We have unlawful search and seizure. We have unlawful arrest without probably cause.... Mass arrest and detention without probable cause.... Then you have excessive force. Spraying people point blank range with mace who aren't resisting and who are peaceful is excessive force. Beating people in jail is excessive force... Those all should be criminal complaints. They'll never be charged as such by any prosecutor.

-- Bruce Nestor, National Lawyers Guild

Civil disobedience reframed as 'terrorism' - and squashed. The activists who rallied in Minneapolis/St. Paul outside the Republican National Convention were harrassed, gassed, and charged with "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism." The Glass Bead Collective, Twin Cities Indymedia, and other independent media activists have released a new film, 'Terrorizing Dissent', an exposé of events at the 2008 RNC. They are screening the film all over the US - and it's available free online -- check the website TerrorizingDissent.org

US Action is the kind of organization that likes to ask Are You Better Off Than You Were Eight Years Ago, and other political classics.

Talking points provided at WWW.TELLYOURGRANNY.COM.

Come on,
you know you owe her a call . . .

Last Wednesday, while presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain debated domestic policy issues in front of a live television audience at the Long Island campus of Hofstra University, Nassau county police faced off with a few hundred spirited but peaceful demonstrators. And using excessive force, police -- on horses and in full riot gear -- trampled several people including Iraq vet Nick Morgan. I-Witness Video member Emily Forman captured the ensuing bedlam, police violence, and injuries on tape.

Earlier that night, a group of protesters from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) had, in accordance with a pre-announced plan, assembled on the streets outside the Hofstra University venue where the debate was being held. IVAW had informed the police in advance that several of their members would be participating in a symbolic, non-violent, civil-disobedience action: attempting to deliver two questions for the candidates. The group has engaged in similar actions before, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Last week, at the presidential debate, the veterans hoped to ask Barack Obama if he would support soldiers who do not want to be deployed to an illegally occupied Iraq, and to ask McCain why he has voted against funding for the Veterans Administration since the beginning of the war in Iraq.

But the veterans' efforts to stage a peaceful protest last week were countered by violent police actions. After a small group of veterans was calmly taken into custody in a choreographed arrest, the police became very aggressive. The police commander on the scene ordered the horses and lines of riot police to push the crowd from the street onto the sidewalk. Mounted police officers charged into the assembled vets and other protesters, pushing the frightened people backwards and up onto the sidewalk. Riot police then forced some demonstrators to the ground, where police horses rode over them.

Former Army Reserve Sergeant Nick Morgan was caught under the hooves of a horse ridden by Nassau County police officer Quagliano. The horse stepped on Morgan's face, breaking his lower orbital (cheekbone) in three places. Bleeding heavily from his face, Morgan drifted in and out of consciousness until another police officer appeared and dragged him away from the scene. After a delay in which Nassau County police refused to take Morgan to the hospital, he was finally taken to Nassau County Medical Center, handcuffed to a gurney, given Motrin and a prescription for antibiotics, and sent on to jail.

Besides Morgan, several others were injured in the crush of horses and police, including Nadine Lubka, whose nose was broken. Fifteen people in total were arrested; they all received disorderly conduct charges.

Except for a brief Associated Press story and some video and photos uploaded to CNN's iReport website by citizen journalists, there has been almost no corporate media coverage of this story.

Filmmaker Ana Sophia Joanes is no longer “not thinking” about where her food comes from. She's on a trip to find out. This week's GOT DOCS work in progress, Really Delicious.

My personal favorite moment in the tape is an off-camera exchange. Police in riot gear have surrounded loungers in a waterfront park. They announce, "Ladies and Gentlemen, You're Under Arrest" and you hear one young woman say incredulously "Are you serious?"

Yep, I'm afraid they are.

Here's the press release that came with the video, from the Glass Bead Collective:

BURIED TAPE REVEALS USE OF FORCE AND AN UNWARRANTED MASS ARREST OF BYSTANDERS DURING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (September 18, 2008) Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month's Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.

More than eight hundred people were arrested in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. This video shows that at least twenty percent of the eight hundred plus arrested were seized without due cause.

Check out Rage guitarist Tom Morello, in this interview conducted a few months ago as we were just getting started here at GRITtv. Morello was in the middle of his Axis of Justice tour, donating box office proceeds to local issues at every stop -- Road Recovery, Sweet Home New Orleans, Amnesty International, Iraq Veterans Against the War.

From mpetersonMN on YouTube, here's the Rage Against The Machine acapella performance outside the state capital building in Minnesota. The band was kept from the stage by law enforcement, so they waded into the sea of people in front of the stage and rocked the house through a megaphone. Things wind up with a rousing group chant of "f* you, I won't do what you tell me."

Then, most of the crowd merged with the Poor People's March; what happened next is reported here. Hint: lots of tear gas.

The brilliant Chuck Close tells us about the program, and about why sending these ideas into the world is important. DUC is a program of Art Resources Transfer, Inc., a non profit organization founded in 1987. You can learn more about what they do, and request books for your library or alternative pedagogical venue here.