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Now, you know I am no anti-LEO troll as I have posted plenty of supportive remarks and I am an avid volunteer with my local PD. I am putting this out with a sincere interest in discussion, not in flaming anyone.
St. Paul Mayor and Media Mum on Journalism Crackdown
TIMOTHY KARR
In St. Paul this week, a new generation of media makers is under assault by the city's mayor and law enforcement officers.
These local officials think freedom of the press is a privilege that extends only to their closest allies in mainstream media.
For the rest of us, it's a crime.
While reports of brutal police arrests and home invasions are still coming in, by Tuesday night the picture became clear. Dozens of journalists, photographers, bloggers and videomakers had been arrested in an orchestrated round up of independents covering the Republican National Convention.
Targeting the New Press
The list of those detained ranges from the well-known (Democracy Now's Amy Goodman) and well-established (Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke) -- to the bootstrapping bloggers and video makers who are covering local protests for TheUptake.org, Twin Cities Indymedia, I-Witness and other outlets.
Police -- with firearms drawn -- raided a meeting of the video journalists and arrested independent media, bloggers and videomakers. Journalists covering protests have been pointed out by authorities, blasted with tear gas and pepper spray, and brutalized while in custody.
Democracy Now's Goodman reports that a U.S. Secret Service agent ripped her press credentials from her neck the moment she identified herself to him as a member of the media. Her producers emerged yesterday from their jail cells bloodied and scarred, reporting unusually harsh treatment at the hands of local and federal authorities.
***
More here.
I'll hold my own opinion for the moment.
St. Paul Mayor and Media Mum on Journalism Crackdown
TIMOTHY KARR
In St. Paul this week, a new generation of media makers is under assault by the city's mayor and law enforcement officers.
These local officials think freedom of the press is a privilege that extends only to their closest allies in mainstream media.
For the rest of us, it's a crime.
While reports of brutal police arrests and home invasions are still coming in, by Tuesday night the picture became clear. Dozens of journalists, photographers, bloggers and videomakers had been arrested in an orchestrated round up of independents covering the Republican National Convention.
Targeting the New Press
The list of those detained ranges from the well-known (Democracy Now's Amy Goodman) and well-established (Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke) -- to the bootstrapping bloggers and video makers who are covering local protests for TheUptake.org, Twin Cities Indymedia, I-Witness and other outlets.
Police -- with firearms drawn -- raided a meeting of the video journalists and arrested independent media, bloggers and videomakers. Journalists covering protests have been pointed out by authorities, blasted with tear gas and pepper spray, and brutalized while in custody.
Democracy Now's Goodman reports that a U.S. Secret Service agent ripped her press credentials from her neck the moment she identified herself to him as a member of the media. Her producers emerged yesterday from their jail cells bloodied and scarred, reporting unusually harsh treatment at the hands of local and federal authorities.
***
More here.
I'll hold my own opinion for the moment.
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