your grandfather's" America, kids.
Keep the faith.
Obama/Biden '08
JimboSlice @ 5:
And Palin says she's ready to lead because she's ready to lead. Pretty comforting huh?
Hit them in their bank accounts!
The only values they have is the dollar and they need to be sued for such high amounts that they do not violate civil rights at any other public protest. Enforcing the law by breaking the law makes this a nation of outlaws governed by criminals. There just isn't enough cops, if they turn every citizen of America into an outlaw.
Striking their wallets and bank accounts with extreme financial penalties will make them think twice before repeating the criminal activities of the government against the people. Make it so hosting a convention is not worth the cost of litigation in the courts. Fired the abusive cops as examples of what will not be tolerated and find and reveal the secret service troops that perpetrated the crimes against the civil liberties of the free press and a free people.
PEACE by Popular Demand!
Goodman and the rest of the journalists should sue each of the cops personally, the mayor personally, the city and any Republican operative who colluded should be joined in the suit.
They'll have to shell out the money for it themselves or find a law firm willing to take the case pro bono. That's the only way there'll be an investigation.
They should do it. Hell, we should all donate to a fund to help pay for the suit. Their rights were violated. The whole plan was to arrest them on bogus charges, jail them temporarily, and then release them with a feigned apology of sorts. It violates not just freedom of the press, but the right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law. They should sue for false arrest, false imprisonment, battery, assault, and anything else that fits.
Mayor Chris Coleman, is he any relation to Norm Coleman?
"ABC: Palin may have lied in a court document re Troopergate
Yeah, thing is, lying to a judge, even in George Bush's America, is a lot more serious than simply lying to the American people. Palin and McCain can derail a lot of investigations, perjury isn't one of them."
http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/abc-palin-may-have-lied-in-court.html
Well of course the charges have been dropped NOW.
The convention is over. The arrests have served their purpose. They only needed to keep those pesky journalists out of the way for a few days. And now they can drop the bullshit charges and claim the system works. And it does, just not for the right people.
In Minn, they borrowed from the NYC RNC playbook. they should be sued for illegal detention. It cost NYC millions, which Bloomberg was happy to fork over as a price for his new police city-state.
I agree with Karen- no way that this will be investigated, unless Representative Keith Ellison (who actually appeared on Democracy Now after the arrests), initiates one or the journalists sue the city. The problem is that so many levels of the gov't were involved in the preemptive stings and the mass arrests. FBI, Secret Service, state, local... its a mess. Who would they sue?
Jo @ 10:
Chris Coleman is son of Nicholas Coleman, Sr., a Minnesota state senator from 1963 to 1981, who also served as state senate majority leader, and the brother of Nick Coleman, a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Arresting these reporters and others is part of the plan to silence dissent. Before the Patriot Act, cops could arrest you for any reason and hold you up to 72 hours without charges and then release you just because. They steal three days of your life and too fucking bad for you. Now with the PA they can hold you indefinitely. Stealing a few days of the lives of protesters and reporters and then releasing them allows the ruling party to declare that "system works" and declare themselves members of the 'justice league' and look how they are standing up for the 'rule of law' and the Constitution.
In effect they have silenced these opposition voices and removed them from sight until after the event is over and the "Danger" of a contrary thought being presented is abated. The same shit occurs at all repunk events like the times people with bumper stickers or tee-shirts or signs that had comments that were not favorable to the candidate (Bush 2004) were removed from events and charged with bogus bullshit to force them to put up bond money and hire a lawyer before charges are dropped and the accused has been relieved of some of their money and several days of their lives which they will not get back ever, not to mentioned being effectively silenced.
Let's push hard for investigations of these arrest as Amy and others have requested. Contact MSM outlets, write your local newspaper, contact your Reps. Demand an investigation. Demand that they have Amy and others effected by these arrest on their programs. (all of our rights to protest and the right of the media to cover these protest)
contact the Diane Rehm show about this (they are open to suggestions and actually respond to request)
here is the contact page for the Diane Rehm show (can not get any easier) let's flood their contact/request page. Also call the open line and leave a message 202-885-1231.
Contact page
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/contact_us.php
Let's get Amy, Glenn Greenwald and Ray McGovern on her show to discuss these arrest and interruption of our right to protest
Take a minute and do it now.
eric @ 11:
THE MESSAGE FROM SARAH AND TODD. IGNORE SUBPOENAS.
