Journalists Being Arrested in St. Paul RNC Convention
“Democracy Now! radio host Amy Goodman and two producers were arrested while covering demonstrations at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn.” That’s from the Washington Post.
Goodman is certainly a journalist in the same way the big network anchors are. For people from the progressive left, handcuffing and arresting Goodman has the same impact that it would if network news audiences saw cops put NBC’s Katie Couric in handcuffs.
Here is a quote from Goodman, in the Post:
“They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my Democracy Now! ID too. I was clearly a reporter.”
The police also raided a house with folks from I-Witness Video, which films police abuse around the country. Several other journalists, both mainstream and citizen, have been arrested or pepper sprayed.
In this era of citizen journalism, we should all be very concerned for everyone’s First Amendment rights.
Here is Goodman getting arrested:
Here is a member of Democracy Now!, who describes an earlier police raid at an I-Witness house.
