From the open publishing newswire: Three Seattle activists and one Portland activist involved with Team Victory, FNB, SSN, SDS and other projects arrested yesterday at the DNC demonstrations in Denver. They are Marianne, Nicole, Rik (from Seattle) and Scott (from Portland). Charges include interference, failure to disperse, disobeying an officer, as well as other more questionable charges including loitering, begging, and throwing missiles.
Bond set at $530 each and three are out as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Please contact 206-600-1473 for more updates

From the open publishing newswire: Portlanders have already seen this story unfold in their city. The arrest of law-abiding citizens, the police lying in court only to be contradicted by video shot by independent reporters, and the arduous task of holding the city accountable. However, there is one new twist in the prosecution of cases of those arrested during the RNC: the prosecution has been caught altering the police video submitted to the court by removing segments showing the innocence of the arrestee, only to be caught when an unaltered video was submitted by the defense.

[ pdx indy stories about 2004 RNC in NYC protests ]

From the open publishing newswire: On August 30th, around 4pm the Kensington Welfare Rights Union held an unpermitted march against the RNC. The March was named "The March for Our Lives: End the War at Home". The idea was that this march was to address the occupation of communities abroad AND at HOME. The unpermitted march was promptly met by police provocation. All individuals snatched were released within 8 to 12 ours of their arrest with no more than misdemeanor charges.

These snatches were clear provocations by the police to break up the march, isolate those willing to defend those arbitrarly detained, and provoke violence from the crowd. The crowd however did not respond violently..... until around 8:30 pm, when plain clothes Detective William Sample, drove his moped directly into the march running over several protestors. The crowd responded and several people pulled detective Sample off his moped, and beat him unconcious. no one was charged with the assault against Sample... local media repeatedly played footage of a young black man in a white t-shirt and ball cap kicking detective Sample on the street. 12-18 hours after the incident, an undercover NYPD officer picked up New York local JAMAL HOLIDAY, who was charged with the assault on Sample. Last I heard, Jamal's bail had been raised from $50k to $250k. Jamal spent his twentieth birthday in jail, and as far as anybody knows, he is still in. He is the only one still in.

I am concered that our movement may have encouraged Jamal to be on the streets the day he was picked up and accused of this assault, yet there was no jail solidarity for Jamal. People had to fly home and go back to school or work including myself. It seems that the criticisms are true about our movement... descending upon communities and creating a false sense of empowerment, than skipping town only to leave open wounds for buzzard police forces to further oppress these peoples. We have just finished a film intended to raise money to this end , yet we don't know where to start. If anyone know's what is going on with Jamal, has information about a bail fund please post it widely.
thanks yo.

From the open publishing newswire: In THE KNOW theatre Bill Ellis will be previewing a new RNC protest video and in the main gallery there will be an exhibition of photos from the RNC protests by Bette Lee (black & white images) and Brian Thomas (color images). Bette is the Portland Alliance's staff photographer and Brian Thomas uploaded to Portland Indymedia photo essays on all the big anti-war protests. Brian will also briefly highlight the new edition of "If Monks had Macs," his landmark working man's guide to Western Civilization.

A portion of the sales from the Alberta Street KNOW show will go to NYC legal defense fund. There will be a separate multimedia anti-war art show at the Alberta Arts pavillion with a portion of the proceeds going to support the Northwest Veterans for Peace.

Presentation at 8 pm on Oct. 28
Photography on display starting at 5 pm
at The Know 2026 ne Alberta

Photos from RNC 2004 (Bette Lee) | dnc & rnc 2004 actions | other team cascadia posts

From the open publishing newswire: Find out more about what happened in NYC this Saturday September 18th at 7pm at the IWW hall at 617 E. Burnside at the report back from the Republican National Convention. Including the: NY police tactics, arrests, legal proceedings, jail support, etc.

Just uploaded:
PHOTOS: [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
VIDEO: [ NYC cops abuse of PDX protesters ]

[ pdx indy coverage of RNC protests in NYC ]

From the open publishing newswire: Call to all 8/31 arrestees: The RNC legal team needs your info!

If you were arrested on August 31st, the legal team needs to collect some
information from you. This info will be used in court in a few days to
determine how much the NYPD will be fined.

Please send the info below, even if you've already given some of it when
you left jail. And please forward this to all your friends who were
arrested! Together, we can rock the system.

From the open publishing newswire: Here's the fifth, and last, archive of a day's worth of breaking news items as posted to the portland indymedia site during the RNC protests in NYC. Events covered include protests/marches in/from Union Square, an ANSWER-sponsored rally, protesting around Madison Square Garden, and the unfolding legal drama concerning the City's trampling of habeas corpus rights of rounded-up protesters.

Deeper analysis can start to emerge now about the meaning and significance of the events of the last week, which were often played out in the context of protester vs. authority. Authority here was embodied not just by the Bush administration - the direct target of demonstrations - but by the police and City. Overall, i belive we can at least declare a draw. That is, the protesters were not defeated; that feeling is not pervading the air, nor did it taint the actions on the ground. In the legal arena, we can perhaps actually declare victory. The National Lawyers Guild forced the City to back down when it clearly did not want to. When push came to shove over habeas corpus, a judge demanded that the City release all prisoners since it was clearly in violation of that legal concept, and when the City did not act fast enough, the judge declared the City in contempt and levied fines. Finally, the City relented, and by the end of today, it seemed that everyone had been released. In other cities after big actions, such courtroom dramas have often played out for much longer. So we can chalk at least one checkmark in the Win column.

