Amy Goodman & Two Democracy Now! Producers Arrested at RNC Protest

More than 280 people were arrested here in St. Paul Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Among them were several journalists covering the protests in the streets, including three of us at Democracy Now! Amy was detained trying to question police officers about the arrests of Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.

AMY GOODMAN: More than 280 people were arrested here in St. Paul on Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Among them were several journalists covering the protests in the streets, including three of us at Democracy Now! I was detained trying to question police officers about the arrests of Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Nicole and Sharif were covering a police crackdown on a street protest against the Republican National Convention.

Nicole’s camera captured her arrest and assault by the officers.

        NICOLE SALAZAR: Watch out! Watch out! Press!


POLICE OFFICER: Get out of here! Move!


NICOLE SALAZAR: Where are we supposed to go? Where are we supposed to go?


POLICE OFFICER: Get out of here!


NICOLE SALAZAR: Dude, I can’t see! Ow! Press! Press! Press!


POLICE OFFICER: Get down! Get down on your face! On your face!


NICOLE SALAZAR: I’m on my face!


POLICE OFFICER: Get down on your face!


NICOLE SALAZAR: Ow! Press! Press!

AMY GOODMAN: Shortly after, I arrived and was arrested while questioning the officers about Sharif and Nicole’s arrest.

        DENIS MOYNIHAN: Release the accredited journalists!


AMY GOODMAN: Where’s the reporters? Sir?


POLICE OFFICER: Ma’am, get back to the sidewalk.


DENIS MOYNIHAN: Release the accredited journalists now!


AMY GOODMAN: Sir, just one second. I was just running from the convention floor.


DENIS MOYNIHAN: You are violating my constitutional rights. You are violating their constitutional rights.


POLICE OFFICER: Sidewalk now!


AMY GOODMAN: Sir, I want to talk to your superior—


POLICE OFFICER: Arrest her?


AMY GOODMAN: Do not arrest me!


POLICE OFFICER: You’re under arrest.


POLICE OFFICER: Hold it right there. You’re under arrest. Stay right there. Back up. Back up.


POLICE OFFICER: Everybody, you cross this line, you’ll be under arrest, so don’t do it.


CROWD: Let her go!


DENIS MOYNIHAN: Amy, we are going to get you out of here very soon.


AMY GOODMAN: This is outrageous.


DENIS MOYNIHAN: Yes, we have people working on it.


AMY GOODMAN: Nicole has a bloody nose. And I think that Sergeant McKinty said he—they won’t put me on [inaudible] if Nicole’s not there.

AMY GOODMAN: Before I arrived, Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke spoke to Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher about Nicole and Sharif’s arrest. Fletcher was also questioned by a journalist seeking the release of his colleague, Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke.

       AP JOURNALIST: …get his gear or get him out?


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: Yeah, well, we can talk – I mean, after everything—look, I couldn’t tell you which one he is, and obviously there’s three different mobile field [inaudible].


MIKE BURKE: We have two journalists in there, as well. I’m from the national radio and TV show Democracy Now!


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: I don’t doubt you are, and I want to help you in any way we can. But—


MIKE BURKE: One of them, you can see. She—Nicole Salazar is sitting right there.


Are there any protections for journalists who are covering [inaudible]?


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: Yeah, I think it will all sort out, if, in fact, there was a journalist in the middle of there.


MIKE BURKE: She’s been covering—we just came from Denver. We covered the Democratic convention.


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: I’m sure that we’ll be able to work it all out.


MIKE BURKE: I know, but she’s being detained right now.


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: She is, that’s right. And the Minneapolis police officers have detained her, and so I can’t undetain her.


MIKE BURKE: I mean, you are the sheriff?


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: I am, and once you get to the jail, it’ll be under my control. Right now it’s under the Minneapolis Police Department.


MIKE BURKE: What jail is she being taken to?


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center. It’s right over here. 425 Grove.


MIKE BURKE: OK. And how long do you think she’ll be detained for?