The Meiers/Rove/Palin "effect". IGNORE SUBPOENAS! The peasants can follow their lead
Not surprised it took so long when Gov. Pawlenty (R-MN) had this to say about Protesters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQsZ8Do331A
Excellent news.
Like most are agreeing here, I believe that pursuing any kind of legal reparations in a case like this is entirely futile and a waste of these fine journalist's collective time and nervous systems.
Keep working hard and keep focusing on achieving a Obama/Biden administration. That's still the genuine light at the end of this long tunnel, imo.
He protected Freedom of the Press by arresting reporters???? That's like saying he's protecting our health by arresting doctors! How does he say something like that with a straight face?
If a "full investigation" is not forthcoming, the ACLU should join the reporters in suing the city and police for false arrest and violation of civil liberties, with major dollar amounts involved. If they win, that would have "a chilling effect" on the efforts of other cities where the GOP holds its conventions to limit the people's right to a free press.
A while back a Vanity Fair writer who was arrested in MN said that the newspapers sue and settle out of court, but they don't much write about the police state--probably part of the agreement in the settlement, eh?
The press is as much to blame as the authoritarians. As long as they get their 30 silver shekels they're satisfied. Of course, they are selling out democracy, but they pretty much are alright with that already, since Big Brother's Business owns them to begin with.
"There needs to be a full investigation of law enforcement activities during the convention.”
Amy Goodman is so funny!
She actually thinks she lives in a free democracy!
Once someone is arrested, he is in 'the system' and has an arrest record. That can stigmatize a person's future. Has anyone ever filled out an application and seen the question: "Have you ever been arrested?"
I'm not convinced that simply having the ability to arrest is not routinely used by police around the country -- not just in this instance -- to start a record on the arrestee and thus line him up for suspect lists relevant to future events. Who's to say these St Paul arrests weren't done to create a database on so-called subversives?
Yes, a person can petition to have an arrest record cleared, but that isn't right or fair to the unjustly arrested person, who then has to give up his time and effort to file the paperwork -- and sometimes his money, to hire an attorney.
For the "chilling effect' to work they never had to make the charges stick.
All they had to do was sent in the Cop/Pigs. That was chilling enough.
Every person in the USofA should have the experience of a 'righteous' bust, have their faces pushed into the concrete, have their haands bound so tight it cuts off circulation, have the cops threatening 'em.
Far too many (white) folks don't know what that's like...
If they did, mebbe the fucking Pigs would tread lighter on the necks of the People...
I visit my sis' in Minneapolis 3 times a year and we always eat at this great Chinese place in St. Paul!
The first videos of the preconvention arrests were of one of my sisters activist friends that sang at my sisters wedding.
I started calling and emailing right then.
They really fucked up when they arrested the Democracy Now crew!! I flipped out and called every hour for 3 days.
In am email to the mayor I expressed that I would never spend another penny in St. Paul during our numerous visits. Ever.
Now the RNC is indemnifying the SPPD for $10m of lawsuits. In other words the SPPD gets to beat the fuck out of people for free!
LiberalTarian @ 23:
Respectfully, I refuse to believe that any business can really own Amy Goodman, or any of those like her of rare integrity.
Canuknotusa @ 25:
I don't think she's actually that naive.
But she, like so many (here and on the rest of the 'leftie' blogs) cannot give up the pretense. It's like the 'religious' faith of the Middull Murkins and their god and guns mentality.
Hopeless, but desperately hopeful.
"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US"
set in Georgia section of the Okeefenokee Swamp
Pogo ....................... possum
Albert ....................... alligator
Howland ................... owl
Churchy la Femme .... turtle
Porky Pine ................ porkypine
Beauregard .............. hound dog
Fremont ................... bug
You see I'm a 70 year old American Ex-Pat and have been taking advice and direction from POGO for years. The older I get the wiser POGO seems to get. I believe he must be a descendant of a Roman Philosopher. The Romans didn't listen to them either.
