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USA Reality - 2008 RNC, Arrests.

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Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist". 2008 Republican National Convention Amy Goodman & Two Democracy Now! Producers Arrested at RNC Protest "I kept asking every officer to identify themselves—a St. Paul cop behind them kept screaming, "Shut up! You, shut up!" And I asked—I said, "I want to know what your name is or your badge." "Shut up! Shut up!" he said..." More than 280 people were arrested here in St. Paul Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Among them were several journalists covering the protests in the streets, including three of us at Democracy Now! Amy was detained trying to question police officers about the arrests of Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Most of the arrests took place within hours of a 10,000-strong peace march organized by the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. After the rally ended, several splinter groups broke off for spontaneous actions in the streets of St. Paul. While most protesters demonstrated peacefully, some engaged in property damage, slashing car tires, throwing bottles, tipping trash bins and breaking windows of cars and buildings. One of the broken windows came in the building that houses Saint Paul Neighborhood Network—that's SPNN —where Democracy Now! is broadcasting from this week. But police used harsh tactics, including chemical irritants, to disperse everyone, even those protesters who remained peaceful. Officers in riot gear fired teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets in a series of standoffs around the downtown St. Paul area. Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were covering one of those standoffs before their arrest. They were released last night but now face pending charges on suspicion of committing a felony riot. It's called "PC riot," probable cause riot. I've been charged with obstruction of legal process and interference with a, quote, "peace" officer. Overall, police say some 120 people face pending charges. Sharif and Nicole join me now here in St. Paul. Welcome to Democracy Now! I don't think we expected to be in jail last night, but Nicole, let's start with you. That was very dramatic footage. Explain what happened. This was actually just outside SPNN, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network, public access TV offices here on Jackson and 7th in downtown St. Paul. NICOLE SALAZAR: Well, basically, Sharif and I had been out that morning filming the antiwar protest, which was mostly peaceful. We were out for three hours, four hours filming that. Eventually, we left the main protest. We went back to the office. We were going to digitize our tapes. And then, from the offices, which, like you said, are here in SPNN, we saw that there was some activity down on the street, so we grabbed our camera. Basically, what we saw then was just police in riot gear moving down the street. We didn't see any crowds. So I grabbed my camera, and I ran out the door and just basically followed the police. I saw that they were preparing to put on teargas masks, and I was just filming them. Shortly after, Sharif came down, and, you know, he brought my press pass down and put that around my neck. So we followed the crowd for a few blocks, and very quickly we saw that there were police coming from all directions. There were police on horseback. There were police on bicycles. And there were police officers in riot gear. So, that moment that you saw, that was after we had moved into an intersection where police were coming from three different directions. They were telling us to move back, and that's what we were trying to do. That's what I was trying to do in the video. I was trying to move back, but I was in a parking lot, and I wasn't able to get back. Cars were behind me. We were in a parking lot. And, you know, I was telling them that "I'm press. I'm press. Please, you know, don't—you know, let me pass." But I couldn't turn around. And I tried to move in between the—between two cars, and instead of, you know, letting me pass and following the crowd, they instead came right after me and slammed me into the car, at which point I think my camera came back and hit me in the face. And two cops were also behind me, and they pushed me through that row of cars into the next area of the parking lot and slammed me to the ground and said, "Get your face on the ground! Get your face on the ground!" And I was, you know, at that point— I was on my stomach on the ground. And one of the officers, I think he was trying to grab me. He was trying to drag me. He was grabbing my leg. And another officer put his boot on my back and was pressing me to the ground.

Category: News
Uploaded: September 3rd, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
Author: gfde08

Length: 10:31
Rating: Whole StarWhole StarWhole StarWhole StarHalf Star
Views: 3,174

Tags: 2008 america arrest assault bush chomsky convention mccain media national paul police protest republican rnc st. usa

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