Amy Goodman Arrested: RNC Police State Follow Up

My very politically astute friend Jeff sent me this (it isn’t hard to see why):

That’s Amy Goodman of Democracy Now being arrested on obviously bullshit charges.  I think Jeff’s reaction captures my own in better words:

On Democracy Now today (Monday morning), Amy Goodman reported that 2 Democracy Now producers (along with a slew of other independent news people) were arrested in St. Paul in advance of the RNC convention.  Pretty shocking news, but almost not expected ….

But now I just got an email/video of AMY GOODMAN ARRESTED TODAY (Monday) at 5 PM – it’s REALLY fucked up.

I somewhat dismissed it as just going a little over the line when the cops at the DNC arrested the ABC news guy, and a bunch of protestors – but this is crazy.  This is a level of suppression (although not punishment, as I’m sure she’ll be released in a day) that could be compared to China.  What the fuck is going on!?

In light of police in riot gear armed with semi-automatic weapons raiding houses of RNC political enemies, this is looking even more sinister than it would out of context.

The Police at the Republican National Convention are straight up suppressing the political opposition.

This was an unlawful arrest.  As was the needlessly violent arrest of two Democracy Now producers:

Goodman, who was released after being charged with a misdemeanor, said that Salazar had been hurt in the face, while Kouddous had been thrown up against a wall and hurt his elbow.

“Nicole told me that as they moved in on three sides, she asked them ‘How do I get away from this?’ and they jumped on her.”

Inaction and silence says more than a thousand speeches.

“One of the police kept shouting at me ‘Shut up, shut up,” she said. “It was extremely threatening.”

It says “shut the fuck up and keep in your place, or you are next.”

If we do not respond to this sharply it will be repeated and it will encourage even further abuses.  When the police violently arrest members of the press at will, and invade our homes armed to the teeth to arrest and confiscate at will, we are not in any sense of the word free.  We are citizens on probation in a police state.