The first rule of having an overbearing law-enforcement presence at a political convention is: you do not fuck with Amy Goodman.
The second rule of having an overbearing law-enforcement presence at a political convention is: you do not fuck with Amy Goodman.
I love Amy Goodman. I’ve been listening to Democracy Now! since 2001, and Amy remains one of my primary sources of news. Read the New York Times if you want – they get lucky sometimes. Usually, however, what Amy is talking about today will be "breaking news" in the traditional media in six months.
You don’t fuck with Amy Goodman. If you’re some lame Air Force spokesperson from the Pentagon who doesn’t have the faintest idea who Amy is or that she’s about to hand you your ass on national radio, you don’t fuck with her. If you’re President Clinton and you’re calling "friendly" progressive radio stations to get out the vote and she busts your balls on national radio for ten minutes about how you pardoned Marc Rich but not Leonard Peltier, you don’t fuck with her.
And if you’re a beat-walking member of the Five-Oh of St. Paul, pumped up on rhetoric injected by FBI, DHS and a bunch of other TLAs, not only do you not fuck with her, you certainly don’t arrest her (or detain her, or put her in protective custody, or whatever the Supremes are calling it this week).
The alternative broadcaster was handcuffed and stripped of her Monday floor credentials, she said, after she rushed to the scene of a mass arrest near Jackson Street downtown hoping to extricate two producers caught up in the crackdown.
The producers -- Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous -- eventually were arrested on suspicion of felony riot, and Goodman was cited for misdemeanor interference with a peace officer. They were jailed for five hours; Goodman for about three, she said.
Governor Palin has been a great source of entertainment, and I hope she remains so.
But right now I’m visualizing Stephen Yagman (if he wasn’t in prison), Ramsey Clark and Gerry Spence (if he is not or has not yet retired) all packing their suitcases and heading to St. Paul. And the ACLU. And every civil rights lawyer in the United States.
I smell § 1983 in the air, and it smells like . . . victory.
For those of you who aren't familiar with 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, it is the cornerstone of civil rights lawsuits under federal law (civil rights lawyers feel free to jump in -- I've only been on the wrong side of these actions). Paraphrasing the statute loosely, any governmental actor who, acting under color of govermental authority, deprives a person of their civil rights, is in deep, deep shit. If memory serves, Rodney King's $3.8 Million settlement with LAPD was pursuant to an action under Section 1983.
Can you imagine being a civil rights lawyer at this moment of history? Glorious. Every one of them woke up this morning feeling like Raymond K. Hessel. Imagine how they feel. Today is the most beautiful day of their lives. Their breakfast today tasted better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.
Amy’s breakfast probably tasted pretty good, too.