Amy Goodman On Her Illegal Arrest at the Republican Convention

by Robert Wilkinson

When I first broke this story, a commenter inferred I was being paranoid. I was reminded of the old adage from my antiwar days in 69-70 that "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're not being followed." Today we get the straight story from Ms. Amy Goodman herself on the exact events of the day. There was much more than what Leslie Griffith reported, included bloodied bodies and police brutality with reactivity not that far from Chicago 68. See you below the jump.

From TruthDig via TruthOut (both sites are linked on the right side of the page), Why We Were Falsely Arrested by Amy Goodman. The link takes you to the article.

The lead:

St. Paul, Minnesota - Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy. As the Republican National Convention meets in St. Paul, Minn., this week, police are systematically targeting journalists. I was arrested with my two colleagues, "Democracy Now!" producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, while reporting on the first day of the RNC. I have been wrongly charged with a misdemeanor. My co-workers, who were simply reporting, may be charged with felony riot.

Here's a little more:

I was at the Xcel Center on the convention floor, interviewing delegates. I had just made it to the Minnesota delegation when I got a call on my cell phone with news that Sharif and Nicole were being bloody arrested, in every sense. Filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and I raced on foot to the scene. Out of breath, we arrived at the parking lot. I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.

Within seconds, they grabbed me, pulled me behind the police line and forcibly twisted my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, the rigid plastic cuffs digging into my wrists. I saw Sharif, his arm bloody, his credentials hanging from his neck. I repeated we were accredited journalists, whereupon a Secret Service agent came over and ripped my convention credential from my neck. I was taken to the St. Paul police garage where cages were set up for protesters. I was charged with obstruction of a peace officer. Nicole and Sharif were taken to jail, facing riot charges.

The attack on and arrest of me and the "Democracy Now!" producers was not an isolated event....

I don't think it's paranoid to note that we live in a police state where men with badges can violate the law with impunity, letting the courts sort it out later. Here I want to thank Leslie Griffith again for breaking the story on TruthOut as reported here two days ago, along with a story on 40 years of Republican dirty tricks, some bordering on treason.

One thing many don't realize. This is not a matter of political opinion. The Constitution of the United States is the Supreme Law of the Land, and no judge nor Congressional Resolution nor Presidential Signing Statement can abridge that document. Certainly no jackbooted police thug has the right to circumvent it. It is the absolute rule of law in our country that defines the limits of all other laws. The First Amendment to that document reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Democracy is under attack by the police state, and has been for awhile. When will the courts restrain the felons attacking our reporters and those who lawfully protest an illegal government?

Copyright © 2008 Robert Wilkinson

p.s. For those who can't be bothered with our crisis of democracy affecting the world, I'll be posting more astrology articles soon, so stay tuned....

Comments

[TropiGal]

Democracy has always been under attack from the police state in one way or another. There was a depression in the late 1800s as severe as that of 1929. The railroads and many other businesses were just about shut down by widespread strikes. Of course, the police forces moved in. If mentioned in history books at all, there is a sentence that says something like, "There was rioting." The People's History of the United States" (Zinsser, I think) is a good starting place. I admire the Wobbies. When detained by police, and asked, "Who is your leader?," they replied, "We are all leaders here." And all went to jail.

[Damien]

Its attrocious, that's what it is. This is only the tip of the iceberg people.

[Mira]

Thank you, Robert, for your ethically, emotionally, and spiritually sensitive news and insights at this blog.

Individual lives don't happen in a vacumn -- we are part of collective karmas and histories that we have inherited and are also co-creating.

If we are not aware of how our perceptions, thoughts, and actions contribute and impact the lives of those around us, whether at the family, work organization, community, national, and global levels, then we are living at a level of sub-consciousness.

We always know more than we know that we know, but this knowledge is often unconscious. Yet, our unconscious minds are always providing us with messages, not only about our individual lives but our collective contexts.

Many of us who are highly sensitive (probably with strong Pisces and Scorpio --- and you would know the other placements -- in our charts) as well as those of us who have inherited personal histories that have encountered the domination and brutality of police state activity, authoritarianism, and fascism are simply seeing and responding to the increased repression of recent years.

This is not "paranoia" either at the individual or collective psychological level.

To not see the progression of repression of individual freedoms (Patriot Acts, increased "security" at airports which include possible confiscation of laptop computers, domestic spying not only in the US but in Germany, Sweden, Turkey, and other nations) as well as the repression of journalists (in the Philippines, they are being jailed, "disappeared," and killed, as in Latin America during the Operation Condor period), is to be in psychological denial.

The opposite of well-done astrology is repression and denial. Instead, astrological inquiry should be about making the unconscious conscious and increasing awareness -- of uncomfortable as well as uplifting truths at the individual and collective levels.

Hitler would not have come to power if Weimar period German progressives had been united. Instead, their in-fighting resulted in cancelling out their power, and Hitler took advantage of their disunity. Then, he slowly started shutting down liberties and freedoms, at a slow enough pace that much of the population was desensitized to changes -- even as they lost their rights, as dissidenters were jailed, and journalists were silenced. Then it was too late.

