Scenes from St. Paul -- Democracy Now's Amy Goodman arrested

by Glenn Greenwald

Following up on this weekend's extreme raids on various homes, at least 250 people were arrested here today in St. Paul, Minnesota. Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 -- with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas cannisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured. I'll have video of the day's events posted shortly.

Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now -- the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years -- was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and -- after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were -- asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was seemingly a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant." I'll have video of the Press Conference posted shortly.

UPDATE: Video of my exchange at the Press Conference about the arrested journalists is here. Matt Stoller asked a very good question as the last question. Interestingly, all of the standard journalists asked very police-sympathetic questions ("how much property damage was done? were all the criminals part of this same RNC Welcoming Group? How many police officers were injured (answer: none)), while all of the independent journalists -- such as those from the superb, intrepid site, The Uptake -- asked challenging and skeptical (i.e., real) questions.

UPDATE II: Video of Amy Goodman being arrested:

Video here

UPDATE III: Hereare several photographs taken from around St. Paul from this morning --before the march or any of the protests started -- showing howmilitarized the city was. For whatever reasons, the brigades of policeofficers would periodically chant military terms and march around information ("Double Time!"), while helicopters hovered overhead andHumvees drove by frequently:



Clearly,and particularly in the wake of this weekend's thuggish raids, theintent was to create a highly intimidating, militarized andhigh-tension climate.

On a few other notes, Matt Stoller has a few additional photographs of some of the scenes around the city today. A 22-year-old intern from Utne Readerwas caught in the middle of a tear-gas assault and was forced to lie onthe ground with her hands behind her head for 15 minutes. She tookvideo of the scene here. I'll have an interview posted with her shortly. And Democracy Now is now reporting that Amy Goodman has been released, though there is no word on the two Democracy Nowproducers who were also arrested -- Sharif Abdel Kouddous and NicoleSalazar (the former of whom typically books my appearances on that showand the latter of whom had a nose bloodied while being arrested).

Finally (for now), here's a woman being pepper-sprayed at close range by a marching legion of police while standing on the side of the road holding a flower.

UPDATE IV: The Washington Post has a few more details on the arrest of Goodman and the two Democracy Now producers. In addition to them, a photographer for Associated Press was also arrested today while covering the protests (h/t Edward Champion).An AP spokesman said of the arrest: "covering news is constitutionallyprotected, and photographers should not be detained for coveringbreaking news." Democratic strategist and CNN commentator Donna Brazilewas hit by pepper spray on her way into the Xcel Center.

Just as was true for the despicable home raids this weekend, there willbe no shortage of people defending all of this (browse through thecomment section here to see many such people). The fact that there weresome criminals engaged in some destructive acts (who, needless to say,should have been arrested), apparently means that whatever the Policedo both before and afterwards is justifiable (just as the existence ofsome Terrorists justifies whatever the Government does in many people'sminds).

UPDATE V:Here is the video as I walked around St. Paul today -- including at theprotest march. It also includes war opponent and Iraq veteran Jon Stolzarguing with various pro-war counter-protesters. Almost all of thisfootage was taken before the protests began and before any arrests weremade:

Video here

UPDATE VI: From The Nation's John Nichols:

I was with Goodman earlier this afternoon, as she was reporting on the major anti-war demonstration. She and her crew were, as always, interviewing everyone they could in the calm, assured manner that has made the daily Democracy Now! program a widely-watched and well-regarded news programs on radio and cable television stations across the country.

Not only Goodman, but the entire Democracy Now team are professional journalists in the best sense of that term. Those who are simply assuming that they probably got what they deserved -- and who are, more generally, defending the Police here simply because some actual criminals engaged in destructive behavior -- are no different than those who justify anything and everything the Government does because there are some Terrorists out there and they're really violent.


UPDATE VII: The San Francisco Chronicle's Joe Garofoli interviews Amy Goodman right as she was released from jail about what took place (h/t kimocrossman):