Recently in RNC Category
VP Debate Live-Blog
(Electric Elliot's live-blog after the fold. DON'T FORGET TO REFRESH FOR UPDATES.)
...more.Live-Blogging the VP Debate
This Thursday, for the first time in the history of the universe, The Melon's Electric Elliot will be live-blogging the Vice-Presidential debate. Who's winning? Who's losing? Can one really win a lose a debate with this magnitude of pandering? One thing is for sure, with Electric Elliot at the helm (yes, I'm speaking in 3rd person) everyone will be burned.
Join me at 6pm PST and for an hour and a half of pure verbal murder on these Veep hopefuls. Who came up with Veep anyway? Isn't VP abbreviated enough? F*cking media idiots!
The Right to Assemble: ACLU on RNC "Federalization"
Civil libertarian Chuck Samuelson, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, talks about the history and causes of Republican and Democrat convention "federalization". The UPTAKE is an independent media laboratory, and one of the places where myself and others had used for creating our own content.
Click "more" to see the video.
...more.Once Behind Bars, Now Behind the Lens, With His Freedom At Risk
New York Post photographer Jason Nicholas snapped a photo of me just before his own camera was blown apart by a police riot weapon and then was himself arrested and taken into police custody on Labor Day 2008.
What Freedom of the Press?
Without the support of possibly hundreds of community members and others from Minneapolis, St. Paul, Tacoma (and elsewhere) behind me, the police would not have paid any attention to the "journalists" in their jail cells this week. Society and especially the authoritarian organizations such as the police forces do not recognize non-corporate reporters with independent agendas as worthwhile members of an already established media elite. Therefore, there is no "freedom of the press" for us.
Without a loud voice from our viewers, supporters, and our friends, the message would not have gotten through to the authorities in St. Paul. Thank you.
...more.Protester Beaten and Gagged
I would like to tell a story about someone I met in the Ramsey County Jail this week, whom later I found out was tortured by police in the Ramsey County Jail.
Myself, along with eleven others detained at the RNC were sitting in a holding cell, waiting to be dressed in orange jumpsuits and sent to the 'general population' of inmates. The police outside were well prepared to control crowds with the weapons they were afforded by the US Federal Government. But inside the jail the resources were fairly low. We had to share blankets, we were not allowed showers, and many of us had to wait until the pepperspray and effects of other weapons wore off (or we were released from the jail) before feeling better.
...more.Melonite Joe La Sac arrested in St. Paul
Word on the street is our friend Joe was arrested once again filming protests at the RNC. Take a look:
Obviously it's preposterous for journalists to be arrested in these situations, but it would seem that the group of protesters who were knocking over newspaper dispensers, littering the streets and pushing cops had some force coming. This footage brings about an interesting discussion though.
Is it correct to use the sort of force depicted in this video to get your point across? This group likely felt disenfranchised and frustrated with how they were being treated, but it is effective to act out in this manner? What do you think?
Furthermore, what can citizens do to prevent journalists from being arrested like those that have been at the DNC and RNC? If there isn't freedom of press, it sounds a lot like chaos.
Good luck, Joe.
RNC Dispatch #2
Second day at the RNC, even though the convention does not started until tomorrow.
...more.Preemption as a Tactic, and Hurricane Gustav
As the police continue to raid and preemptively interfere with activists and the media who document police misconduct in St. Paul, the activists have started preemptively protesting.
The GOP press releases say that tomorrow's RNC events will be largely delayed. Due to the protests? Well, the protests were due to begin tomorrow morning as delegates arrive at the Xcel Center. But seeing as the SPPD have begun preemptively raiding houses and spaces and detained various people on the street, protests have already begun today.
...more.