Kentucky Students
Still Jailed
After RNC Protest
SCOTT McFETRIDGE
AP / Pioneer
Press (St. Paul, MN) 2sep2008
|
Police use
pepper spray to break up a group of protesters during a rally at the
Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., on Monday, Sept. 1.
Kentucky Kernel photojournalist Ed Matthews, left with camera, was later
arrested on charges of felony riot according to the Ramsey County Adult
Detention Center. Matt Rourke | AP Photo
Mindfully.org
note:
In the photo above witness the wanton cruelty
displayed by depraved police shooting massive streams of caustic pepper
spray on the photographer. The popular media portrays protestors as an
unruly mob intent on causing harm to property. But the plain fact of the
matter is that the police initiated it all by viciously attacking almost
anyone who looked like they might be protesting against the Republicans
— meaning anyone who: was either young; had long hair or dreadlocks;
carried a banner or placard; was not white; and especially the
press. Most protestors were acting in a legal manner, and we might add,
they had a Constitutional right to do so. Considering the content of the
RNC, there needs to be people pointing out what is wrong. This is what Freedom
is all about — We have a right to protest peacefully. And we have a
right to freedom of the press.
That does not matter to the police. They had instructions to bust heads.
And they were heavily aided by the Secret
Service people. The real problems occurred with reactions to
inappropriate use of force by the police. In spite of people marching
peacefully, the police instigated most of the violence. The especially
targeted media people who clearly had proper identification hanging around
their necks, ripping those I.D, tags from them, stating things such as,
"You won't be needing those anymore."
The police were raiding homes
even before the RNC began, with the clear intent on terrorizing and
disrupting the people within who were planning to protest. They had lists
to follow in order to know where to intrude. They would also repeatedly run sirens on the cruisers several times
throughout the night to disturb their sleep. A wide range of disrupting
tactics were employed. Many times, people were charged with building code
violations. Why were police writing violations for building code
violations when this is the job of the City's Building Department? This
was just one more of their many tactics of disruption. What the police
were doing was unlawful.
While reading about this issue and listening to or watching the
popular news, what the police will say will be distortions or outright
lies in most cases.
And below we see another group of insane
police attacking a young woman. Is this what real men do — beat up
women without provocation? What he-men these guys are — specimen
of the new world order who are
probably unable to think clearly about life and obviously have strong
dislike of women and people who can think at all. Actions such as these by the
police make us worry for the future of America. There was no violence here
until the police introduced it. What will become of us
when times really get tough? Who do you call when the police are the
problem?
|
MINNEAPOLIS—Two University of Kentucky journalism students and their
newspaper adviser remained jailed Tuesday night, more than a day after they were
swept up with nearly 300 others during protests in downtown St. Paul. Police
arrested students Edward C. Matthews and Britney D. McIntosh along with adviser
Jim Winn on Monday afternoon. All came to the Twin Cities to document protests
held in response to the Republican National Convention, meeting this week in St.
Paul.
Matthews' father, Tom Matthews, heard about his son's arrest Tuesday morning,
then saw him in an Associated Press photo that showed him turning away from a
stream of pepper spray.
"I feel for him," his father said. "He's taking it in the
chops."
Matthews, of Lexington, Ky., spent much of Tuesday trying to learn whether
his 21-year-old son would face charges or be released from the Ramsey County
jail before being told he'd remain in jail for a second night.
The three arrested are affiliated with the University of Kentucky student
newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel (below). Matthews is a photographer, McIntosh is
the multimedia editor and Winn is the paper's photo adviser.
Editor Brad Luttrell said the three traveled to St. Paul for the experience
of working with professional journalists on a big story, not to cover the
convention for the college paper.
"Their intent was to document. They were not protesters," Luttrell
said. "They were doing what all the other journalists were there to
do." The photo of Matthews reacting to pepper spray was atop the Kernel's
Web site on Tuesday, and Luttrell said it would be the 17,000-circulation daily
newspaper's top story Wednesday.
