This is absolutely outrageous.
Amy Goodman is, quite simply, the best journalist I know of. Her work is award-winning, and her professionalism and commitment to telling the truth are all the more amazing in a culture of truly crappy journalism.
Amy was charged with interference with a peace officer. Her coworkers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were charged with “conspiracy to riot.”
From today’s broadcast of Democracy Now!:
NICOLE SALAZAR: Cars were behind me. We were in a parking lot. And, you know, I was telling them that “I’m press. I’m press. Please, you know, don’t—you know, let me pass.†But I couldn’t turn around. And I tried to move in between the—between two cars, and instead of, you know, letting me pass and following the crowd, they instead came right after me and slammed me into the car, at which point I think my camera came back and hit me in the face. And two cops were also behind me, and they pushed me through that row of cars into the next area of the parking lot and slammed me to the ground and said, “Get your face on the ground! Get your face on the ground!†And I was, you know, at that point—
AMY GOODMAN: So you were on your stomach, on your face, on the ground.
NICOLE SALAZAR: I was on my stomach on the ground. And one of the officers, I think he was trying to grab me. He was trying to drag me. He was grabbing my leg. And another officer put his boot on my back and was pressing me to the ground.
For anyone who is confused about what censorship looks like, this is it. It’s not being challenged for saying something racist or sexist. It’s not being criticized or boycotted. It’s an authoritarian structure with power over you forcibly preventing you from saying something.
The police have not immediately offered to drop the charges, which means there may be future action for concerned citizens to take on this. I’ll give updates as I get them.
Update: Cara at The Curvature has more on actions you can take to pressure the mainstream media to cover this story, and to get police to drop the charges.
Update 2: brownfemipower has more on what’s happening at the RNC, and is following observers on twitter. Things are really. fucking. bad.
Update 3: Video of Nicole Salazar’s arrest is now available:
While you’re thinking long and hard about whether freedom of the press is really protected in this country, Student Activism has a link to a good piece on ways to try to keep freedom of the press for your college newspaper.
[...] She filmed it herself. Trigger warning, because it’s very disturbing. And thanks to Ashley for the [...]