Amy Goodman, one of four journalists arrested at an anti-RNC protest, tells her story

Amy Goodman, the host of the popular radio and television program "Democracy Now!" was at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul on Monday, interviewing members of the Alaska delegation, when her phone rang with alarming news.

“I got a call that two of our producers had been bloodied by the police,” Goodman said. “I did not stop running until I got to where they were.”

The producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, had been reporting on the protest of the convention that was the unfolding several blocks away. Most of the estimated 10,000 people in the march were peaceful. But, according to police, a group of about 200 had fractured off and were breaking windows, slashing tires and harassing delegates.

Police arrested 286 people, according to the Associated Press. Kouddous and Salazar were among them. Matt Rourke, a photographer with the AP, was also arrested.

News gathering is a constitutionally protected activity in the United States. But although Kouddous, Salazar and Rourke were wearing credentials that identified them as members of the press, they were held on riot charges. Salazar suffered a bloody nose after being dragged, face-down on the ground, according a statement released by "Democracy Now!"

When Goodman arrived at the scene 20 minutes later, she asked the riot police if she could see her producers, who were being held in police vehicles. “I just said, 'I want to talk to a commander,' ” said Goodman, who had her own press badge slung around her neck. “They didn’t skip a beat; they just started arresting me.”

The scene was captured on video -- a clip that was one the most-viewed videos on YouTube.com on Tuesday. In it, Goodman is seen pleading with the police while her arms are twisted behind her back and into plastic handcuffs.

All four journalists were released hours after being arrested. Goodman was officially charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer.

"Democracy Now!" plans to continue its coverage of the protests despite the police presence, which Goodman described as "overly aggressive."

"I was very angry. This was a violation of my rights," Goodman said. "But
it’s so much bigger than us. When the press is shut down, it's closing the eyes and ears of a critical watchdog in a democratic society."

-- Kate Linthicum

Photo of Amy Goodman by Michael Keel via Democracy Now!

Comments

[John]

I cannot believe this is happening in our once great nation. It saddens me to see such an erosion of civil rights.

[Michael C]

@Jesse Tomblin: Please get your facts straight before you post. Democracy Now! is NOT a protest group. They are, per wikipedia, "a syndicated program of news, analysis, and opinion aired by more than 700 radio and television, satellite and cable TV networks in North America." The fact that you would label a widespread and respected news program "terrorists" is appalling.

@Russ Miller: The individuals in question (Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar) were doing nothing to disrupt proceedings, they were merely doing their constitutionally-protected job: reporting. The wrongful arrests are to blame for the disruption. The responsibility for this lies with the police, not democrats or republicans, but the fact that many republicans on this board are approving of these arrests is disgusting. If you believe these arrests are justified and that the press should not be allowed to lawfully report without being arrested, you have no right to call yourself an American.

[Me]

If it were, in fact, "her plan all along" it's par for the course, as she's just reacting to another preplanned operation? Police seem to go into these things with the primary goal to clear people out and the disruptive ones just give them an excuse to do so. People have a right to protest and the police response is totally inappropriate and uncalled for. If there were acts of violence, isolate and arrest those responsible. Should be simple and the police should have adequate training in doing so it's ridiculous to justify anything more.

[Me]

Oh and I did want to address this statement by John:

"The mistake the police made in arresting her colleagues was recognized and corrected later"

So that's enough? Too easy..."woops, sorry, won't happen again". It's time for change and thankfully there are people trying to make that happen before we're stripped of all rights.

Things may be recognized, but they're far from being "corrected".

[R.W.]

Remember the times, remember the song, 4 dead in OHIO!
The far right are WRONG! It seems like what we are seeing is everything we got away from when this country was established.

For the PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE!

[Tom]

"Why can't the liberals allow the Republican Convention to proceed without t heir disruptions?"

Because the right of the people to peaceably assemble is guaranteed by the 1st Amend. Sure, there were some demonstrators who got violent & they SHOULD be arrested but arresting Goodman & her producers for trying to cover the event? That's fascist, reminds me of the RNC in Manhattan 4 yrs ago when 100s of peaceful protestors were arrested, detained in inhumane conditions (no food, water or bathroom facilities) for 3 days & were released w/an falsely sincere apology from the NYPD Comissioner AFTER the conv was over.

Fascism, plain & simple. Those cops should be charged with misconduct.

[Beth Deuble]

Democracies foster a never-ending struggle between two rights: The government's obligation to protect national security; and the people's right to know, based on journalists' ability to access information. Governments sometimes need to limit access to information considered too sensitive for general distribution. But journalists in democracies are fully justified in pursuing such information.

Amy is one such journalist.

A free press is fundamental to an open democracy, in particular, our American democracy.
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/principles/freepress.htm

[David Bakker]

Folks, I'd like to welcome you all to what is but a glimpse of things to come...Welcome, to the "New World Order." Make no mistake slowly and systematically it's happening!

