Republican National Convention coverage
By Carlos Miller
St. Paul police continued trampling over the U.S. Constitution as they conducted more mass arrests of peaceful protesters, photographers, videographers and journalists, including two reporters from the ultra-right wing Fox News.
The fracas started after police ordered several hundred people who had gathered at the Minnesota state Capitol for a protest march to disperse at 5 p.m. when their permit expired.
However, protesters claim that they originally had the permit until 7 p.m. and it somehow got changed on them.
Nevertheless, police used tear gas and flash bombs to herd the protesters and journalists onto a bridge, where 250 people ended up getting arrested.
One videographer said police tore his goggles off and sprayed pepper spray into his eyes.
Misael Ivan Lopez, 20, of Minneapolis, said he was documenting the action on his video camera, got caught in the middle of a chaotic crowd targeted by police using pepper spray on University Ave.
“I put myself on the ground and went fetal, but a guy just bent my head out to the side, tore my goggles off and sprayed me,” said Lopez, as he sat on the ground, rocking back and forth while a few march volunteers tended to him.
Police also handcuffed John P. Wise and Alice Kalthoff from the Dallas Fox News affiliated station, releasing Kalthoff after 30 minutes but hauling Wise off to jail.
Kalthoff reported that many other journalists were hauled off to jail as well.
Meanwhile, the recent spate of arrests against journalists in both the Republican National Convention and Democrat National Convention has sparked outrage among several journalism organizations including the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and Free Press.
The ACLU has also gotten involved, which played a prominent role in the $2 million settlement New York City had to dish out after numerous unlawful arrests during the 2000 Republican National Convention.
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a
8 responses so far ↓
1 Maz // Sep 5, 2008 at 8:03 am
It should be fair to note that from what I read on Democracy Now!, part of St. Paul’s agreement to host the GOP convention was that the GOP would paythe first 10 million dollars in lawsuit damages that occur due to any police actions.
So basically the GOP has rented the police for the weekend, and since any taxpayer’s money isn’t at stake here, there’s less likely to be a political backlash from loss of taxpayer money.
2 B // Sep 5, 2008 at 8:50 am
That’s amazing, Maz. Wonder if that is true. If so, the judge should increase any award by more than the correspending amount.
3 genewitch // Sep 5, 2008 at 2:49 pm
B: privatizing the police force is completely legal. it’s as if they had rent a cops. Just cause there’s a buffer between the police and lawsuits doesn’t change that what they (the police) did was unconstitutional. It’s going to be a real bitch when these reporters sue for harassment, the money is gone, then the regular dick and janes sue for police harassment against innocent spectators, and then finally, the actual protesters sue for illegal detainment, and physical harassment against peaceful protesters. It’ll be hard for even the rowdy protesters to be convicted of anything if the BAR FOR ARREST was “IN THE AREA AND A HUMAN BEING”
All the defense lawyer needs to say is “how many people did you see get arrested mister defendant? What were they arrested for?” and then show news clippings, your website, and police reports as evidence.
Good luck getting any jury to convict with that huge gaping maw of probable doubt.
Hey carlos, “ultra right-wing Fox News” is poisoning the well. Perhaps a better form would be “Fox News - for non americans, they tend to lean to the conservative side of politics - has even had blah blah blah” People who know of fox news know it’s pretty far right, and those who don’t know either don’t care, or will find out on their own after having their interest piqued by such a thing.
Not really complaining, i just notice that a lot these days, coming from the “ultra right wing” media. any time you hear “Barack HUSSEIN obama” on the radio or TV, they’re commiting this act of logical fallacy. Poisoning the well.
4 genewitch // Sep 5, 2008 at 2:51 pm
s/probable/reasonable. I meant reasonable doubt, regarding the jury, of course.
5 Scott // Sep 5, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Genewitch, you know this site can never be used as evidence in a case. It is merely opinionated and not expert. Not that I don’t like the site or anything.
6 Ms Calabaza // Sep 5, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Carlos,
you stay away from political rallies … we don’t want to have to bail you out!
7 genewitch // Sep 5, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Scott: “… your site, …” was tongue in cheek, even more ironic because the judge in Carlos’ case was even more biased because of it. What a tool.
(the judge, not Carlos)
8 Bernard Jay Anderio // Sep 25, 2008 at 2:59 am
Please e-mail this article so I can send it out to show people that “The New World Order Fascist State is in Place” I have asked people to read the book “The Coming Battle” forwarded by Lorraine Walters, The Creature from Jeckyll Island , I believe by Griffin Jeckyll if spell correctly is an island off of Georgia.. All Fall Down by William Thomas
This putting the Frog in cold water and slowly turning up the heat over time appears to be working…
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