We're living in a period of intensified and integrated state repression at the global level, as well as a period of increasingly united transnational grassroots peace, labor rights, progressive media, human rights, animal rights, and environmental resistance and activism.

I am very interested in any astrological insights into this polarization and what we can do to support positive changes. It all starts with awareness, from a social psychological viewpoint.

I am grateful for the broad and educated insights you share with us here. It's of utmost importance, for so many reasons, to stay aware and conscious of these changes, in a courageous and constructive manner, as awareness in itself is a form of resistance and changes the collective dynamic.

[ernie bakeswell]

thank you for being relevant

[kathy]

The question for me is, what do we do about it? Who can we prosecute, or sue? Where are our legal eagles? There is too much material for outrage, and it just becomes toxic if you care and can't do anything. That's a recipe for depression and despair. That's why people put their heads in the sand: they literally shut down b/c there is nothing to do with that sad information, and they can't take more tangential sadness when often their own lives are filled with challenge.

I would welcome input for constructive action to protect our constitutional rights.

[donna not many]

I am not Amy Goodman by any means but I was arrested and abused by the police in July on False charges without probabale cause..now it is thousands of dollars which I do not have to spare and court after court apperance and like it or not...you are GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNONCENT in this country..I am a direct descendent of William Few of Georgia who was signer of the Constitution...Be Afraid Be Very Afraid it has gotten way out of control!

I do not know the solution...

[Mira]

Check out the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, and other NGOs on issue of civil liberties.

Also Freepress.net, Reporters Without Borders, and other NGOs that further press freedoms.

Cornel West said that in mass society we need to align with larger groups and movements.

Namaste !

[Mira]

Hi Kathy,

I had to send a short post because my laptop was running out of power.

Regarding Amy Goodman, you could donate or volunteer for Democracy Now. Info is at their website. You could write a letter to the editor of your paper, to television news feedback, or comment at corporatenews websites that are not reporting on this, asking them "Why aren't you reporting on this." You could send your thoughts out on your own blog.

FreePress has an open letter to be sent to the mayor of Minneapolis: http://www.freepress.net/ :(St. Paul in the Hot Seat Over Journalist Arrests, September 5.2008, Journalists and St. Paul citizens assembled outside St. Paul City Hall to deliver more than 60,000 letters to Mayor Chris Coleman and prosecuting attorneys demanding that they immediately drop charges against all journalists arrested this week as they covered the Republican National Convention...)

NOW on PBS did a report on Amy tonight. http://www.pbs.org/now/

I do a lot of online activism. For example, I am an animal rights activist as well as a human rights activist and do all the actions that the Humane Society of America provides online, as well as ACLU online actions (http://action.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AP_action_homepage&JServSessionIdr008=g1mc8av0n1.app20a) and actions that my faith tradition umbrella organizations recommend.

If you are highly sensitive, then it is important to not take on too much. You need to protect your psyche and body from overstimulation and anxiety and stay in balance as Robert repeatedly advises here. We live in a world that can easily be overwhelming and overstimulating. Care of Self, Family, and Friends has to come first. If you have time and energy left over to do more, then great. If not, don't worry. Others in solidarity with a caring person of good will like you who have time and energy are working on your behalf.

I personally think self-care is a form of positive change in the big picture. Spiritual mentors of mine from India say that positive thoughts are invisible but that they are "things" with power, so it's very important to stay positive, staring with positive self-care and self-nurturing as well as caring and nurturing towards the people and significant animals closest to you.

The places that are totally within your own power is your own mind and your own heart. Anne Frank, Nelson Mandela, and other resisters to violent domination in the most extreme cases demonstrate to us the power and light of inside of us are more powerful than those who want to dominate, in the long run. I find the movement for justice for the disappeared in Latin American countries very powerful. The families and friends of those who were persecuted and even killed by dictatorial states have created movements for rectification and healing. The case of Pinochet was a powerful demonstration of karmic justice in his own lifetime.

Check out the website of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (Building Cultures of Peace with Social Justice). http://www.psysr.org/ There's a blog with contributions from humanistic psychologists with strengthening insights for all on the path of peace and justice.

I come to this site regularly for inspiration and wisdom too -- for insights at subtle and depth psychological levels. Namaste.

[Victoria]

Robert thank you for posting. I am a big fan of Amy Goodman and Democracy Now.

It is shocking.

[Joanne]

I am doing my part in informing the general population by posting Robert's articles (with his URL's and name attached) on myspace and my personal email. I think that people should be informed, even if they don't like it. (The teacher in me.) I expose, but don't push.
Kudos to Robert for helping me be informed.
PS- I need your address Robert to send the check for my chart reading on the 28th. :)

[Robert]

Hi all - Thanks for contributing to this ongoing report on the monstrosity of fascism run rampant. Here's another link to a new TruthOut story, St. Paul's Police Protest the Press with more in depth reporting by Michael Winship of TruthOut on other incidents in both conventions. It sure seems like the cops are way out of line. And it also seems like citizen journalists with cell phones and digital recorders are capturing their excesses in greater numbers globally. I know it's made the LAPD clean up their act, if only a little.