Kathleen @ 17:
Kathleen @ 17:
A good idea to be sure. However; I am more concerned with arresting and seizing the property and assets of the corporate and political criminals that are stealing our wealth and our country and that have put this nation on the brink of collapse. These bastards shouldn't be allowed to keep anything! Not a fucking penny and that includes their McMansions. Get busted with a reefer and you could lose your car and your house. Get busted stealing the National Treasure and the livelihood of the citizenry, and you could win tens and hundreds of millions. Who could convict anyone of a petty crime in the face of such outright robbery. Surely Bush will reward these thieves with the Medal of Freedom for their daring do in saving the country with corporate socialism and putting the blame for collapse where it belongs squarely on the backs of the public because as McStain said, "the workers of this economy are strong and the workers are the fundamentals."
cheesesauce @ 31:
You're joking, right?
Diane Rehm is the Queen of Conventional Wisdom.
She'd no more have AMy Goodman on complaining of Pig brutality at the RNC than she'd have a practicing crack whore demonstrating a blow-job in a toilet stall...
Now is the time for the citizens of St. Paul to get together and make sure that Chris Coleman is tarred, feathered, run out of town on a rail -- at the very least, the sleazebag should have to get a REAL job and stop sucking off the teat of the American taxpayer!
woody, tokin librul @ 32:
Pushing for investigations and exposure of these silencing tactics, yes. As for Diane Rehm.... not so much. But, more importantly as stated, the seizure of property and assets of the individuals who are profiting from the collapse of our economy and banking industry, I consider to be a greater priority.
cheesesauce @ 31:
Of course you are right. While taking two minutes to contact the Rehm show. One should certainly take the time by calling, emailing, putting petitions together that demand that our Reps start full investigations of the CEO's of Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, AIG, Lehman Brothers or any other banking, insurance or any other corporations who are looking for federal handouts (socialism) of American taxpayers money.
WE SHOULD ALL CONTACT OUR REPS THIS WEEK AND DEMAND FULL INVESTIGATIONS OF THESE CORPORATE WELFARE KINGS AND QUEEENS who are more than likely not going to pay a personal price for these very serious crimes. Most of the CEO's of these corporations have received million dollar severeance packages and are being picked up in cheauffer driven black sedans that will take them to their million (billion) dollar homes that you will be paying for via your taxes. These are the same people who hide their money, push for tax breaks are against health care for all access to higher educations, and against raising the minimum wage. These are the folks who PRIVATIZE THEIR PROFITS AND SOCIALIZE THEIR LOSSES.
DEMAND INVESTIGATIONS...CALL YOUR REPS THIS WEEK WHILE THEY ARE VOTING FOR THESE CRIMINALS TO BE BAILED OUT. CALL THEM THIS WEEK BEFORE THEY LEAVE TO COME BACK TO YOUR DISTRICTS TO ASK FOR YOUR VOTE
DEMAND INVESTIGATIONS OF THESE PEOPLE (THEY SHOULD PAY FOR THEIR BAD DECISIONS) DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY NOW
These gestapo tactics must be stopped.
Are you folks just now beginning to realize that the vaunted Murkin/Kapitalis system socializes risk and privatizes profit?
Me and my (admitteldy few and far-outnumbered) marxian pals have bee telling the morons taht for at LEAST 30 years...
Whereya been?
woody, tokin librul @ 37:
Right here and just as aware as thou.
One has to wonder if this was the plan all along, and the real intention was simply to inhibit reporting of abuses against protestors.
OrAnd maybe they’re hoping that with the reporters out of court, the media won’t be so interested in covering the 800 or so other arrests.Fixed.
PS: Of course it was the plan all along.
Forp Yksmohc:
Their task is to take risks, calculating potential costs for themselves. But they do not take into account the consequences of their losses for the economy as a whole.
City of Bend capitalist institutions like Brooks Resources [are] designed in large measure to socialise cost and risk and privatize profit, without a public voice
Hence the financial market "underprices risk" and is "systematically inefficient," as John Eatwell and Lance Taylor wrote a decade ago, warning of the extreme dangers of financial liberalization and reviewing the substantial costs already incurred - and also proposing solutions, which have been ignored.
The threat became more severe when the Clinton administration repealed the Glass-Steagall act of 1933, thus freeing financial institutions "to innovate in the new economy," in Clinton's words - and also "to self-destruct, taking down with them the general economy and international confidence in the US banking system," financial analyst Nomi Prins adds.
Nomi Prins was on Democracy Now the other day, and you should not allow another hour to pass without listening to her and the other guest.
New Palin Scandal! NYT Reports
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=9412166969DD5036E3...