[Vance Fishburne]

The capacity for the far right's self-deception is absolutely astonishing. The posts here show these rightists at the top of their game - repeating lies to contradict real evidence in the hope that their lies can override reality. It works all too often.

A quote from a right winger: "clearly ordering her to go to the side walk three times before she tried to push past the officer and was then arrested" - Huh? None of the above happen in the video. What video was this guy watching? Ordered her three times? What? Pushing past the officer? Huh? The officer dragged her across the line himself!

Wow - the people that used to be against government interference in the llves of citizens suddenly want the govt to stop citizens from protesting and the rest of the citizens from knowing about the citizens who protest. A little fear of the unexpected, the unplanned, the unscripted, is enough to get these guys to give up all the freedoms that our forebears died defending. Do we really want to give these guys four more years to dismantle the bill of rights?

[Anne]

It is ILLEGAL TO ARREST THE PRESS!!! RNC doing it's best, raping and silencing DEMOCRACY. I'm an independent voter that voted for Bush twice!! YOU KNOW IT'S FUNNY THERE WERE PROTESTERS AT THE DNC CONVENTION, YET YOU DIDN'T SEE THEM DOING THIS TO THEM!!!!

[Larz]

You can't ignore and violate people's rights just because there are some violent protesters. Go after the violent one's.

I found the videos of police aggression to be disturbing and the most scary stuff of the sort I have seen in my lifetime. What I am seeing here appears to be consistent with loss of freedom and a lack of free press I have been seeing in this country and it is clearly wrong, undemocratic, repressive, and if the trend continues everyone will lose, even the people who ignorantly think this is all in their best interests as they mistakenly and naively belive the many other lies.

This is free speech at it's most basic. Free speech is not supposed to be about whether a tabacco company can run an ad on a billboard, that is a mockery of what free speech is about. When there is an illegal war and corrupt government, that is when free speech matters. Free speech is about individual citizens right to peacefully protest and speak out.

[Larz]

You can't ignore and violate people's rights just because there are some violent protesters. Go after the violent one's.

I found the videos of police aggression to be disturbing and the most scary stuff of the sort I have seen in my lifetime. What I am seeing here appears to be consistent with loss of freedom and a lack of free press I have been seeing in this country and it is clearly wrong, undemocratic, repressive, and if the trend continues everyone will lose, even the people who ignorantly think this is all in their best interests as they mistakenly and naively belive the many other lies.

This is free speech at it's most basic. Free speech is not supposed to be about whether a tabacco company can run an ad on a billboard, that is a mockery of what free speech is about. When there is an illegal war and corrupt government, that is when free speech matters. Free speech is about individual citizens right to peacefully protest and speak out.

[dubl-A]

this is outrageous.....everyone thinking that the liberals want the media to be TRANSPARENT... "BULL-PUCKEY"

In January, 2008 UCSF ( #1 pharmacy school in usa) releases study showing gays 13x's more likely to get MRSA antibiotic resistant STAFF infections... . and the media pounces on UCSF stating that it is unfair to single out the homosexuals......
January 2008

Feb 08
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2008/01/tx-paper-no-dallas-data-backs-ucsf-gays.html
July 08
http://www.ucsfhealth.org/adult/health_library/news/2008/07/119829.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/us/20castro.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

REEKS OF CENSORSHIP!!! if you want freedom of speech then be prepared when the light is shining on you, and don't try to stop the spread of the truth...

[GregB 303]

I think everybody has confused a couple of issues.

Freedom of press is protected under the constitution. Exercising that right would involve covering stories, taking pictures, doing interviews, writing articles, etc. However, the constitution does not protect the right of a journalist (even with press credentials) to repeatedly disregard police instructions during a riot situation or shove her way through a police line. She was not acting as a neutral reporter exercising her constitutional rights. She worsened the situation by acting irrationally and should accept responsibility for the consequences that stemmed from her own actions.

I appreciate her concern for her producers, but am amused at the previous analogy to "Amy saving her children." Luckily, we live in America where (1) the government respects freedom of press and allows people to say whatever they want; and (2) these two producers that were wrongfully arrested were promptly let free.

[Larz]

This is like the hypocrisy of the Olympics. How can we criticize Russia for invading Georgia and ignore what China has done and is doing in Tibet and many of it's own people ?

The real reason why Russia invaded Georgia is because there is a struggle over the oil pipeline that US oil companies are trying to build in the region. Don't think that the political powers are actually concerned with the freedom of the people of Georgia. Nor are they concerned with your freedom either, but rather would like to find excuses to take away your freedom.

This is on the road to how China treats it's people what we see here. If you can't see that, I'm afraid you are suffering from a form of blindness.

