Charges Dropped Against Reporters Arrested During RNC

MINNEAPOLIS — Charges will be dropped against journalists who were arrested during protests at the Republican National Convention and cited for unlawful assembly, St. Paul officials said Friday.

Mayor Chris Coleman said 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 prepared 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."

He said the city doesn't know yet how many cases the decision will affect, and he said the city will use a broad definition of journalists caught up in mass arrests.

City Attorney John Choi said it would take a while for his office to review each case, do the paperwork and notify everyone involved.

More than 800 people were arrested in St. Paul and Minneapolis during the convention. Journalists among them included Associated Press reporters Amy Forliti and Jon Krawczynski. City spokesman James Lockwood said charges against them will be dropped.

Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said, "It's always good to learn that a bogus charge against you has been dropped. We're still waiting for police to account for the unprovoked smackdowns of two of our photographers."

The AP has sent the Police Department a letter asking for an accounting of police treatment of photographers Matt Rourke and Evan Vucci while they were covering violent protests during the convention.

Amy Goodman, host of the syndicated radio and television program Democracy Now!, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the legal process during the protests. Two producers of the show were also arrested.

Choi said the city would also drop charges against the three of them.

Mike Buckso, executive officer of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union, said the dropped charges were welcome _ but he said elected officials must examine what happened in order to prevent "the needless detention and harassment of journalists" in the future.

Comments

[ladyrefined2000]

journalist­s?????????­?.........­..these people were scum......­...lol....­..........­......they wanted to make the story about them. get of of hereeeeeee­eeeeeeeeee­e.........­..

[Frenbar]

Hopefully you'll be beaten and detained by the police for no reason, then you can be the story.

[zigzag1]

refined????

[FirstShirt]

Of course the charges were dropped. Why waste the taxpayers money on these people. Policeman tells you to move, move. Cop says to slow down, slow down. It is protecting the public health and safety. If they violate your rights sue them.

Want to be the next Chicago 7, or Ayles and Dorn? Go ahead. But, in a crisis, good advice is to not poke the bear.

[thinkworklivelove]

I didn't see any news coverage on this in the MSM.

[NTO08]

Yes!

[birdie2]

It's my understanding that the RNC took out an insurance policy prior to the convention to pay for any litigation.

[NTO08]

Yes, they did.

[Wiredwilly]

Now the reporters should sue the so-called Police in St. Paul for about $ 10 Billion dollars.
I wouldn't drive through Minneapolis -St. Paul if I was paid to do so. I agree with Texastrixie.
BOYCOTT MINNEAPOLIS.

[Yatata]

Naomi Wolf has warned us about this:

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps: step # 6 - engage in arbitrary detention and release - step # 7 - Target key individuals, step # 8 - control the press.

"From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all"

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag (extraordinary rendition, black sites)
3. Develop a thug caste (Blackwater)
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

[Rendon76]

The question is will they be recompensated for their troubles.

[Counterglow]

It's no good saying, "Sorry for making you late" after the train has left the station, and it's no good dropping the charges after the event is over. If any lessons are to be learned about suppression of a reporter's First Amendment rights, there needs to be a bunch of honking-great lawsuits brought against the Minneapolis police and city government. The only thing these thugs will understand is a good, hard kick in the wallet.

[peterg76]

Either they were polical prisoners all along or the City of St. Paul is soft on 'terrorism'.

[Big0725]

I wonder how much these altercations will cost the Minneapolis/St. Paul city governments? I believe it cost New York City about $10 million to settle all the cases after the RNC in 2004.

[alvdh1]

We will arrest journalists and then release them because we respect the First Amendment right of free press after the GOP thugs have left town. You suppressed the press and then claim honor in releasing them. I am amazed that this sweep of journalists was conducted by a Democratic Mayor. I am in favor of having an investigation of potential payoffs of the Mayor by GOP operatives to stifle free press during the GOP Convention. Dropping charges against the arrested journalists was the only way he could come clean, but it doesn't excuse his abuse of free speech and he should be thoroughly investigated for corruption and wrong doing. If guilty, please make an example of hs dispicable behavior.

[odoreida]

"We will arrest journalists and then release them because we respect the First Amendment right of free press after the GOP thugs have left town."

First Amendment rights don't include smashing windows, setting fires, or roughing up convention delegates. Even though they're Republicans, they have the same rights as you do. First Amendment rights do not include a right to interfere with law enforcement. Anybody who does this assumes the risk.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

odoreida, You make it sound like these journalists were themselves engaged in these acts of vandalism and violence, or that their being there to cover the events was a provocation to the public order. I seriously doubt that was the case. Why do GOPrs hate the Constitution?