[infinity]

Hello,

Please let's drop the one party hates freedom, the other is all for people scam. Gosh, we fall into this silly trap every 8 years when the party changes to "convince" us change is taking place! The only real change is the loss of freedoms, no matter who is the faceman.

Also, some possible instant karma for Amy? If she is all for freedom of expression and truth, then she would spend considerable time on the biggest lie, nine one one. Of which, she has consistently dodged since the event was created. Amy dear, its about freedom in all areas, even the ones you fear to address.

[infinity]

Hi Robert,

May I update our 60's paranoid quote to:

"Just because you don't know about it or refuse to see it, doesn't mean IT isn't happening."

Thanks

[Sue Moon]

Thank so much to Mira for your clear and concise offer of help with so many good websites to get information from. And you are so right, take care of yourself first, be in balance in your world, then let it spread out from you like so many ripples of peace. We will save the world by saving ourselves. Jai Bhagwan

[Viki]

Thank you Robert for this expose. I am very concerned about the erosion of our civil rights.

And thank you Mira, for your excellent and thoughtful posts. As an extremely psychic Scorpio, I find that I easily become overwhelmed by all that is occurring and have to take more time out for self-nurturing than I used to. I agree with Kathy that it can become toxic and very depressing - evoking a feeling of helplessness at times.

It is true that our thoughts are very powerful, so holding the Light and being balanced personally is sending this energy out into All That Is, which creates changes over time.

Thank you to all of those spirited activists (probably fire signs, LOL!) who are courageous and on the front lines of promoting peace and harmony for all life.

[dcu]

Tyranny on Display at the Republican Convention:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/08-0

An article from Truthout picked up by Common Dreams. It is a good commentary on what happened in Saint Paul.
dcu

[Robert]

Hi all - Thanks for making this a relevant stream.

Hi Tropigal - I studied the impact of the Wobblies back in the 70s when in college. Definitely a strong org, unfortunately the targets of authoritarian heavy handed brutality thanx to the cops bought by the wealthy.

Hi Damien - Of course you're right.

Hi Mira - You're welcome, of course. I try to balance metaphysics with "reality," even though there are many who visit here who don't give a damn about the larger issues of our day. If we don't take an interest in the political situation, wherever we are, we run the risk of being victims of our own ignorance. Thanks for some profound statements that deserve pondering, since we are truly all in this together, and to ignore certain things guarantees us all forms of mental (and often physical) slavery.

Unfortunately, at this time in human history it seems we must fight anew the rights of humanity and the dignity of the individual. We are constantly subjugated to humiliations that people throughout history would have fought, but in our times the power of the police state is absolute (even if some would hide their heads in the sand!) It is pandemic, and must change so that individuals again can pursue the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" that is our heritage. Most do not understand just how late the hour is, and what is at stake. Rudhyar stated it clearly that the individual is almost powerless to effect major social change, but in collectivities we can engineer miracles. And truly, thank you for being a voice for the creatures, since they are the most abused in our ignorant and brutal system. Much of what you've stated, such as "thoughts are things," is profoundly wise. You're definitely "closer than you think," to quote the line from "The Razor's Edge."

Hi Ernie - Well, as a well-respected political blogger of many years, I learned enough that I understand we must become as spiritually aware as we can be, and be "wise as foxes and meek as lambs," lest we attract the wrong attention. Spoken as one who knows some of what is contained in his FBI file....

Hi Kathy - You've read many excellent suggestions here. Become aware, informed, committed to whatever works for you, and never give up the dream. There is much work to be done as an activist on any level of your own choosing. Despair is not a useful response, nor is depression. Knowledge, wisely used, is power.

Hi Donna - Well, since you are one who moves between radically different cultures and realities, could you expect less from the fascists in charge? And of course, I'm so sorry for your travail. May this spell pass from the face of our Earth as soon as possible.

Hi Victoria - More shocking than I would ever have imagined growing up in the 60s.

Hi Joanne - Thanks for spreading the word, even if it does expose us to somebody's list. (That's not paranoid - that's a fact!)

Hi Infinity - I don't recall that the Dems ever initiated the Patriot Act, even if they were sold the lie. Seems that wiretapping and eavesdropping on individuals not suspected of any crime is a Repub perversion. Silly trap? Uh.... What part of "extraordinary rendition" don't you get? The Dems would only erode part of our freedoms. The Repubs would take them ALL away. Karma for Amy? Watch out for that kind of thinking. You may need to re-study the famous quote from Martin Neimoeller, lest you be the last group the Nazis come to take and there's no one left to stand up. She doesn't have to take on 9-11. Go view "Loose Change." There are plenty of others doing that. Your quote is well-taken.

Hi Sue - Yes, if we want a real revolution, we better change our minds instead, to quote someone who got shot for pleading "give peace a chance."

Hi Viki - The conscious antidoting of feelings of helplessness is part of becoming a strong human being. Without Fire, there is no "activation." Blessings on the "warriors, whose strength is not to fight."

Hi dcu - Thanks for the link. We'll live to see the promised land yet. "Amigos" indeed!