St. Paul Police use bogus "hostage" claim, seek entry I-Witness Video office

[slipslidingaway]

http://iwitnessvideo.info/index.html

"At about 2:45 this afternoon (Sept. 3), police wielding batons and a battering ram entered the professional office building on Selby Avenue in St. Paul where I-Witness Video is renting work space.

Geneva Finn, an attorney with the National Lawyer's Guild went to head off the police. After the police left, she made this statement at an impromptu press conference on the street:

A few minutes ago, one of our legal observers called me to the door. I saw the St. Paul police unloading a bunch of equipment from their cars and they saw me at the door. They saw me at the door, they motioned me forward. I came forward to their cars. They told me that they had reports that somebody was holding somebody hostage in the building, that there had been a kidnapping. They told me that somebody, an undercover had told them, that the anarchists were holding people hostage in our building...


This is extraordinary, folks. The St. Paul police came after us with unfounded allegations that we were engaged in criminal behavior. This harassment has interfered with our ability to do the work of documenting the policing of protests that we have come to St. Paul to do. They were able to put pressure on the landlord to do something that they could not force under the law. We were informed that, as a result of all of the commotion, our landlord wanted us to leave the premises immediately.

We packed up our belongings as quickly as possible and were welcomed at the offices of Free Speech TV in St. Paul, for which we are deeply grateful."


On Saturday...

http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/108.html

"The work of the I-Witness Video collective was interrupted this past Saturday, August 30, 2008, when St. Paul police detained 7 members of the group (along with an assortment of other individuals) for several hours. The NYC-based video collective is in St. Paul to document the policing of the protests at the Republican National Convention...


...During the raids, members of I-Witness Video managed to send out several email and text messages to supporters, legal support, and press. In response, hundreds of people called the office of the St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.

Among those individuals detained was Democracy Now! producer Elizabeth Press, who had her camera with her throughout the incident. This morning, Democracy Now! ran a news segment on the many preemptive raids that police have launched against activists in St. Paul this month, including the raid that I-Witness Video suffered on Saturday.

This was a clear effort to intimidate and undermine the work of I-Witness Video--a group that was remarkably successful in exposing police misconduct and outright perjury by police during the 2004 RNC. Out of 1800 arrests made that week, at least 400 were overturned based solely on video evidence which contradicted sworn statements by police officers."


See this other thread for additional links...

STOP so-called 'pre-emptive' arrests, RNC convention! Take Action NOW!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6908130&mesg_id=6908130

[slipslidingaway]

1. Amy Goodman interviews Eileen Clancy of I - Witness Video...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/4/i_witness_video_collective_forced_out

"AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined right now by Eileen Clancy of I-Witness Video at Saint Paul Neighborhood Network....


....EILEEN CLANCY: Well, we worked with the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild directly on the criminal defense of people who were arrested, and what we discovered was that the police had lied so thoroughly and so often that if you were able to take the police statements, the police affidavits of the charges, and put them up against the video, that many times just the cases completely fell apart.


AMY GOODMAN: How many cases fell apart?


EILEEN CLANCY: We say that there’s 400 criminal cases directly—where the charges were dropped, where there was an acquittal, directly related, solely related, to video evidence.


AMY GOODMAN: Now, the New York police are working with the St. Paul and Minneapolis police. They worked with the police in Denver. Do you think there’s a relationship between so much—so many of the cases, hundreds of cases, falling apart based on evidence that you had in New York, now in St. Paul, not wanting the cases, the stories, the arrests documented like this?


EILEEN CLANCY: Well, one has to wonder. I mean, this is an extraordinary amount of pressure to put on us. What happened yesterday really ratcheted up the stakes, because, you know, they came in with a warrant, even though it had the wrong address, the other day. We had guns pointed at us. And then yesterday..."

[malaise]

2. K & R for freedom n/t

[slipslidingaway]

4. Thanks n/t

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Let's hope there's an investigation by the DOJ next year

[slipslidingaway]

6. Yes we can hope :) n/t

[EFerrari]

5. I can't find the phone numbers. Does anyone have them?

TIA.

:grr:

[slipslidingaway]

7. These numbers ???

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3903739&mesg_id=3903739

"Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman's office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0)..."

[EFerrari]

9. Those -- thank you!

:kick:

[slipslidingaway]

10. You're welcome and I just found a couple of other related threads

well :)

[pleah]

8. K&R I hope some MSM person with a conscience reports this. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

11. That is exactly what is needed n/t

[slipslidingaway]

12. TheRealNews: Interview, Amy Goodman Arrested at the RNC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=181885&mesg_id=181885