Arresting Journalists

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

I'm not one of those people prone to making declarations about how great our Constitution is or how brilliant the founding 'fathers' were, but this one part of it I damn well value. I've threatened to tattoo it on my arm. The First Amendment means a hell of a lot to me, and it should mean a lot to anyone who's ever had an unpopular opinion. And we all have.

In case you haven't been following the Republican National Convention, the people have not been given the right to peaceably assemble. They are being arrested for protesting. And some of the people arrested are journalists.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now is the highest-profile member of the press arrested, and though she was released after only a few hours, others remain in jail, along with hundreds of private citizens.

A free press--well, we don't have much of one at the moment anyway. We have a corporate press, and the conglomerates that own most news stations aren't going to press the issue and try to get journalists in where the Republicans and city officials don't want them. Democracy Now is a small program, but Goodman consistently covers issues that get ignored by the mega-media. And she can't do her job from jail.

People can't self-govern without information. Journalists can't gather it when they're being pepper-sprayed and handcuffed. This just can't go on.

Please, sign the petition here.

You can see some pictures of the police state in Minnesota here.