Labor Day in the park
Want to see a picture of what it will look like all over America in the near future?
A hope that all "taxpayers" are proud of the government services they have 'bought' with their slave labor.
Force and violence with tear gas, pepper spray, and concussion granades against peaceful, non-violent, non-threatening, hardly even speaking people who were merely exercising their Right to be outside in a park is beyond the pale. Thankfully, no one appears to have been beaten. That is, until they got to jail.
Fucking bastards.
Incredible Documentary Footage of Mass Arrest in St. Paul
By Laura Flanders, Firedoglake
Posted on September 19, 2008, Printed on September 20, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://www.firedoglake.com//99433/
full story here, too
Now that we've had a few weeks to settle, a look back at Labor Day in the Twin Cities. Labor Day was of course also Day One of the Republican National Convention. Video was released today of an apparent mass arrest of utterly peaceful concert goers at the SEIU Labor Day concert.
My personal favorite moment in the tape is an off-camera exchange. Police in riot gear have surrounded loungers in a waterfront park. They announce, "Ladies and Gentlemen, You're Under Arrest" and you hear one young woman say incredulously "Are you serious?"
Yep, I'm afraid they are.
Here's the press release that came with the video, from the Glass Bead Collective:
BURIED TAPE REVEALS USE OF FORCE AND AN UNWARRANTED MASS ARREST OF BYSTANDERS DURING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (September 18, 2008) Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month's Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.
More than eight hundred people were arrested in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. This video shows that at least twenty percent of the eight hundred plus arrested were seized without due cause.
Laura Flanders is the host of GRITtv and the author of Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians.
- dicktater's blog
- Login to post comments
No charges for reporters arrested in GOP protests
The fucking assholes. The First Amendment is supposed to protect EVERYONE angainst this kind of shit. Not just the fucking corporate, shill press. Yeah but, since reporters (MSM) are actually on the government's team, they were mistakenly arrested. That's why they go free and everyone else has to bear the burden of defending them themselves against the eVil state.
Where's Keenan? Be the media! Get your own Get Out of Jail Free card.
(09-19) 14:43 PDT MINNEAPOLIS (AP) --
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."
[UNFUCKINGBELIAVABLE!]
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.
[What about charges against the government goons who were obstructing thousdands of people's legal process? And, you'll never hear another fucking peep about it out of that witch Goodman either.]
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.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/19/national/a10...
Thousands march in Sweden against globalisation
No indication of any mass arrests by Swedish utharitees.
Sep 20 05:40 PM US/Eastern
More than 10,000 marched in the Swedish city of Malmoe on Saturday in a demonstration against the excesses of globalisation, organised as part of the European Social Forum being held there.
The marchers, many carrying banners, set off from the suburb of Rosengaard at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) accompanied by several marching bands, in what was one of the biggest organised in Sweden.
"We are all here because we have a common message," Thor Rutgersson, a 25-year-old teacher told AFP.
"We want better conditions for workers, for students and more cooperation to fight poverty in Europe," he added.
The march included delegations from all over Europe, including trade unionists and students.
"It is important that the countries from eastern Europe are here today," said Piotr Ostrowsky of the Polish confederation of trade unions, the OPZZ.
Saturday's march extended 7.5 kilometres (nearly five miles) and finished in the city centre without incident. A large police presence had been on stand-by on the fringes of the route.
On Friday, about 100 people threw rocks at police and broke windows in the city centre at the tail end of a demonstration organised by a group called Reclaim the Streets, which had attracted some 700 participants.
The fifth European Social Forum began Thursday and wraps up on Sunday.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080920213952.glrpuxfc&show_artic...
--
Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.