Amy,
First of all, I’d like to sincerely thank you for your hard work.  Sadly, I have to admit that even though I am at the age when people are usually very idealistic about life, I am very skeptical towards the notion of democracy and free press in this country. Even at our universities, students are silenced and prevented from speaking out. I had experienced this when starting a GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) at a private university in the Chicago land area that prides itself in embracing diversity. Also, most of the editors of the official on-campus newspaper were recently forced to resign for reporting on matters that the university prefers not to talk about.
I am writing this because it provides for such a good analogy to the recent events. We can have our school newspaper for as long as the journalists don’t snoop around and report only positive news about the university. The students who cross this line are forced to resign and serve as a warning to the newcomers. We can have a GSA on campus for as long as we do not host events outside, attract attention or demand rights in which case the status of the organization would be terminated. All of this is done to paint a beautiful, bright picture of a modern university embracing justice, diversity and association that will open the hearts and wallets of potential students and donors.
Another aspect of this situation is that journalism students who follow the rules and don’t risk their internships by reporting the truth are rewarded, while the Amy Goodmans of our university are taught to keep quiet. If this is how reporters are trained since the very beginning of their career, are you really surprised so many of them stayed inside of the RNC building?

The roots of corperate facisiam,police brutality and coruption lie not within any recent cultural development,nor social change but rather within the very moral fabric of America and sadly many Americans.Untill Americans place the blame for the emerging police state where it belongs’‘on ourselves and our core values’‘we will continue upon our path to corperate tyranny.

Our love of money,power and raw ability has led us to the alter of corperate rule.Remember the plight of the American Indian ? Remember the doctrine of Manifest destiny?

The first Americans believed in the organic truth that the earth was to be shared by all its inhabitants,not treated as a commodity to be bought ,sold,plundered for monetary profit.In our heart of hearts we know this to be true but yet we treat the land as if we were the creators,the earth the private domain of only those with legal title to land,as if those titles somehow were products of nature,grown perhaps from the trees.When the earth can be owned by a few’‘as it is now’‘it stands to reason that the many who inhabit the earth will be at the mercy of the few.
True freedom and equality can only be realized when we as Americans understand that we do not own,’‘nor should we own’‘the earth,nature or the products of nature.

Bob Evans, the anchorman of the local Fox Network television affiliate, KSTU, clearly sided with the police in St. Paul as he narrated the video that rolled of protesters being abused.

I and others have had our ability to add perspective to news accounts by commenting on news stories have had our accounts disabled at the web site of the Salt Lake Tribune, owned by MediaNews (CEO William Dean Singleton has contributed significantly to candidates from both incumbent political parties), when we question the prevailing orthodoxy.

The local PBS and NPR affiliates will not interview candidates unless they are Republican or Democratic.

The truth is out there, but you must seek it ... and wade through the smoke generated by those actively trying to hide the truth from you.

then don’t buy anything you don’t absolutely need and when you do try to buy from non-corporate sources. for instance, banking, belong to a credit union. food, buy from local non-corporate producers, clothing - go to a thrift shop, naturally some things can’t be avoided but minimizing the use of corporate brands will hit them where they feel it.

Amy,

I’m thoroughly disgusted with the Republican and Democratic Parties.  The cheap prostitution of Party bosses to the Business Rountable bear no resemblance to the democratic process.

Personally I call for the criminal prosecution and public hanging by the neck of George W Bush and Dick Cheney for their complicit involvement in the 9/11 attacks and subsequent illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

9/11 need not have happened and many a victim of 9/11 would like justice served by holding the usurpers of the 2000 election process be held accountable. 

Sincerely,

J Snow

If enough people sue and can ring up a few hundred million in damages it will help.
  The fact that the Corporate media ignored this attack on our Freedom and how the Constitution is just as Bush and the republican’s define it..“just a goddamn piece of paper’.
  Amy Goodman is an American Hero,patriot and all around excellent person.  So are all those who make Democracy Now possible and anyone who was in St Paul to protest.

This was a well written article and I completely agree with Mayponce’s comment.  I must say that I wrote the Mayor’s office in Denver about the police abuse of the Code Pink lady and received a personal response immediately from their communications director promising that there was an internal investigation underway and if malfeasance were to be found that it would be dealt with appropriately.

When I contacted the St. Paul Mayor’s office concerning gross misconduct, I received nothing.  I observed press conferences from St. Paul’s Mayor, Police and Ramsey County Sheriff and found them to claim ignorance of journalist arrests and completely self-righteous and deflective in their actions.  It reminded me of Soviet Union style propaganda.  Even the Chinese were better during the Tienanmen Square protests.  BTW, after a week of protests in Beijing without police crackdown, if the brave guy who stood in front of the tanks when they did finally move were to have done this in St. Paul, he would have been gassed and beat immediately.  I’m not saying that China is anyway, shape or form better, but think about the hypocrisy here.

I observed protests in Washington, D.C. and with over 100,000 people demonstrating between the White House and the Capitol with a small group of Capitol Police and they react nothing like the police in St. Paul.  They are friendly and only take action when there is a violent person or direct conflict.

I guess that is what happens when you give them 50 million dollars for security and they are not trained nor do they understand basic rights in America.  It is like giving whiskey and car keys to junior high students.

I grew up, went to high school and college in Minnesota and I am more than embarrassed, I am ashamed.  The Cities (Mpls/St. Paul) let themselves become a Police State and it was a disgusting display.

Here is what the Denver Mayors Office wrote in response.  I don’t know what will ultimately happen, but at least they were decent and did not become excuse-makers for out of control peace officers.

———————————————————
On behalf of Mayor Hickenlooper, thank you for taking the time to write. Please be aware that we take allegations of excessive force very seriously and will investigate fully and that the Internal Affairs Division of the Denver Police Department, and the CityÂ’s Independent Monitor are both looking into the incident.  As soon as we know the facts, weÂ’ll provide more information.

Thanks again for sharing your concerns.

Regards,

Sue Cobb
Communications Director
Office of Mayor John Hickenlooper
City and County of Denver”

I’m amazed at the lack of total outrage at what went on in Saint Paul. It could’ve been choreographed out of an G. Orwell story written generations ago. To think that journalists and cameramen could be attacked and dragged off by our own police for the crime of reporting the events at hand should scare the living crap outa any american who still has even a dim grasp of what this country was supposed to be about. There are so precious few journalists out there today with the courage of Amy Goodman, there is so little oppurtunity to get the truth out when our media is controlled by a relatively few republicans in the end. When we have a head of the FCC that favors monopolies instead of diversity. I remember a shock and outrage when the news came out after the national guard opened fire on students at Kent State. Where was the coverage of this republican convention on the streets in 2008 ? The Bush family dynasty will go down in history with one lasting legacy. They brought facism to power in america.

There’s footage on youtube of confrontations between police and a couple of protesters at the DNC. It’s milder than the RNC, but still… the basic principle is rotten.

Were people arrested in Denver too? Surely not. Jesus, i hope not.