[Michael B]

I guess the midwest is not condusive to friendly conventions. Does 1968 Chicago ring a bell? I saw the video and it looks like the cops were not being very cooperative at all. Unloike the 1968 actions this was caught on tape.

[KC]

Wow. There sure are a lot of pro-police beatings posters here. It's one thing to be indifferent; to actively champion police tactics like this – to say, for example, that innocent people "deserve" to be arrested for trying to report news – is something else altogether. It kind of boggles the mind. You're willing to unquestioningly promote the status quo? Wow. How brave you little men are.

Of course, if posting here makes you feel big, I suppose that's preferable to what you did before the internet (beating your girlfriends or whatever), but it's still unpleasant to be reminded that the world is full of wastes like you.

[Dan]

Vance Fishburne:
The officer says "Maam, sidewalk now" and takes her by the shoulder and leads her back. She turns around and begins to walk past him saying, "Sir I want to talk to..." That is when she is arrested.

I am definitely not a "Right Winger". I don't know why you make this a "us vs. them" conversation.
I consider myself mostly a libertarian except for my environmantal views, and I strongly support all civil rights.

What I don't support is violence or destructive protests.
Ms. Goodman entered a volatile situation where police were on high alert following violent, destructive acts.
In an effort to prevent further violence, they drew a line in the sand and said, "Don't cross this line". She crossed it. They had to stand their ground.

People make it sound like they opened fire on the crowd.
She was not beaten, her video camera wasn't taken, she wasn't "silenced". If this was really the fascist police state that you make it out to be, no one would have ever seen that video on YouTube.
Try protesting in China. You won't be seen for years.
And no one would say, "Sidewalk, Maam."
Do you think the police should have just gone home?

[shekib]

i had no idea rural america was educated enough to read a "leftest" newspaper. ...hey you know what....Amy Goodman must be a terrorist...why dont you republicans call her a terrorist and lock her up and rally your other moronic, racist republicans to rally behind you and elect another BUSH....you guys deserve the leaders you vote for and the kinda policy you get.. or dont.

[DBX]

To rural american -- how is AP part of a leftist cabal when its Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier -- who directs all their national political coverage -- is an evangelical Christian conservative who almost joined the McCain campaign, and when most of their current crew of journos are former College Republicans? How is MSNBC a part of a leftist cabal when Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan are prominent members of their team? How about CNN, who have Glenn Beck, Gloria Borger and several other conservatives as well as the amazing talent to avoid picking any bona-fide liberal for their talking head shows? Or ABC, whose leading producer Chris Vlasto is a staunch Republican and former colleague of Kenneth Starr and lets it show in their news coverage, and whose talking heads gushed over Sarah Palin's qualities just this Sunday? CBS? Not since Dan Rather left. Reuters? What political coverage do they do at all -- that foreign-owned outfit is fixated on business coverage.

[left-right-left]

i was arrested at an anti-war protest before. as a brown male i know what we are up against when we choose to stand up. i don't like cops, their institutions, etc., and yet i know enough about what they do and stand for that i wouldn't walk up to them in the way amy did. press or not - this is the u.s.a, and cops aren't to be messed with. it's a sad reality. amy, you've been forewarned. does mark coogan ring a bell?

[Eric]

Why are conservatives such idiots? The "leftist media conspiracy" is just a front by conservatives to immediately dismiss anything published against their cause. All major media outlets actually publish more stories aligned with conservative policy than liberal policy.

Noam Chomsky anyone?

[Mike]

She should be dissapeared...like they used to do in South America. Then she would learn who runs the country.

[True Patriot]

Funny how Republicans wave their flags and try to represent themselves as true patriots. The only way they can do this with a straight face is by erasing the history of this great country. As a former history teacher, I refuse to let this happen.

We should remember that our country was begun by Revolutionaries, who organized dissent groups (Sons and Daughters of Liberty), who held protest rallies, who even destroyed property in order for their voices to be heard (Boston Tea Party). We should remember that the British soldiers responsible for the Boston Massacre also argued that they were merely trying to keep control over an unruly mob.

Clearly, had the Republican been alive in 1776, they would have not been Patriots. They would have been Loyalists and would have happily locked up all of our Founding Fathers.

Our Declaration of Independence is just as relevant now as it was then:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these [United States]; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present [Republican rule] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

The abuses and usurpations of the Bush administration are clear, and too many to detail here.
The time has come again for the people to stand up and demand change. It is our duty.

[DECLINE TO STATE]

I think i saw the same video as everyone else. The cop is struggling just to push her away and save himself the trouble of arresting her, even twisting her arm and turning her body in the opposite direction. Gosh Amy, I've heard you countless times out of KPFA. You excoriate public officials and point out flaws in government bureaucracy. But today, the fault lies with you. No sympathy here. And Michael C. i encourage you not to site Wikipedia in describing Democracy Now. Please listen to them. You'll see they are truly way left-of-center.