The reporters have an obligation to sue the city and any other relevant agencies. Violating the civil rights of civilian protestors is bad enough, but actively targeting journalists needs to be discouraged in the most uncertain terms. If the jurisdictions involved in the St. Paul fiasco are hit with substantial civil judgments, it may discourage other agencies from being equally disrespectful of the Constitution.
How about the hypothesis that this is merely the flailing evil of a dying social order, and not a plan at all?
Cops are cops/pigs are pigs. Sue em back to the stone age and, unless the People of the locale rise and object, unanimously, loudly, and emphatically, the cops/pigs (being after all the enforcers/gunsels/thugs of the state) won't change.
Never happen...
Just gonna get worse, as the Bosses perceive more and more challenges to their legitimacy, and set the cops to "enforce" order...
King of Kings @ 43:
You're naive, or as your nym suggests, fuuking delusional.
The best trick the State has ever pulled on the People is convincing them that it is arbitrary, capricious, and random.
It aint.
read (i.e.) M. Foucault, among others...
Tortured logic - if you want to call it logic
You support the freedom of the press by arresting them for doing their jobs and the prevent them from doing their jobs by holding them for days.
Orwellian is right
Holding the press is jail is prohibiting FREEDOM of the press in all meanings of the word "freedom"
I think the plan is fairly obvious: arrest anyone causing a disruption -- or perceived to be potentially doing so -- and then drop the charges. As Amy says, they never should have been arrested in the first place. Chambers of Commerce everywhere do not want another Chicago '68. Revolting.
Investigation, schminvestigation. What they need to do is bring a civil suit under 42 USC 1983 for the police's violating their constitutional rights under color of state law. I'm not that familiar with these actions, but I think you can also go after the officers individually.
Here's the text of the statute:
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
Denver prepared for protests
St. Paul prepared for the apocalypse
This should put a black eye on St, Paul for a long, long time. I know I will have no plans to go there.
This is outrageous. This is a violation of Freedom of Press. Freedom of Press is a cherished freedom in America, but not Rove's America. There is a reason the MSM only reports on Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Because the last thing a totalitarian neo-conservative government wants is a well informed public. Reporting on soft celebrity stories and infotainment is a way to get the public as uninformed and distracted as possible. Sadly, they do a damn good job. So it's no surprise to me that in the Rovian States Of America, that people are arrested just for speaking their minds.
What a sad sad country this has become. The USA is now nothing but a Right-Wing Purgatory.
Sue them Amy. Sue the city of StPaul, the GOP, Secret Service, and krusty the senile billionaire.
They never intended for the charges to stick once the press was squelched the police chief had done his job.
In politics, I never conclude "ignorance" when I can conclude "malevolence" on the same evidence...
I stopped reading at about comment #25. Look, I hate cops. Period. I hate what they have become due to their super asshole Cheifs. Every citizen is a suspect and treated as such. - oooooo yeah your job is so f'n dangerous, screw you cops. Cops are stoopid. If they had brains they wouldn't be cops for long.
Serving the public intrest my ass, the only intrest that was served in St. Paul was the RNC and their fascist agenda, what a load of shit they were protecting the public, the mayor & sherrif are complicit traitors who should both be kicked out of office. Blackwater mercenaries beating & gassing law abiding citizens ( men,women ,children) just for speaking up and voicing their disgust with this tratorious administration. There were people there just to cause trouble ( some paid by the police no doubt) but the vast majority of those that were brutalized by the POLICIA were guilty of nothing more than excercising what used to be a constitutional right of free speech. I saw high school age kids w/ five mercenaries in full riot gear standing on them while they sprayed mace in their faces and then dragged CHILDREN away face down, and all these kids did was speak out . I had a machine gun shoved in my face by a hired gun and told to " get the fuck out of here" because I said they had no right to beat children.
You aren't even beginning to approach a restoration of the Constitution until everyone involved in this is pursued with the most aggressive legal hammer possible. A message must be sent, "this is not OK."
Every cop whose name appears on an arrest warrant should be charged under USC Title 18, Chapter 13 § 241, which makes it a felony to
The number of counts should equal the number of documents on which any given officer's name appears. The penalty is a fine or jail term not to exceed 10 yrs. per count.
Any officers or officials of agencies local, state or federal should be charged with one count for every count charged against an officer or agent under their command. Send another message, "The higher-ups are responsible for crimes done on their watch."
