For those of you who don't know, Amy Goodman is a journalist for the typically excellent multimedia news source, Democracy Now!.
For those of you who don't remember or never knew, in 2008 there were a couple days worth of protest and demonstrations surrounding the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis - St. Paul.
While it's true that several groups of people, for example the RNC Welcoming Committee, did not confine themselves strictly to 'peaceful' forms of protestation, it was for the most part a 'sanctioned' event. In fact, it was so tame that the routes and locations for marches and other events were so geographically obscure, due to suffocating permit decisions, that they were hardly visible or in any way disruptive. The routes were marked out by rows of riot cops on either side, and cross streets filled will phalanxes 5 men deep. The planned, permitted march took place inside of a sandwich of armored, lethally and sub-lethally armed riot police.
All the while, the city was mounting a offensive comprised of armies of riot police. In the evening, after the anti-climax (marching to the convention center housing the RNC Convention, only to find that it was sealed off by 12 foot tall fencing for a block on every side, guarded by groups of riot cops wielding automatic rifles), large groups of angry people started congealing in intersections and roads, chanting, yelling etc, in various places around the city. I should point out that the city had planned the routes such that the massive groups of protesters would all end up draining into a handful of different locations; a bunch of angry protesters lumped into a small area with a bunch of other angry protesters. Simultaneously, all around the city, the announcement came over megaphones. -This gathering has been declared unlawful. Disperse, or we will begin arresting those who remain.- Or something like that. They didn't give up. Instead it just pissed everyone off.
So, after some minutes, simultaneously, all over the city, phalanxes of police knelt down, put on the gas masks, stood up, and launched tear gas into the crowds. Then came flash grenades. Most people ran, because those things are scary. Your body tells you to run. The soldiers marched in formation along predetermined routes until all the protesters were bottlenecked onto a bridge that leads out of town. Those who tried to stay behind were eventually fired upon with rubber bullets. Anyone who came within a couple feet of a marching cop was sprayed with pepper spray. It didn't matter if they were old, female, tying their shoe, sitting quietly, stuck behind a crowd. They got blasted in the face with a stream of the red stuff.
A couple hundred people were arrested. Almost all of them were detained for several hours with no charge and no eventual conviction.
I just wanna point out a couple things. First of all, analysis seems to bare that the protest was largely "choreographed". The progression of events was planned to some degree, including the real and simulated violence. If they had wanted to avoid it, I can think of a couple obvious ways, like: not inciting aggression with preemptive show of force, not firing upon non-aggressive demonstrators with barely-sub-lethal weapons, not choreographing the location and timing of the marches to climax in a standoff between the police and protesters after a long day of being harassed by other police for no reason.
Also, I personally was the 'victim' of undercover police officers dressed as protesters, put in place cause agitation and lead to arrests.
Lastly, the point of this post. Tons and tons of journalists, who were told they would be spared if they were marked as journalists (standing behind police or possessing cameras), were actually quickly targeted and arrested without charge for the duration of the protest. (We won't even go into the televised media blackout. Alright, just one: who heard anything about this, at all, other than that some people were smashing the windows of cooperate stores?) Among those people was Amy Goodman, and I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that she is pressing charges. She should, and good for her. It the best option given that she doesn't have enough military force to just blow up and/or arrest anyone who disagrees with her.
Keep on rockin' in the free world.
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