we're here at the republican national convention is saint paul minnesota they
sell sell and now joining us uh... legendary hosted over democracy now
haiti goodman
i was like and i'll see you know it's heartening
buried at except for that
that what is that he would have well when you get arrested they were after
sir and your arm
are open date that it was hospitalize only well one of our producers is in the
hospital right now this is from the police here at the
saint paul place so in a farewell to be so is this convention was your rest
um... so let's start at the beginning okay
yesterday their is uh... there are protest is about ten thousand and all
probly mariya and uh... what were your producers doing
well overwhelmingly peaceful protest the march from the area of the backdrop was
the donor of the capitol here in saint paul
and we cover that all morning and then and they went back to work at our
offices and they had a commotion outside in the late afternoon around three four
and it's so sure is about to be cynical salazar went out of the video camera
happening right here offices such accidents event then they saw
uh... the riot police police on horseback and they sell protesters said
they were covering masson
the police pushed the protesters into this parking lot they were covering
that's the latest video ing it
and suddenly the police move any kind of cancer motion from all directions
and they were saying move back which is exactly when a crow is doing but it was
a parking lots issue is trapped by the carson city
was shouting as atm police removing any riot police
oppressed rational inger press credentialing all where our press
credentials showing the press credentials and of course she had her
camera
uh... stayed push into the ground that makes a difference in the ground face in
the ground so she's on her stomach they've got to do a book or any she
couldn't determine between his shoulder blades and another cop is telling her
leg but she's got a keeper face in the ground so plays her
base while
uh... says she's being arrested their handcuffing her these hard plastic
handcuffs that just dig into your rest
sharif was right next ari saying
guys dot com down she is a reporter you can see she's a reporter other thrown up
against the wall they bloody his arm
uh... depression down they kick him in the chest twice in the back and he's got
um... the wounds around him
they uh...
really tightly handcuff him
i am interviewing the alaska delegates on the floor of it's the first night of
the republican convention and i'm spending the night i'd think i'm gonna
spend the evening interviewing people there i go to the minnesota delegation i
get a call from a producer
and they say sharif in a collar down they've been arrested their bloodied and
then you know what they were talking about i said what are you talking about
and from the convention center even stock accomplished asic help me
yet can i get a car and will drive to the site i gotta get my reporters out of
there that must be some mistake
uh... anyway ac no one picked me up so i race there with my videographer who is
with me on the floor of the convention
and i see this line of riot police state completely contained the place
uh... the parking lot i'd go up to that police
and i pass to speak to their commanding officer i said you've got to have our
producers in there they need to be released at night
from convention credentials are very clearances my democracy now
uh... tidy i'd just come from the florida has wearing a jacket and all
these in plain sight hanging them around my neck
it's exactly who i was
uh... and they just grabbed me they've pulled me through the line
they forcibly pull back my arms put on these very tight reji plastic handcuffs
they forced me to a wall push me down
i said i demand to see my two reporters i must see nicole injuries i see sharif
across the way handcuffed with his i_d_ in plain sight i cannot find a pro-life
here she has a bloody nose they say it's a
perhaps they say
i understand just what is he says
so what
he said i've been nice ten mile i face it
well it's terrible actually but that's not because of us
this is because if you guys i'd need to see my reporter and need to know that
she's okay
and she needs to be free
well allowed to do our work here and we must do it and feathered
on they that i said to the lucky items so clearly a reporter
i'll show them the top security clearance you know bath
journalism uh... idea that we did that gets assigned to the floor
and then secret service comes over and the rip it off me
although i said hey wait a second guys i need a receipt that you took that of
course they didn't give it to me well you know that available leon it's a
little bit of photographing they take my clothes and ever got the back
uh... and then clone else my jacket that i was wearing on the floor of the
convention i said guys do you have to give me my clothes back they wouldn't
bizad italy to vizag aba well yeah i uh... you so i'm going to happen
soap then that we go to jail mandate medicine that uh...
