Like many of you I am disgusted by the extreme police brutality that we've seen during the Wall Street Occupation. Sadly this is not a new thing in our supposedly free country. Way back in '08, during protests against the Twin Cities RNC, peaceful protesters were roughed up and arrested. In addition, the police arrested award winning journalist Amy Goodman as well as her producer Nicole Salazar whom they gave a bloody nose.
Those cops were very violent, but they picked the wrong ladies to mess with. I'm happy to say the Twin Cities police lost in court today, and they lost big.
The center for constitutional rights took up their case shortly after the attacks and this is what happened today.
New York, NY; Monday, October 3, 2011 – Today, Amy Goodman, the award-winning journalist and host of Democracy Now! news hour, will announce details of a six-figure settlement in a federal lawsuit brought by her and Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar against the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and the U.S. Secret Service, challenging the policies and conduct of law enforcement during the 2008 Republican National Convention held in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which resulted in the unlawful arrests of Democracy Now! journalists as they were trying to report on public protest and political dissent.
Goodman, who was represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; and Albert Goins of Minneapolis, will speak to reporters at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan today at 1 p.m. EDT. Zuccotti Park is located in Lower Manhattan at the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street.
The settlement includes $100,000 in compensation paid by the St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments and the U.S. Secret Service. The settlement also includes an agreement by the St. Paul police department to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the First Amendment rights of the press and public with respect to police operations, including proper procedures for dealing with the press covering demonstrations. The St. Paul Police Department will use its best efforts to get the Minneapolis Police Department to institute a similar program, and will also make the program available to law enforcement personnel statewide.
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This is a great day for free speech and free press, and hopefully we will see future victories in court by Wall Street Occupiers.
11:49 AM PT: Update: wreck list, awesome. If you guys are tired of corporate media bullshit you should check out democracy now http://www.democracynow.org/ They don't take any corporate $ or run ads and they are one of the few media outlets to fairly cover occupy wall street. Here's one of their reports from today