[PubliusUSA]

Amy Goodman, and her two producers, were NOT "smashing windows, setting fires, or roughing up convention delegates", as the video shows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

If the police are allowed to arrest anyone because some other people may be engaging in unlawful acts, then that means that the police can arrest anyone for no reason. And, if they can arrest the journalists for doing their jobs, then that means there will usually be no witnesses.

If the government were made up of angels, then we wouldn't need any rights, or journalists.

[Pdubya]

what about the two hundred arrests of people - of all walks - for just sitting on the public lawn?

its easy.... www.youtube.com

wake up folks, we have a plutocratic police state.

[LoveOverGold]

Wrong. Amy Goodman played the videos of her arrest, and she did nothing to justify the violent reaction of the police. Nothing, just normal press activity. No yelling, nothing. Amy was arrested for asking a question, and asking to speak to their commander after her camera person was pushed to the ground with a boot in her back, bleeding. They were all wearing very large press passes around their necks. She also showed footage of the police ordering people to leave and then surrounding them so they could not possibly do so, resulting in their arrest. There should be an investigation and I hope they file a class action lawsuit. Allowing this type of brutality and abuse of power is taking us one step closer to all out fascism.

[TheHandyman]

I guess the facts or the truth never get in the way of ignorance. The jopurnalists weren't involved in any of what you describe. So how is your staement anything other than willfull ignorance or out right lies?

[truthyguy]

Drop the charges!!?? They should sue the city, the GOPwho hired the police for special duty and each of the police who participated in this. This is a Multi-Million dollar case that needs to be brought to say to the GOP and the police that this is a country of laws and not men and the Constitution does mean something.

[amazedandoutraged]

I totally agree. "Protecting the public" from those nasty journalists! Or protecting Republicans on their propaganda spew. Not allowing dissent or freedom of expression--the Republican Way.

[odoreida]

"Dissent" should not involve rioting, smashing things, starting fires or roughing up people.

[Puller58]

Amy Goodman is a victim of her rabble rousing. She constantly refers to the "Battle in Seattle" in approving tones. Anarchy is not a protected activity when it involves violence or destruction of property. Police departments err on the side of preserving law and order. Funny how the radical chic seem to find getting arrested at protests to be a badge of honor, yet find this brand of crowd control not to their liking. Perhaps it's time to leave the 1960s behind and engage in more practical methods of affected political change.

[lisangela]

What a load of horsesh*t. People protest because they actually care, not because it's trendy. When your government takes the Constitution and puts it in the shredder, it's well past time for "practical". That said, none of these reporters were destroying anything. There was no good reason for them to be arrested.

[odoreida]

These people weren't just "protestin­g." They were smashing windows, setting fires, and roughing up delegates as they arrived at the convention. The real disgrace is that the behavior of these self-described "anarchists" was all but ignored by certain news media, who chose to focus on the Amy Goodman Show instead.

[odoreida]

I agree. There's no place in journalism for narcissists like Amy who create a disturbance that turns a much larger issue into a self-serving story where she is supposedly the hero. And it's disappointing that some of the so-called "internet newspapers" are so tendentious in their so-called coverage to see fit to report what was actually going on in the streets of St. Paul.

[TheHandyman]

Crowd control, what a hoot. Now if we could just haul them in box cars to some deserted place and gas them then we could get on with the real business of Fascism!

[OkieIntellectual]

OMG the HuffPo censors actually let you use the F-word? Every time I've submitted a post containing that word it gets rejected.

[LoveOverGold]

The police show up at political rallies pretending to be protesters, throw a trashcan, then the police can then kick ass and arrest. It also inspires a few of the protesters to follow suit. It's an old well known tactic.

[odoreida]

Can you show that that is what happened in this instance? Or is this some paranoid fantasy of your own?

[odoreida]

Why don't you post a link to a reliable news story that tells how real police have actually behaved in the manner you describe?

[oldfart1]

This was the tactic made famous by Hitler's storm troopers.

[dojinho]

Her rabble rousing? Have you seen the video of her arrest and of her crew? If the answer is yes, then you are on the side of an authoritarian state, in which no one, not even you, is safe from police brutality. Amy Goodman did nothing wrong. Her job (which she does quite well) involves being there when the authorities abuse their power. She is not an anarchist, simply a bright person fighting against oppressers, whoever they may be.
It's too easy to imply that it is better to err on the side of strength than on the side of weekness, unless you happen to be a victim of this error. But this brutality was not even an error : it is a characteristic of what the US has become : a police state that does all it can to prevent people from speaking out against the system. Take a look at the Patriot Act : http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a102601patriotact#a102601patriotact
Chilling!

[demright]

Who is helping the other 793 with there charges. Do they have legal council.?

[odoreida]

"Do they have legal council.?"

No. They've been thrown into the crocodile pit the GOP keeps for protesters. Sheesh!!