These are your rights purportedly GUARANTEED by the First Amendment. If depriving you of them doesn't entail serious consequences that guarantee is not worth the paper it's written on.
My remarks have nothing to do with whether Goodman deserved to be restrained. It is not an argument one way or the other as to the conduct of the police.
Goodman states:
"There needs to be a full investigation of law enforcement activities during the convention.”
This seems a rather odd comment from a "credentialed" member of the press. After all, who better to do a full investigation than the press itself? We all know how those "internal" investigations go, and Goodman ought to have gotten it by now, especially. Did anything useful ever come out of, say, corporate medical hospital types investigating the blundering incompetence within their ranks? Only useful to them.
Goodman ought to kick ass. A few well-fashioned lawsuits, a staunch unwillingness to settle and allow the case to be swept under the carpet, plus some nice aggressive reporting would most surely yield good fruit. A few resignations, firings, policy changes, and perhaps a public - finally informed and pissed off enough - might finally want to take names and get answers.
Just lawyer up, bodyguard yourself, and have at it.
If I had no family, were sufficiently monied for the legal and physical protection, and generally had the stomach for it, it would be a pleasure to serve the public in this way. All I can do, instead, is cheer her on.
So sue them for false arrest!
Liberty Watch writes "Hit them in their bank accounts! The only values they have is the dollar and they need to be sued for such high amounts that they do not violate civil rights at any other public protest. Enforcing the law by breaking the law makes this a nation of outlaws governed by criminals. There just isn’t enough cops, if they turn every citizen of America into an outlaw."
Liberty Watch fails to make the needed connection: it is not THEIR bank accounts. The accounts are OURS. They will stand behind their shields of officialdom and be defended with OUR tax dollar. Paychecks will continue to arrive, on time. Office lights will stay on. Nothing will change. Just more lawyers to hire.
Screwed up, isn't it? Americans get to help those who perpetrate crimes against us.
If the maladministrators could be personally sued, and held personally liable, then all bets are off. As long as they can do whatever they do and remain shielded by their "office", then the rest is just a shell game, convincing people like Liberty Watch that things will change.
The way things will change is when all Americans have the power to make laws. The solution will then be in our hands. Unfortunately I don't believe the nation is mature enough to handle the responsibility for their own lives. So instead we succumb to the lowest common denominator and the corruption and malfeasance continues, pretty much unimpeded.
At the scene, the police did their duty in protecting public safety.
The police overstepped their authority no doubt. But it is also true that there was violence and that some of the anarchist groups intended to engage in violent protest. They said as much on their web sites. The police have the right and the duty to protect the public order from violent groups either from the left or the right.
But I’ll bet that won’t happen.
Cynicism is a poison. If you want justice, work for it.
One has to wonder if this was the plan all along
Yes, I'm sure the Illuminati cooperated with the reptilians to deny you your consitiutional right to throw bricks and bags of of shit and urine at the police. While I am sure that there were government agent provacatuers causing problems. There were also extreme Leftists engaging in violence too. Here is a thought --- how about in addition to documenting police excesses activists also document and bring to justice anyone engaging in violent protest? This will never happen, want to know why? Because there are some Leftists who believe they have to right to engage in violence.
It’s good that these false charges have finally been dropped, but we never should have been arrested to begin with.
Acutually, Amy Goodman was lawfully arrested. Her case should be brought to trial, I think she'd be convicted. I saw the video and she disobeyed a clear order to move to the sidewalk three times and deliberately broke a police line. Amy Goodman glosses over this when she talks about her arrest. The Left is just as biased and narrow minded as the Right.
The real problem is not the left or the right. The real problem are those who believe with absolute certainty that they are always in the right, that they have the right to do whatever they want no matter what. Whether they come from the political left or the right. And they believe they have the right to engage in violence to get what they want.
ive been homeless fro over 8 years multi disabled
discrimianted on disblities and only vicitms have to pay consequences
got to have an expensIve trial lawyer big $ to have rights.
=since THE FAR RIGHT take over of AMERICA!
Well its about time MN showed its true colors. The bridge they deserved indeed.
I disagree that this is 'great news'. This is a total load of crap!
