Media Injustice in St. Paul and Why I might actually support WBEZ to get that Newsweek subsription
Written by Mary Patton and forwarded to a listserv I'm on:
dear everyone: what has been happening in St. Paul is outrageous and frightening. frightening not just because of the injuries people have sustained while attempting to exercise their first amendment rights to protest on the streets, but also because they have been brutalized in jail, and have been denied medical care after being sprayed, gassed, and beaten. scary because of the militarization of st. paul, so that the city's residents don't even recognize their city; because of the massive *pre-emptive* arrests (searches and sweeps of houses where activists have been staying) *before* anything "happened." outrageous because of the preventive detention and illegal arrests of *journalists*, and specifically the shutting down of I-witness video, who played such an important role in videotaping the arrests and police brutality and misconduct at the RNC in NYC 4 years ago -- their work meant that many, many illegal arrests had to be thrown out of court.
Amy Goodman of Democracy now! and a number of her producers were arrested. Since her release, Goodman has been going to press conferences organized by the police chief, sheriff, and district attorney, speaking up and out. When the D.A. tried to silence her, Michael Isikoff from Newsweek shouted that she had a right to ask a follow-up question. let's hope that Newsweek will cover this...
the FBI and the secret service are involved. people are being charged not just with riot and criminal trespass and the like, but also "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism." Eight members of the "RNC Welcoming Committee" are believed to be the first persons ever charged under the 2002 Minnesota version of the PATRIOT Act.
Most people, even self-described informed, educated, media savvy people, do not know what's been going on in st. paul, or the extent of it - largely because of the silence of the mainstream press and media. the only outlets i know of that are consistently covering these events are Free speech tv and democracy now .
see also:
http://iwitnessvideo.info/
http://www.theuptake.org/
http://www.truthout.org/article/pre-emptive-strikes-against-protest-rnc
activists are asking people to call Mayor Chris Coleman at 651 266-8510, and the jail at 651 266-9350.
p.s. even chris hedges, who is a *liberal*, has described what's happening as "the incremental institutionalization of a police state." the erosion of the u.s. constitution and bill of rights is proceeding apace. we've seen this before, and we will see it again and again, until we do something, folks.
p.p.s. when they return from the twin cities, let's ask our friends and comrades from chicago to give us a report...
dear everyone: what has been happening in St. Paul is outrageous and frightening. frightening not just because of the injuries people have sustained while attempting to exercise their first amendment rights to protest on the streets, but also because they have been brutalized in jail, and have been denied medical care after being sprayed, gassed, and beaten. scary because of the militarization of st. paul, so that the city's residents don't even recognize their city; because of the massive *pre-emptive* arrests (searches and sweeps of houses where activists have been staying) *before* anything "happened." outrageous because of the preventive detention and illegal arrests of *journalists*, and specifically the shutting down of I-witness video, who played such an important role in videotaping the arrests and police brutality and misconduct at the RNC in NYC 4 years ago -- their work meant that many, many illegal arrests had to be thrown out of court.
Amy Goodman of Democracy now! and a number of her producers were arrested. Since her release, Goodman has been going to press conferences organized by the police chief, sheriff, and district attorney, speaking up and out. When the D.A. tried to silence her, Michael Isikoff from Newsweek shouted that she had a right to ask a follow-up question. let's hope that Newsweek will cover this...
the FBI and the secret service are involved. people are being charged not just with riot and criminal trespass and the like, but also "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism." Eight members of the "RNC Welcoming Committee" are believed to be the first persons ever charged under the 2002 Minnesota version of the PATRIOT Act.
Most people, even self-described informed, educated, media savvy people, do not know what's been going on in st. paul, or the extent of it - largely because of the silence of the mainstream press and media. the only outlets i know of that are consistently covering these events are Free speech tv and democracy now .
see also:
http://iwitnessvideo.info/
http://www.theuptake.org/
http://www.truthout.org/article/pre-emptive-strikes-against-protest-rnc
activists are asking people to call Mayor Chris Coleman at 651 266-8510, and the jail at 651 266-9350.
p.s. even chris hedges, who is a *liberal*, has described what's happening as "the incremental institutionalization of a police state." the erosion of the u.s. constitution and bill of rights is proceeding apace. we've seen this before, and we will see it again and again, until we do something, folks.
p.p.s. when they return from the twin cities, let's ask our friends and comrades from chicago to give us a report...