in the wagon where nicole was she's wearing her press idea very clearly on
her
and i keep demanding to be freed were takin well we're there
people charted misdemeanors are as you're putting the police garage in
their these cages there
so i am in there and still demanding to be released saint paul cox just keeps
yelling you shut up you shut up uh... and after a few hours i'll smedley was
charged in release nikala sharif where uh... are facing felony riot charges
believe it or not pc riot which is probable cause right so they go to jail
uh... that you know and then ultimately they were released last night about we
need these
charges dropped against all of us have demanded the police chief this morning
and that he said what will be investigating amy whether the charges
against you
against me it's obstruction of justice against them it's ryan they haven't been
charged they were jailed they have been charged in a faces charges me i was
charged newt
so why what is the recently the police have received your email the back away
we're clearing this area
they weren't playing the area because they had its food only contains this was
afterwards you know i i was running for the convention center so i was a little
johnny come lately hearing so they had the place contains
so you have a lawyer or a ways away
i actually think that the same reason that our producers and the a_p_
photographer were arrested and that is because there's a kind of crackdown in
this country
but they still things one is it's just a general sweep that's going on
he sought the republican convention in two thousand four in new york it was
astounding eighteen hundred people arrested ultimately hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of churches which has dropped after
but would allow the police to do was told them four days
until president bush spoke and i think they're willing to pay the price they
paid out
i believe hundreds of millions of dollars afterwards those people who were
arrested on yes at least tens of millions tumblr you give me a bit
powerless go get out now and that is not what i want to do i want to do my work
eleven days feel the price is worth it somehow they felt that there are no
about here
it was minneapolis police that we were downtown saint paul mn and the secret
service and then the central police entered into a detailed but
um... it's unacceptable what did you think that it was directed at the press
or do you think that it was just it's a kind of sweet that's going and i have to
say on
saturday when we flew n we got a text or at the airport that the police are
raiding a house of i witnessed video
held my nose in new york while in studio is particularly the police because they
were the ones that documented gathered all the video and two thousand four of
all of us
police activity around the city
and this is what led to hundreds of churches being trapped against people
because the police would say one thing and then the video would be produced
and you see it was exactly as the person said some things they were just
bystanders so they came to document here
there was they suffered a preamp degrade certified minority report tom cruise the
three crime grown the police moved and they have a warrant for the house next
door that doesn't matter
they come in they got they are
fifteens automatic weapons they've got a pistol they're moving into the living
room everyone's huddled in the living room
um... democracy now producer elizabeth press was there with your camera very
scary because she's afraid they'd perceive it to be done somehow say she
printed about her head
in movies people at the back yard they handcuffed and held on for hours now
also that they didn't charge sentence or get hit with a absolutely couldn't
they disrupt their work
and i think that what we're seeing is general sweeps and reporters get caught
up in this week for johnny be good minute demo
tuna any you know some people on the other side or you know
interested uh... citizens with saving but you know what
uh... d
police to have to keep order and there were some people who were smashing
windows in
lighting garbage cans on fire so is not the case for all of you guys were
dangerous but they had that controlled area near the canteen they had to make
sure that you can get out of control so their little over-zealous but we
understand uh... why they were overzealous do you not buy into that and
i think that you're right that
there has to be at people have to deal with criminals and the cops have to do
that
but there are overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations that they're moving in on
that they are gigs activating provoking crowds
um... thank that was interesting and my uh...
more enter is how they are called a bar in fact at the charge against me and
said and starting any peace officer right that's a bit more about that at
least for peace office and i saw and that sort of a should be
is to be peace officers you can resolve these things
peacefully overall
such a move and when you've got you know that
let's face it they got tens of millions of dollars in federal money
and that once you get the gear you get a use the gear if they've got teaser guns
they've got
inside the atom bomb in nineteen forty five they develop obama get use it
before the end end they were developing it for the germans but well they drop it
on the japanese hooked up
well you know three amy uh... ice on the table you getting arrested and the guy
did not later peace officer
and it's you know we look at the tape it's on youtube now by the way mister
and probably doesn't miss a ready
it's of course a little comical because you seem like the most
harm person on the planet
anne geddes has the receipt it seems quizzical in fact
here's the wisest bother interests it seems there is more pain interested or
not
which was only about a minute long
before the tape it started
had he told you to tell you know i had just come what you saw is it because i
went so fast
as for the convention center remember i was called i was doing interviews on the
floor where we are right now
uh... so i had to run their it was already all over i was terrified they
were to be taken away
what you saw was the into higher
so you have a few minor
right up i was completely out of breath i deadline was right there and that was
the
first into what you saw is the first interaction i have
so you say they were my produce guys here you're under arrest that's that
that was it they've to propose a date for the police line guidance out this is
not like you know there was some a lot of stuff before you just get that last
second from right you know obstruction of justice by the way is the most
classic
uh... way of addressing folks for no reason
uh... the same exactly i mean hoboken many many years ago not political at all
this is the
friend of mine and i had gone into
you know a little bit of a young wrestled guys eternity undercut cover
officers
and they're basically are asking us and we had no idea for your concert on there
on the cover
they want rollback
and then one of my friends said hey you two stresses his rage right because the