Over the five days of breaking news updates from Aug. 29-Sep. 2, about 800 items were posted. The news came from call-ins from the street to pdx indy radio and to A-Noise Radio, from the breaking news wire on NYC indymedia, and from an internal indymedia communication board. In such a way, hundreds of people contributed information over those five days. That's a helluva lot more reporters than corporate media had out there, and it shows. The overall coverage of the protests using the indymedia tactic, on the web, the radio, and with the video and other projects yet to come, is an example of what reporting and journalismm are really about. Once more, indymedia put corporate media to shame!

Previous daily archives: [ Aug. 29 | Aug. 30 | Aug. 31 | Sept. 1 ]

NYC IMC's archived breaking news: [ A27 | A28 | A29 | A30 | A31 | S1 ]

From the open publishing newswire: It looks like hackers are supporting us. A group calling itself C-BLOC has shut down computers in the financial district today. This just in via IM from C-BLOC. Apperantly they've shut down some computers on Wall Street as part of their on going hacktivism in solidarity with the Anti-Bush protests. Here is their statement: "We have successfully shut down several computer systems on Wall Street and in the NYSE in a direct action aimed at war profiteers, Bush supporters and companies invested in the Surveillance States of America. This action was brought to you courtesy of your friends at C-BLOC. Peace from da east." [ Read More ] [ NYC IMC Story ]

From the open publishing newswire: Migratory Bird's request: Order the police to drop charges, judge, if you really want justice. Fine the police department and give it to indymedia! Give it to the protestors! Take the money from the cops budget! Make the descion here and now to not even be idealogical or fair but to try and ease a little of the pain of the sham. Stop the way this is going judge becuase if you don't fight it now you will watch your city taken over... watch it become an open police state. They defied you and your "justice." Becuase you justice was still helping them out! Dontcha see? Cause we do! We do! We do and we let the whole world know! [ Read More ] 8:30pm ruling - People had to be released at that moment w/o process. Lead counsel for Legal Aid, Michelle Maxine, was to be given full access to all the cells. She went on that tour and confirmed that there were only 25 people on RNC arrests still inside. 11 of them may have been released already. 6 of them were in the feeder pen. 8 were felonies. [ Read More ]

From the open publishing newswire: Now that mass arrests and criminal injustice processing has begun in NYC from the RNC protests, I want to review a few legal things for everyone. I am not an attorney, I am not giving legal advice. I am giving practical advice based on personal experience and what I learned in law school. I want to make sure everyone understands what police questioning is, how plea bargains work, etc. I want people to know that ANYTHING you say *can and will* be used against you later.

SO DO NOT TALK about ANYTHING... Police like to give arrestees an illusion of privacy so they will talk together while the cops tape record it, and then they use that in court against us later as evidence. There is NO expectation of privacy in a cop car, in a holding cell, in a jail cell, in a courtroom. Do not even think you are alone. They are tape recording EVERYTHING people. Basically, if you cannot LEAVE of your own volition, DO NOT TALK AND ASSUME YOU ARE BEING RECORDED. [ Read More ]

From the open publishing newswire: "Habeas corpus" is Latin for "you have the body". It is a Constitutional concept, meaning that if you arrest & detain someone, you have a certain amount of time to charge them, and that if you don't do so within that time, the person or people must be released. A eoman from the National Lawyers Guild in NYC stated that this period is 24 hours in the state and City of NY.

A writ of habeas corpus is presented to a court on behalf of a detainee or detainees. The writ issued by the National Lawyer's Guild to the City of NY, demanding the release of all RNC detainees, can be read here.

The City's excuse for violating habeas corpus was that it couldn't release people until the proper paperwork was done. As reported on indymedia, a NY Judge ordered the City to release hundreds of people because they had been held so long (24-30 or more hours), but the City has not been complying.

NYC is not the first city to ignore habeas corpus; indeed, it is a tactic, consciously executed, as part of a national trend toward fascism.

From the open publishing newswire: Caller from jail to A-Noise Radio at 6:14am EDT: He has been held since Tuesday night. He was coming home from work and his train was stopped at Madison Square Garden. Police told everyone to get out and get back on at 34th st. But 34th was closed so that had to walk down to 35th.

Everyone was soon trapped between lines of motorcycles and police. Police were violent when making arrests - slamming people up against cars and walls. According to caller, the police were much rougher with journalists than with protesters or pedestrians like himself.

It is the caller's estimate that 40% of the arrests in that area (of 35th and Herald Square) were protesters. The rest were innocent bystanders.

From the open publishing newswire: AC and others from A31 have been released this morning. They've been held for over 36 hours in horrible, unsafe, unsanitary conditions. Another portland person is still being held on felony charges. Please call the numbers to demand that bullshit felony charges get dropped. This person is a videographer and she was targeted. Call again today even if you called yesterday.