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: It all depends on the nature of the charge, etc. It could be anywhere from a couple hours to a day and a half.


MIKE BURKE: Now, if the charge is riot, what is that?


SHERIFF BOB FLETCHER: Generally, we…

AMY GOODMAN: Most of the arrests took place within hours of a 10,000-strong peace march organized by the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. After the rally ended, several splinter groups broke off for spontaneous actions in the streets of St. Paul.

While most protesters demonstrated peacefully, some engaged in property damage, slashing car tires, throwing bottles, tipping trash bins and breaking windows of cars and buildings. One of the broken windows came in the building that houses Saint Paul Neighborhood Network—that’s SPNN —where Democracy Now! is broadcasting from this week.

But police used harsh tactics, including chemical irritants, to disperse everyone, even those protesters who remained peaceful. Officers in riot gear fired teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets in a series of standoffs around the downtown St. Paul area.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were covering one of those standoffs before their arrest. They were released last night but now face pending charges on suspicion of committing a felony riot. It’s called “PC riot,” probable cause riot. I’ve been charged with obstruction of legal process and interference with a, quote, “peace” officer. Overall, police say some 120 people face pending charges.

Sharif and Nicole join me now here in St. Paul. Welcome to Democracy Now! I don’t think we expected to be in jail last night, but Nicole, let’s start with you. That was very dramatic footage. Explain what happened. This was actually just outside SPNN, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network, public access TV offices here on Jackson and 7th in downtown St. Paul.

NICOLE SALAZAR: Well, basically, Sharif and I had been out that morning filming the antiwar protest, which was mostly peaceful. We were out for three hours, four hours filming that. Eventually, we left the main protest. We went back to the office. We were going to digitize our tapes.

And then, from the offices, which, like you said, are here in SPNN, we saw that there was some activity down on the street, so we grabbed our camera. Basically, what we saw then was just police in riot gear moving down the street. We didn’t see any crowds. So I grabbed my camera, and I ran out the door and just basically followed the police.

I saw that they were preparing to put on teargas masks, and I was just filming them. Shortly after, Sharif came down, and, you know, he brought my press pass down and put that around my neck. So we followed the crowd for a few blocks, and very quickly we saw that there were police coming from all directions. There were police on horseback. There were police on bicycles. And there were police officers in riot gear.

So, that moment that you saw, that was after we had moved into an intersection where police were coming from three different directions. They were telling us to move back, and that’s what we were trying to do. That’s what I was trying to do in the video. I was trying to move back, but I was in a parking lot, and I wasn’t able to get back. And one—

AMY GOODMAN: A car was behind you, a parked car?

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.

AMY GOODMAN: And he was pulling you with your leg, the other officer.

NICOLE SALAZAR: He was trying to pull me. They weren’t very well coordinated, I guess, because one of them was, you know, pushing me to the ground with his foot, and I was stomped on, so I had to stay where I was, but the other one was pulling on my leg.

AMY GOODMAN: So if he was dragging you, and they told you, “Put your face”—we heard him say, “Put your face on the ground,” then they would drag your face along the ground.

NICOLE SALAZAR: I guess so. I was trying—I was trying to keep my face up, because I kept trying to tell them I’m press and show them my pass. And I had my camera in my hand, and I was trying to protect that.

AMY GOODMAN: We heard you shouting, “Press! Press!”

NICOLE SALAZAR: Right. So I guess they were, you know, trying to drag me and get me into this area, and I was surrounded by maybe five or six cops at that point. And eventually, I just had to, you know, acquiesce, and I just laid there and put my head on the ground. And I could see that my nose was bleeding onto the pavement.

AMY GOODMAN: Were there medics around?

NICOLE SALAZAR: Shortly thereafter, a medic did come over, and, you know, he asked me if my teeth were hurting, what had happened. And I was like, “You saw what happened. You know these police officers knocked me down.” And he, you know, wiped my face with a towel. But I kept just saying, “I’m with the press. I’m with Democracy Now!” You know, “I want to be released.”