"What's troubling to me is the censorship that's involved here,"
Luttrell said. "If the police arrest our journalists and they can't tell
what's going on, then who is there to describe it?"
Matt Rourke, the AP photographer whose picture showed Matthews, also was
arrested, though it wasn't clear if both were arrested in the same incident.
Rourke was released hours later and not charged.
Amy Goodman, host of the syndicated radio and television program Democracy
Now!, and two of the show's producers also were arrested and then released.
Goodman was cited for a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the legal process,
said Ramsey County Attorney's Office spokesman Jack Rhodes.
Whether to charge Goodman will be decided when she appears in court. The city
attorney's office did not immediately know what her court date was and online
jail records didn't have it.
No charges were expected against Goodman's colleagues, Rhodes said.
All four, plus those from Kentucky, were among nearly 300 people arrested at
the event that attracted about 10,000 primarily peaceful marchers. A splinter
group estimated by police at about 200 broke windows, slashed tires and harassed
delegates.
Rourke was covering the protest when he was swept up by police moving in on a
group of protesters in downtown St. Paul. Goodman was arrested as she asked
police in riot gear about the status of two producers who had been arrested,
Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.
Goodman interviewed her two producers on her show Tuesday where they
recounted their experience. A video of Goodman's arrest, aired on her program
and also posted on YouTube, shows her begging police not to arrest her before
being taken away in handcuffs.
source: 2sep2008
Two Students and Kernel Photo Adviser
Arrested at RNC
ALI CICERCHI & JILL LASTER / Kentucky Kernel 2sep2008
Two UK students and the photo adviser for the Kentucky Kernel were arrested
at the Republican National Convention Monday afternoon in St. Paul, Minn., on
charges of felony rioting. They were photographing the protesting of the
convention.
Photographers Ed Matthews and Britney McIntosh, as well as adviser Jim Winn
were three of 286 people arrested as convention protests escalated into riots
Monday.
All three were arrested on charges of felony riot and are being detained at
the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center.
They will be charged no later than Wednesday, said jail officials. If
convicted, Winn, Matthews and McIntosh would receive a minimum sentence of one
year in jail and have to pay a minimum fine of $3,000.
The three were at the convention for personal reasons, and not on assignment
for a newspaper, said Carla Winn, Jim Winn’s wife.
Carla Winn, who was with her husband at the convention, said the problems at
the RNC started when a group of protestors broke off from the main group. People
started “smarting off to cops,” said Winn, who said she slipped behind a
building while her husband got mixed in with protestors.
The police tried to move the protestors back in route, Carla Winn said, but
when they couldn’t, started spraying people.
Jim Winn was brought to the ground at gunpoint, Carla Winn said, while
McIntosh walked around with her hands up in the air and Matthews was sprayed
with pepper spray.
A friend of the Winns, Jonathan Woods, witnessed the riots as well. Woods
said that the police warned the protestors before using chemical deterrent.
“There was a pretty good volume of tear gas and pepper spray used,” Woods
said. “The rubber bullets are what really got people moving.”
| Tom
Walsh, public information officer for the St. Paul Police Department is
obviously a liar.
Who do you call when
the police are the problem? |
Woods said that it was a dynamic situation and the cops had a hard time
getting a handle on things. Of those arrested Monday, four were journalists
accredited with the RNC, said Tom Walsh, public information officer for the St.
Paul Police Department. However, he said, that does not include journalists
affiliated with RNC-accredited groups, including some bloggers and photographers
such as Jim Winn, McIntosh and Matthews.
Such a small group of accredited journalists being arrested means police aren’t
targeting journalism, but criminal behavior, Walsh said.
“There are literally thousands of journalists here, and they’ve managed
to cover their stories (without getting arrested), which would imply there’s
nothing going on there,” Walsh said.
Matthews, McIntosh and Winn could not be reached for comment.
source:
2sep2008
Also see:
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) Condemns Police Intimidation of Journalists
AMY GOODMAN / Democracy Now! 2sep2008