THEY SURROUNDED LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AND JOURNALISTS, CUT OFF EVERY PATH FOR THEM TO DISBURSE, AND SAID "LEAVE NOW, OR YOU WILL BE ARRESTED"!! AND ALL IN THE NAME OF PUBLIC SAFETY! THEN,THEY DROP THE CHARGES LIKE THEY'RE DOING THE JOURNALISTS A FAVOR!!!
HELL, WHY NOT ARREST THEM JUST 'CUZ THEY 'LOOKED LIKE THEY WUZ ABOUT TO BREAK THE LAW'!?!
What's next!?!
"ARE YOU EYE-BALLIN' ME, JOURNALIST!?! DON"T YOU BE EYE-BALLIN' ME!! GIT 'EM, BOYS!!"
Guess what!?! You know how Americans are always hoping for the day when race and ethnicity will make no difference in the way it's citizens are treated!?!
Well, we have arrived!!
Ethnic minorities are actually both sympathetic, and AMUSED, at your outrage! Minorities have ALWAYS been treated like this in America, except their beatings are ALOT worse, and their charges don't get dropped!!
"Ms. Goodman, you and your associates have been charged with being journalists on a sunny day. How do you plead?"
You know, I always thought that when equality was finally achieved, there would be alot more celebrating and stuff...
JimboSlice @ 5:
Sure. Like he knows how to fly planes.
"Unlawful assembly"? Really? Doesn't the First Amendment they pretend to hold so dear say that NO assembly is unlawful in this country?
noen @ 60:
Bull.
Ms. Goodman was NOT a protester, and she was NOT involved in the protest activities. She was a clearly identified journalist, and she approached the officer for assistance. She was not hostile, aggressive, or disrespectful. She did not pose a threat to the officer, and most importantly, AT NO TIME DID SHE REFUSE TO RETURN TO THE SIDEWALK. She merely tried, repeatedly, to communicate to the officer that she simply wanted to ask a question of him. That question being, 'how does one go about locating arrestees once they are taken into custody?'. A perfectly reasonable and appropriate question to ask an officer at that time.
The power to enforce the law doesn't mean that you walk around with a checklist of criteria that, once met, means an arrest, or a beating, or a shooting is appropriate. An officer has a duty to evaluate each and every situation for it's optimal resolution, the means at his disposal to bring about that resolution, possible alternatives and their likely consequences, and above all, minimize the threat to the safety of the public they serve. They go through extensive training to develop the skills and abilities to be able to do so quickly, and under very stressful conditions if necessary. In this instance, the officer failed to protect and serve Ms. Goodman.
What if Ms. Goodman was trying to get assistance for an officer in trouble!?! Or urgent medical attention for some one!?! Or even report another crime in progress!?! The officer was not interested in anything she had to say, and made a decision that arresting her was all that mattered.
There is NO WAY Ms. Goodman acted in a manner that warranted her arrest, and short of an incompetent legal defense, NO WAY would she be convicted.
I am really tired of this " Leftist believe they have the right to engage in violence" BULLSHIT. I am a law abiding tax paying grandfather from a family of fifteen combat veterans and 99.9% of the people I saw being brutalized , gassed, arrested,and beaten were not any where near anyone doing anything violent , look at all the VIDEOS you want I was there and the "AUTHORITIES" were bent on crushing legal dissent and they enjoyed acting like fascist storm troopers. That was for you 60
"One has to wonder if this was the plan all along, and the real intention was simply to inhibit reporting of abuses against protestors."
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
If Republicans are underwriting the defense against possible lawsuits, then there needs to be multiple suits, or a class-action suit for a much larger amount than $10 million. This is a pretty easy one, the civil rights of a free press were completely trampled here, it's not just a case of false arrest -- these people were prevented from their work of informing the American public. And I'm sure Democracy Now could use the extra cash.
This has been the pattern with the fascists - arrest when they have no grounds or cause, silence protest and dissent and then later drop the charges after the event has passed - knowing that it would never have stood up in court. they know they have no legal grounds to stand on, but are efffectively able to throttle the operation of liberty. Criminal charges need to be brought against the individual police, the police commisioner, the judge(s) who enabled this travesty, the city council and the the mayor for false arrest and imprisonment, conspiracy to do the same, any civil rights violations and anything at all creative criminal lawyers can come up with.
It also needs to be pursued in civil court, because there are a few things that need to be settled once and for all...namely, the question of the nature of rights versus privileges. Rights are rights and privileges are privileges. Privileges are subject to conditions, permissions, enabling prerequisites, licensure by society and government. Rights are immutable, dependent upon no enabling decree or agency.
