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ND Pros. charging Amy Goodman for "riot" for Pipeline coverage (Up: charges dropped)

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Boney

Banned
Surprised nobody of the people that are so concerned with the future of America's democracy that need to speak out against any frivolity that threatens it hasn't touched on this story since it broke more than a day ago.

Award winning journalist, Amy Goodman plans to turn herself in this Oct 17th to fight for 1st amendment rights and journalistic independence. She was accused of "trespassing" for covering the North Dakota pipeline protests. In the video, she denounces the use of extreme violence, with the use of aggressive dogs by the private security, which had bloodied mouths and pepper spray among other violations. You can watch the video here.

Screen-Shot-2016-09-10-at-9.52.05-PM-678x381.png


Goodman has travelled to North Dakota to face the charges and will appear at Morton County court on Monday at 1:30 pm local time (CDT) if the charges are approved.

“I came back to North Dakota to fight a trespass charge. They saw that they could never make that charge stick, so now they want to charge me with rioting, " said Goodman. "I wasn’t trespassing, I wasn’t engaging in a riot, I was doing my job as a journalist by covering a violent attack on Native American protesters."

In an e-mail to Goodman’s attorney Tom Dickson on October 12, State’s Attorney Erickson admitted that there were "legal issues with proving the notice of trespassing requirements in the statute." In an earlier email on October 12, Erickson wrote that Goodman "was not acting as a journalist," despite that fact that the state’s criminal complaint recognized that, "Amy Goodman can be seen on the video …interviewing protesters." In that email Erikson justified his quote in the Bismarck Tribune in which he had said that "She’s [Amy Goodman] a protester, basically. Everything she reported on was from the position of justifying the protest actions." The First Amendment, of course, applies irrespective of the content of a reporter’s story.

Read the rest of the story here http://m.democracynow.org/web_exclusives/3034

Journalistic censorship isn't waiting for Trump to be elected. So stop worrying about the sky falling and try to move out of the way of the car speeding right towards you.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Yeah, it's fucked up. Hopefully she's able to get the charges dropped.
 

Boney

Banned
I hope it gets thrown out inmediatly or there's a shit storm coming. The whole situation is appalling from any way you look at it.

The whole story doesn't seem to be attracting much attention, sadly.
It's insane it isn't. Mainstream media not covering the protests is bewildering in the first place, but having a state wide arrest warrant for a journalist reporting and exposing this disaster gets shrugged under a carpet.
 

Somnid

Member
This is disgusting. She faces up to 45 years in prison. As Snowden put it on Twitter, he would only get 30.
 

Makonero

Member
If there wasn't a totally insane presidential election, would this be getting more coverage? I hope so. This is terrible. Quick, get Trump to say something dumb about the situation in North Dakota!
 
While Democracy Now's coverage/analysis is now often way too left-wing for me, in their struggle to find the ills in society, they've often done a good job with bring coverage to movements that need it.

The charges are ridiculous, but maybe this will get some more attention to the Pipeline Protest that seems to be so comfortable ignored by most of the media.
 

Media

Member
Yesterday I heard rumors that two people were arrested for trespassing on their own land. I'll see if I can find a link, but out and about right now. Basically, it seems like the government and police there are just trying to throw everything that can at protestors and hope it sticks. Glad the changes against Goodman were dropped.
 
Yesterday I heard rumors that two people were arrested for trespassing on their own land. I'll see if I can find a link, but out and about right now. Basically, it seems like the government and police there are just trying to throw everything that can at protestors and hope it sticks. Glad the changes against Goodman were dropped.

The worst part about things like that is for the poorer folks in communities, they don't have the experience, advice, or legal help to fight these kinds of things.

It's really messed up how the justice system can be used to intimidate and bully people, when it should be protecting their rights and freedoms first and foremost.

Vindictive AGs are just the worst.
 

Boney

Banned
BREAKING: North Dakota judge REJECTS "riot" charges against Democracy Now! reporter Amy Goodman
https://www.facebook.com/democracynow/videos/10154580691423279/

It's ridiculous that she was charged in the first place. Glad the judge threw the charges out.
Thank god. Amy is such a trooper.

It really is as transparent as it can be this collusion between the pipeline company and state government.

I pray for the protestors strength and well being.

On a second note, how is the Megan Holleran and the rest of the filmmakers arrest progressing? Man this is so fucked up
 

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
Told ya. This was the ND Attorney General either being a dick or being paid off by special interests.
He's a huge dick. He's part of the good ol' boys club here, and they're all definitely in the pocket of the oil companies.
 
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