GOOD NEWS! CHARGES DROPPED against reporters falsely arrested RNC in ST PAUL.

[Tigress DEM]

THE FIRST PART OF MAKING IT RIGHT HAS HAPPENED.


NOW, WE need to make sure they have an independent investigation into the abuses that went on during the RNC by the Police or by those other agencies that assisted the Police.

I have a personal suspicion that may be totally unfounded, but I think that those who acted out were not from Minnesota. I have protested here in my home state and some of those nuns that get arrested all the time are people I know and this has NOT been how Minnesota treats it's people when they express their rights to free speech.

My greatest fear would be if they used some of those "Minute Men" who patrol the borders or people like that who have no real training in crowd control for peaceful demonstrations.



SECOND --- There is a supposed "Independent Investigation" going to happen about the safety plan for the City during the RNC but it isn't going to address the arrests of reporters or abuse of people who were peaceful and ready to comply who got maced and hand police - or whichever designation of riot control party they were - put their boots on people's heads to keep them down while cuffing them. Something you could really only justify if the police/riot squad was surrounded or the person seemed violent.

You can see my journal for the Independent Investigation information I have found and if you know anything encouraging or have any real evidence of definite wrongdoing on the part of Tom Heffinger or Andy .... , please post it here. I would like to put together a letter for Mayor Chris Coleman and I may approach his brother Nick who is a progressive columnist for the STRIB to see if there is any way to approach Chris that will solve the problem without just making it DEM on DEM fodder for the news.



THIRD --- If anyone wants to contact Mayor Chris Coleman and demand/inquire about an independent investigation that addresses the wrongful arrest of journalist and abuse of peaceful protesters by riot squads, please do so.

http://www.stpaul.gov/index.asp?NID=309

I would ask that you don't mention the OTHER investigation and see if he puts that out there as a solution. I would like to know if he will be disingenuous enough to do so.




September 19, 2008
Charges Dropped Against DN! Journalists–Investigation Needed

<snip>
The St. Paul City Attorney’s office announced Friday it will not prosecute Democracy Now! journalists Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman also issued a statement Friday that “the city will decline to prosecute misdemeanor charges for presence at an unlawful assembly for journalists arrested during the Republican National Convention.”

Both announcements come two weeks after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention where over 40 journalists were arrested while reporting on protests taking place outside the convention center.

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.”

>> more
http://tinyurl.com/DEMOCRACY-Now

[Downtown Hound]

1. About time. Now some people need to have their asses

sued off for this travesty. To anyone that hasn't seen it, this is the video of Amy's producer, Nicole Salazar, being arrested. She had press credentials hanging from her neck and can clearly be heard shouting, "PRESS! PRESS!" while she's violently knocked down and dragged off screaming. Hell forget lawsuits, some cops need to be thrown in jail for what is clearly an act of assault.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d9wmqO2Khw

[Tigress DEM]

3. I think the RNC has the biggest pockets and I think they brought the bad boys.

As I've mentioned before - and I could be wrong because I've protested mainly in Minneapolis, not St Paul, but I've never seen this type of behavior at a demonstration before. It could be they got wigged by the 8 anarchists and thought EVERYONE was potentially going to throw urine and feces at them, but it still is odd.

There have been racial incidents with North Minneapolis Police and no town is perfect, but the videos I saw just don't seem right for police. It seems more like above the law types and that smacks of Homeland Security to me.

BUT if there is no independent investigation, we may never know. AND it may be that the investigation they are doing is going to say they are reviewing the security plan separately because some other agency was in charge of the riot squads that did the damage. Guilt of the other party by disassociation.

[lib2DaBone]

6. The local Police were instigated by...

1) Large influx of Federal money from Homeland Security

2) Direct orders from Washington, D.C.

[Canuckistanian]

2. They never intended to prosecute

There's a pattern here.

Rough some people up, arrest them on a bogus charge, then slap 'em in prison for a few days (or weeks in this case).

It's all part of a grand scheme to INTIMIDATE protesters.

And the cops NEVER have to worry about consequences, because there's never a day in court.

[Tigress DEM]

4. Well, civil disobedience does accept the fact of arrest as a consequence.

But this kind of abuse I haven't heard of or seen before here. To me that makes it hopeful that we can stomp it out now.

My nun friends do community service any way, but that's what they would get assigned for climbing over the fence at Honeywell to protest their involvement with guidance systems for nuclear warheads. Then three of the nuns were feisty little McDonalds and their brother was a lawyer.

[Tigress DEM]

5. Doing what they did to the Press distresses me MORE.

What I'd like to say to Mayor Coleman is this:

"You know I WANT SO MUCH to believe you about how it was NOT intended to be this way, AND if you had let the Independent Press be there and observe, I would have PROOF that it is the way you've explained it to your fellow DEMS at the Air America Party for Change event I attended. BUT since the Independent Press got shackled up, there really is NO WAY for me to KNOW.

SO THAT HAS TO STOP. GOING forward the Independent Press must be OFF LIMITS and you must be seen to be supporting them strongly in the next few... say, when ARE you up for re-election?"

[lib2DaBone]

8. St. Paul Police will not be held responsible because.....

When the RNC booked the convention.. the City of St. Paul made the RNC take out huge additional insurance policies against false arrest. (do you think they knew?) It was a smart move by Ramsey County and St. Paul, but will end very badly for Democracy. Police brutality lawsuits will be paid by insurance... everyone looses.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Dick and the Shrub pick up some tips from China

on how to effectively run a dictatorship.

The convergence of Chinese and US political-economic systems is going on in other ways too. Both governments are using massive computer systems (made in America) to monitor the Internet, with China making use of equipment and techniques developed for them by US companies like Google, Yahoo and Cisco Systems, and with the National Security Agency then drawing on those techniques for use back here in America.

As we saw at the two national party conventions last month, the US is also learning and applying the crowd-control techniques of the Chinese government to the US where the default tactic wherever public protest is planned is now to have police adopt a paramilitary approach that features aggressive use of tear gas, concussion bombs, assault rifles, house raids and preventive detention.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20797.htm