Driving, for example, is a privilege. That privilege is earned on satisfactorily meeting certain prerequisites; the privilege is granted through licensure wherein the license remains the property of the issuing authority, and the privilege can be revoked at any time given breach of the enabling pre-conditions. Violation of the privilege leaves the violator subject to punitive measures at the hands of the state.
Rights, on the other hand, are an inseparble part of being a human being and are not, cannot be, subject to sanction or restriction by some arbitrary authority like government. The rights granted by the Bill of Rights and as stated in the Declaration of Independence must be taken as being inalienable Human Rights, self-evidentally due every human being by simple virtue of each person's humanity. The government has no legitimate basis for suspending or curtailing those rights, under any circumstances. The right of free assembly is a Human Right. The right of free speech is a Human Right. The right of free thought, as implied by the prior two rights and by other provisions is a Human Right. The right to free and truthful information by way of a free press is a Human Right, and thus, the right to gather that truthful iformation id a Human Right. The right to defend against tyranny or the tyrannical application of state power is a Human Right. Thus, things like "free speech zones" are an illegal infringement of Human Rights, and the thinkng behind the concept illegitimate. Thus, the requirement that free assembly for the purpose of protest require permits and enabling preconditions is an illegal infringement of a Human Right, and the thinking that presumes to impose those requirements is also illegitimate. Arrests based on the idea that the press needs the permission of the police to report on news are criminal infringements of a Human Right, and the thinking that gives rise to policies that lead to tyrannical police actions are illegitimate. A similar argument can be presented for every right specifically granted or implied in our founding and establishing documents, documents which only codified basic realities of the human condition. The courts have already consistantly and repeatedly reaffirmed the right of the individual or the group to defend itself against the police, including the use of deadly for against the police, when the police act in a criminal manner against the People. When the majority of the Supreme Court has been restored to integrity, these questions must be argued before it.
In the meantime, the bad guys (the cops and those who gave them their marching orders) must be subjected to stringent criminal justice.
What about the common people; who got arrested?
It's unfair that a special group who have access to a pen and a few eyes balls get special treatment. The real story
is where reporters get off; common people get the booby trap of jail and fines. The Corrupt American System Hooray!
St. Paul is a liberal, Democrat-controlled city. Shouldn't Democrats be more concerned about that?
Ms. Goodman should file a claim in court against the police officer(s) and the city for assaulting her and imprisionment. No state and/or individual (police officer in this case) has the right to injure another person or damage another person's property. The government and it's police should enforce the constitution, not violate citizen's property. Ms. Goodman should exercise her rights in a court of law to get payment from the city and police officers for damages. If each citizen arrested filed claims in court, I believe you would see a significant decline in this kind of abuse from governments across the country.
Mark Richards @ 59:
Mark you are spot on with this statement!
Right now, the only recourse is the financial recourse that would flow from civil action against the City of St. Paul, the police force as a legal entity, or individual officers. It is complicated by the fact that government entities in the USA are generally immune from tort damages. You have to sue for an indirect issue such as violation of civil rights, not wrongful arrest. You might win a wrongful arrest case, but you cannot get damages awarded.
Ideally the individuals abusing the legal process would be found to be individually liable and have punitive damages assessed against them. The next best outcome would be for the employers of those individuals to be found liable and have punitive damages assessed against them.
The next level of the outcome is up to the electors of St. Paul. In an ideal world, abuse of the legal process should be punished by the removal of incumbent elected representatives. That is where the challenge begins and ends. If electors are not prepared to un-elect representatives that connive in the abuse of the legal process, these kinds of egregious violations are likely to continue.
Udon Nomee Says:
Ms. Goodman was NOT a protester, and she was NOT involved in the protest activities.
Doesn't matter. She was on the wrong side of a police line during a potential riot.
AT NO TIME DID SHE REFUSE TO RETURN TO THE SIDEWALK. She merely tried, repeatedly, to communicate to the officer that she simply wanted to ask a question of him
Actually, it's clear in the video that she ignored his order. Pretty stupid to ask a riot officer a question. They don't know anything and are in no mood to answer questions, it's not their job.
