Today's Police State Update

This Raw Story post tells us that the ACLU is calling for “investigation into charges of mass arrests and police brutality as the Republican National Convention goes on”…

Reports of mass arrests continue. On Tuesday, at least three people were arrested during a march of nearly a thousand organized by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. This follows numerous Monday occurrences, which include the arrest of an Associated Press photographer and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, along with 139 felony charges issued among nearly 300 demonstrators, whose arrests were made with such chemical aids as pepper spray and tear gas.

And this Editor and Publisher post from an AP story tells us…

ST. PAUL Two University of Kentucky journalism students and their newspaper adviser remained jailed Tuesday night, more than a day after they were swept up with nearly 300 others during protests in downtown St. Paul.

Police arrested students Edward C. Matthews and Britney D. McIntosh along with adviser Jim Winn on Monday afternoon. All came to the Twin Cities to document protests held in response to the Republican National Convention, meeting this week in St. Paul.

Matthews' father, Tom Matthews, heard about his son's arrest Tuesday morning, then saw him in an Associated Press photo that showed him turning away from a stream of pepper spray.

"I feel for him," his father said. "He's taking it in the chops."

He’s not the only one. As reporter Dave Davies of the Philadelphia Daily News tells us here…

If police and protesters skirmish around the Republican National Convention, count on Philadelphia Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke to be in the middle of the action.

He was rewarded for his efforts Monday by being doused with pepper spray, knocked down and arrested by St. Paul police.

Rourke was shooting photos of the protesters at a parking lot at 7th and Jackson streets, in downtown St. Paul, when police converged from three directions on protesters that they regarded as particularly troublesome.

"We were encircled, and as I moved toward the officers in front of me in a passive manner, my legs were taken out from behind in an aggressive manner," Rourke said yesterday after 12 hours in jail.

"I went down pretty hard, causing me to scrape my elbows and knee a bit."
Rourke said that officers ignored his RNC credentials and pleas that he was a journalist as they took his camera, turned him over and wrapped his hands in plastic cuffs.

Oh, and by the way…

Rourke said that earlier in the day he was hit with pepper spray several times by police and that they at times seemed to be aiming directly at him.

"I wasn't given an opportunity to wash [the pepper spray] off in prison," Rourke said.

Rourke was released at about 2:30 a.m. and was back on the job yesterday. Prosecutors say that there are no plans to charge him.

Oh, great then; let’s just indiscriminately round up people we don’t like and beat the hell out of them (“Probable cause?” What’s that?).

And finally…

St. Paul police spokesman Peter Panos didn't return a call for comment yesterday, but Police Chief John Harrington told reporters in a briefing that he thought police "did not overreact. They responded appropriately" in dealing with demonstrators.

…

"If a reporter is committing crimes while they're under their credentials," Harrington added, "I think they become regular citizens."*

Yes, but as the Davies story tells us, there are probably quite a few press people being rounded up and detained without charges, so they’re definitely not “committing crimes.”

I’ll tell you what; here is a link to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Chamber of Commerce web site. The only way we’re going to get any satisfaction on this story is if we contact them and make some noise. Tell them their city needs to make amends, or else it will definitely be crossed off any list of tourist destinations we may devise in the future.

And a good way they can start is to call for Police Chief Harrington’s resignation.

Update: Achtung, baby!