semi trucks other guys there were a shit
and of course of great offensive and that sort of her dressy oppress older is
so he was arrested they opened the door on the thrown in there
penciled walls okay let me see a badge to know that your cops
the city of strategy of sanity
the fact that the support
so i know your story uh... probably better than it anybody else
are what we do next with that i had its lunch for my record uh... four this is
very serious question are they going to draft the churches and
but i think it's much more serious than all of this i mean it's about the role
of prasanna democratic society
there's a reason why our profession is the only one explicitly protected by the
u_s_ constitution 'cause we're supposed to be the check-and-balance on power yes
we are supposed to be there
to observe to watch to witness uh... i went to the police chiefs news
conference this morning herrington i asked him about that
and i said how are we suppose to operate in this kind of climate and he said you
can get yourselves and the police department you have a new model of
reporters and that in the front lines of troops in iraq and afghanistan now in
order to be protected nor did not have your camera broken or u_s_-based bloody
you have to be embedded in the place barnett is not independent journalism
win
you force the press to close their eyes to close their here is is he doing you
arrest them
that is aids
threat to a democratic society off by a car i really wholeheartedly agree with
you there any but i i do want to ask you though
in a situation where they're clearing that area with your producers eric
originally
eating the shoot down with them and given the declaring the area and they
don't want anybody budget as they restrict or they were afraid of them no
and they're pushing back and they're saying the the place in the same move
back move back left then moved on
myslef alone fact when you're trapped by cars behind your she said where do you
want me to go
to save get over their soap she could not she was trapped that's not see how
do we invented fixes amends because if this happens also seemed in crowds
happen over and over and stuff
sometimes political sometimes is not as discussed
when they defeated in their head when it gets to look down interesting for me of
laws in this country and you can't just move into an area
and just sweep everyone although highly trained the kasich a containment area
forcefully immediately in oklahoma is somebody at the same time respect
people's live outside of class it doesn't help
when in the month in the weeks leading up to it you talk about these
anarchist this violent element these outsiders who are coming
to hurt the delegates then you understand the press plays a role player
to win the one hand and saying you can't shut down the press
but was named rev up that
pages we came into town on saturday i started watching some of the coverage
and it was frightening
headline in nothing else
i would start say we'll take your kids off the streets assists writing this
criminal element is coming into town who understands and their jess criminal says
as the police chief enforcer set this morning at his news conference we
arrested like list of three hundred criminals well maybe that was true
except that i knew that me and my producers were among that number and
since we know we're not
what about all the other people have always believed that their only eighteen
and a kiss in the whole country
the capital to be really exist
plays a budget group we did see you think it's a smarter idea
images looking up on
anaemia painted into the national some of the lot you know they're coming
kidnap your kids
and it's a community is finished the mayor's democrat isn't
the that we were arrested by minneapolis police interestingly enough you know
there are all levels of the party that are working here right now also the
national guard
and that yes it's true in saint paul but this is minneapolis police at and it was
secret service right i read in the paper today in the local paper that he
considered a actions to roll
substitute reflect athletes that since they don't really have is that the
senate where the thank-you note on the stems insanity and chase between a free
press in the government he which is the free press
miss very serious you see it in a row he stayed in afghanistan we see it all over
the world
eliminate needed media where people can express themselves that exposes
uh... what is going on doesn't just accept the government or the corporate
line
i mean that so we also have to look at these conventions the democrats last
week in denver and we have democracy in our national debt or extended to two
hours every day and here
uh... in
saint paul at the republican convention that's a story in the streets here that
people don't get to see
a with the democrats it was over a thousand events a
many of them
hundreds of them corporate sponsored parties
and this is the socialization process for young legislators all over this
country thousands come both republican and democratic convention
and they are
uh... affected by these largest corporations in the world
now who has that kind of access to politicians around the country we gotta
get into all of these parties in denver it was the mile-high station where
eighteen t
first celebrated the democrats
well given the retroactive immunity remember brattleboro flip-flopped on and
he said he would filibuster if any dot only didn't filibuster but he supported
the wreck check to me before we know it
the delegates are appearing on his blackberry
ads with the a_t_ and t_ logo on them
and one of the first parties
is the big a_t_ and t_ party wealth
it till i get it on america i think fresh ego and their because these are
elected officials
many of them not all of them and we should follow them and find a question
for a meal
insofar along those lines the eight here's a_b_c_ reporter a photographer
who see pictures of the corporate money saying with a power outage passes gang
right and they beat him up in a choke them in their president for taking for
to his job he couldn't have been more doing his job
in order for tag
proudly displays and is very important so the final question is given that this
is the status of where we stand america today is there hope that people for
example of a while morty elected
that we would have a healthier respect for the
press are going forward
always used to say well you know otherwise about helping me to and
it and if he does have another week turnaround
well you know i think it's all about movements it's not a doubt demand where
the women i think we c politician shifting and changing you never know you
know what's and i'll take one step president
but what we do see is that the respond to
when the pressure is most powerful on the side of the corporations in the
monied interests then they respond to that but there is an answer it is not
hopeless
it's people organizing for the good of humanity whether it's global warming
weather ascending war and when enough pressures brought
all the politicians want your vote they'll respond to that too