Open Season

[womzilla]

Just because the charges have been dropped, don't think the cause for outrage has gone away.

Charges Dropped Against Democracy Now! Journalists - Investigation Needed

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.

However, as Chris Bowers put it on Open Left:

An investigation is indeed necessary, but I am already pretty sure about what happened:

1. In August, protesters at the 2004 RNC successfully won police brutality lawsuits against the New York City police department.


2. So, a few days later, the Republican Party indemnified the St. Paul police for up to $10 million in the event that charges of police brutality would be brought against them.


3. Then, at the convention, the police went out and illegally beat up $10 million worth of progressives, including progressive media. It was a free beating for them.

He also includes a video of Democracy Now! report Nicole Salazar being chased, clubbed, and possibly kicked by police, ignoring her cries of "Press! I'm with the press!"

(Somewhere I came across an even more appalling video of a woman presenting a flower to a marching column of riot-geared police, one of whom responded by pepper-spraying her, twice. If I find it again, I'll try to post it here.)

Remember: The Bush party is America. Dissent is thoughtcrime. Look what you've made us do.

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

"Charges dropped" makes it worse. There should be an actual sanction on a police force whose officers arrest a citizen they do not think has committed a crime for which charges should be pressed.

Charge and do not arrest is fine. Arrest and do not charge is like imprison and do not try: there should be the arrest equivalent of habeas corpus.