WHITE RIOT: Battle-ready Minneapolis Police jealously guard toy store. [Photo via NEWSHOUR]
ST. PAUL, MN — Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen [below].
Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfully detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.
Ramsey County Sherrif Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amenmdent rights of these journalists. During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested during this action. [via DEMOCRACY NOW]
POLITICO: Protesters harassed two state delegations in St. Paul to attend the Republican National Convention Monday. Someone threw a rock through the window as delegates from Alabama rode their bus to the Xcel Energy Center, where Republican National Convention events took place. And masked protesters confronted and harassed the Connecticut delegation — several of them were spat upon, roughed up and doused with a mixture of water and bleach. MORE
BOSTON GLOBE: ST. PAUL — The father of a Boston Marine killed in Iraq led thousands of antiwar protesters today in a boisterous but largely peaceful demonstration outside the Republican National Convention, while riot police and National Guardsmen clashed separately with a collection of small fringe groups who smashed windows and damaged public property. Police using pepper spray arrested a total of at least 56 people. In one dust-up, police fired what appeared to be tear gas canisters to disperse a dozen members of the so-called “RNC Welcoming Committee,” a self -described anarchist group that has vowed to shut down this week’s events and was targeted in police searches over the weekend that resulted in six arrests. Elsewhere, members of another group called Funk the War smashed the windows of storefronts and cars trying to enter the tight security perimeter. MORE