An officer has a duty to evaluate each and every situation for it’s optimal resolution, the means at his disposal to bring about that resolution, possible alternatives and their likely consequences
Yeah, you seem to think these were regular beat officers, they were riot officers charged with maintaining order. The rules change during protests because of the potential for violence. I can assure you that today in Minneapolis/St. Paul, where I live, you can talk to an officer and ask questions and go about your life. Although if, like the violent anarchists, you throw bricks and bags of shit and urine at them you'll be in trouble. Fascists!
Michael Perkins Says:
99.9% of the people I saw being brutalized , gassed, arrested,and beaten were not any where near anyone doing anything violent , look at all the VIDEOS you want I was there and the “AUTHORITIES” were bent on crushing legal dissent and they enjoyed acting like fascist storm troopers
Confirmation bias, ever hear of it? If all you do is watch the videos the violent anarchists want you to see you'll get their warped view too. There are plenty of videos showing protesters violently provoking the police. Nowhere have I claimed that the police are innocent in all this. Only that there is another side to the story, one that the violent anarchists don't want you to know. Yes, the police over stepped their authority, they should be prosecuted for that. Violent protesters also broke the law and should also be prosecuted.
I have little respect for Amy Goodman. She is a Marxist and a Communist and has an ideological bias just like everyone else.
Graham Shevlin Says:
The next level of the outcome is up to the electors of St. Paul. In an ideal world, abuse of the legal process should be punished by the removal of incumbent elected representatives. That is where the challenge begins and ends.
If I'm not mistaken St. Paul has a weak mayoral system. It's definitely true for Minneapolis. What this means is that punishing Mayor Coleman, who is a Democrat and very progressive, for something he had little control over would be very stupid. Therefore I predict that's exactly what the stupid left will try to do. Oh and by the way, just to address stupid internet commenters who are too lazy to actually look things up, no, Coleman is not related or connected in any way to our Senator of the same name. It's a common last name, you know, like Johnson.
I would love to get rid of St. Paul's Republican police chief. He looks like he just crawled out of a cave in Neandertal, Germany. Oh? What is that? You didn't know it's possible to have a Dem Mayor and a GOP Chief of police? Next time get a f*cking clue before you spout off.
Get your FACTS in order noen, I did not come to my conclusions re; this matter from looking at any videos, I was in St. Paul from Monday through Thursday , that means personally there w/ feet on the ground so your " confirmation bias " argument is null & void. 800 people were arrested , most for excercising what was for 221 years a Constitutional right of peaceful lawful assembly and some who deserved it, how many police or riot police ( spelt Blackwater mercenary) have been held to account for violence against innocent citizens ? And although I am not a Marxist or communist neither are illegal beliefs and your reduction to name calling shows that some where in your conscience you do not believe what you post. Punishing Mayor Coleman ( brother of Nick Coleman the reporter who wrote an article on St. Paul's response to protesters) should be done because he is the Mayor and the person in charge ( just like our traiterous President) and the rule of law must be put back in it's place as the cornerstone of our once Democratic Republic. Also, do you wish to get rid of the St. Paul police chief because you don't like the way he looks or how he excecutes his duties, that sounds like suspect reasoning to me?
This is why Amy won't go against 9/11. She deals with these criminal brownshirted nazis every day and I'm sure they conveyd the "talk about 9/11 truth again and we'll put you in a box"
Thats how they operate, ask Latin America...
noen @ 76:
Whomever argues that Amy deserved to be arrested has NO IDEA what a Democracy is or how it is maintained.
Jim King @ 73:
Ms Goodman should leave the US fast and get to a country that is free, and prepared to talk about the upcoming war for real humanity in America. A revolution will have to occur before the Rich stop killing the workers.
Alex @ 65:
No assembly is unlawful.
Well I suppose unless you got a bunch of rich powerful people in a room and they plotted to take over the world... But that only happened in 1908. .. And the Bilderbergers have meeting each year that includes world leaders kissing their boots... And I suppose Free Masonry and their occult and treasonous actions may also be considered unlawful...
So you think that the government has the right to ask you what you all doing sitting in a park or walking down the street together? The copper can suck your balls. It has nothing to do with him.
noen @ 76:
Fascist peasants are funny. But their youngun's do make good cannon fodder.
They do this to shut out the public who asks REAL questions, then the drop the charges. Police stats start like this, then get worst.
Police states start like this...then get worst.
It wasn't just Goodman:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&It...
and here's a follow-up interview with her:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&It...
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