Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

[As you view these videos, it's interesting to know that the rest of the world, through the miracle of the Internet, is watching with you. American democracy is being showcased to the world.]

Tomorrow's Democracy Now should be especially interesting. It seems that, among other actions in advance of the Republican convention, Minneapolis gestapo police attempted to preemptively detain an independent media group but found themselves facing a counter-army of journalists and TV cameras. In a video I even saw a WNYC microphone, so it wasn't just a crowd of independents.

At one point a cop put his hand on Amy Goodman's shoulder and someone in the crowd yelled, "Get your hands off her" and he did.

Democracy Now! member detained, Amy Goodman jumps fence to question cop.

by The Uptake
Saturday Aug 30th, 2008 7:51 PM

At least 7 activist spaces and private homes have been raided by police in Saint Paul/Minneapolis on the weekend before the Republican National Convention. Additional sites, including the Twin Cities indymedia collection building, have had code inspectors arrive to try to find a reason to close and evict the property. A newswire is being promptly maintained at this site, describing the latest incidents http://twincities.indymedia.org
A Democracy Now! journalist who was visiting at one of the raided houses, was detained and is currently reporting on the situation. A whole room full of I-Witness video journalists were detained. Over two dozen legal observers and attorneys were detained. In other words, the police aren't just arresting and detaining low-power young and poor individuals, but are going ahead and grabbing people with some status.

One video (if you don't mind the language) is at subMedia.TV. Another is here. In fact, independent media coverage is all over the web, let Google be your guide (thanks to Katy Rose for the pointer to submedia.tv). (more subMedia here.)

For many of these video sites, particularly the ones hosted by blip.tv, there's a little box to click for a full-screen view. It works very well, often better than YouTube. The esc key gets you out of full-screen. Also, the volume can be adjusted from the embedded player.

One promising site for following the RNC is The Uptake ("Will journalism be done by you or to you?"). They have Google map mashups and seem to be well organized.

Yes, there are alternatives to both mainstream TV and daily newspapers. I was surprised to find that submedia.tv was both serious and entertaining, and very well produced.

Stay tuned to independent media this coming week for a view of American justice at work. Remember, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn't mean they can't lock up anyone they please. Go figure.

Maybe one day we'll have democracy in this country.

" It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

Permalink posted by Larry @ 8/31/2008 08:48:00 PM