The reporters arrested outside the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul have had all charges against them dropped. Democracy Now host Amy Goodman along with two other Democracy Now employees were arrested while trying to cover the protests outside the convention. Goodman was actually inquiring about the status of her arrested colleagues when she was handcuffed and hauled off.
The Mayor of Minneapolis said,
"...the police did their duty in protecting public safety. In this decision, we are serving the public's interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press."I guess by protecting public safety he means arresting and intimidating and preemptively raiding peaceful protesters.
I guess be maintaining the integrity of our democracy he means suppressing the right of assembly and the right to free speech.
I guess by maintaining the integrity of our system of justice he means using the system of justice to suppress peoples Constitutional right by arresting them randomly and then dropping the charges days later.
And as far as maintaining the integrity of the freedom of the press...this is a story about how members of the press were arrested and taken to jail...i.e., removing the integrity of the freedom of the press, literally.
