St. Paul refusing to release thousands of hours of video re: RNC

[Downtown Hound]

It appears as though the city of St. Paul feels they have something to hide when it comes to the 6000+ hours of CCTV video they have stashed away covering the RNC protests. Despite their initial assurances that the video would not only be made public but in fact could be streamed live from the comfort of your own home, the city is refusing to release any of it for at least another few years. This means that anybody arrested during the convention does not have any access to material that could potentially challenge the official police accounts regarding their arrests.

In case any of you aren't familiar with what went down during the RNC in New York in 2004, it was later revealed that the police were lying about the circumstances of many of the arrests. Footage shot by Iwitness Video alone resulted in the dismissal of more than 400 arrests after their footage directly contradicted the cops' official testimony about what happened. Although some officers actually got up on stand and committed perjury, none of the officers were ever charged with anything. Iwitness video was one of the independent media outlets raided by the police just prior to the convention in St. Paul this year. The police said they were looking for weapons, but mysteriously (LOL) didn't find any. They did however manage to effectively prevent them from reporting on the protests this year though. Gee, you think that was the intention?

The ACLU is trying to get the CCTV footage released.

http://rnc08report.org/archive/613.shtml

[Warpy]

1. Their elite SWAT trained, militarized police would all be

busted back to traffic cop if that footage got out. All that Robocop training would be down the drain if they exposed what those guys are like when they're let off the leash and told to go after Americans exercising what used to be their civil right to protest bad government.

Trust me, it's money.

[Truth2Tell]

2. Any protester charged with a crime

will very likely be able to get a judge to order relevant tapes released, at least to the court, and probably to defense council.

To say "that anybody arrested during the convention does not have any access to material that could potentially challenge the official police accounts regarding their arrests," is probably not true.

Wait and see.

[Downtown Hound]

9. How can you determine what is relevant

in 6000 hours of video without going through it and examining it first? Can you get a court order to do just that? Go in and look at it?

[Truth2Tell]

15. Most likely the defense would have to ask for tapes

of the time and place the state says the defendant committed a crime. If they had them and didn't produce them they would be in big trouble.

[Downtown Hound]

16. They would be in big trouble

If it was determined they had them and didn't release it. My question is, how can you find out if they have it if they won't allow anybody to see it? All they have to do is say they have no such footage of the incident in question. I predict a lot of cat and mouse games being played out regarding this in the future. You're right, time will tell, but I highly doubt the city or the police are going to be very forthright in coming out with this footage. They have it under lock and key, and it's going to be damn difficult to get them to release it.

[kickysnana]

3. Somebody finally looked at what happend and went "Oh Shit!" we are so screwn. n/t

[tanyev]

4. An image that never loses its relevance:

www.oldamericancentury.org

[annabanana]

5. I saw some of the footage here a couple weeks ago... A park

full of people.. sitting on the grass, on bicycles.. some involved with the protests, some not.. were all herded into one section of the park, surrounded and arrested..

[Downtown Hound]

8. I've seen that footage

The outrage about that incident was, those kids weren't even protesting. They were going to a Rage Against the Machine concert, and the cops just stopped them, surrounded them, they even had boats in the river with machine guns at the ready in case any of them tried to jump in and swim away, and then arrested them.

The real outrage though? A lot of those kids were charged with FELONIES! It was also reported by many witnesses but unfortunately not caught on film that the cops were later seen dumping the kids' personal belongings onto the road (cell phones, cameras, ipods and so forth), and them running over them in their cruisers. Fucking Nazis.

Most of the felony charges regarding the RNC have since been dropped. I think that out of 130 felony arrests, they're down to only a dozen or so that they're actually prosecuting. But still, that fact alone should be a fucking outrage. More than 100 people arrested on false felony charges? And there's no accountability for this? God it pisses me off.

[Wiley50]

12. Interesting story how that footage survived

The person who shot it buried the tape in the sand thereby preventing it from being confiscated
then came back later and retrieved it.

Many others lost all their work to the cops

[Downtown Hound]

17. I didn't know that

Clever kids. Stupid cops. I really have to wonder what goes through these cop's minds when they pull shit like this. How in the hell do they sleep at night?

[Ioo]

6. It can still be subpoenaed if it is needed in court.

They can not withhold it if you have a defense...

[Fumesucker]

13. How can you subpoena what you don't know exists?

I'm sure that the city will be scrupulously honest in admitting whether given footage exists or not. :eyes:

[kenfrequed]

7. Damn bastards

Though I will say this, usually the St Paul Police are better behaved.

Unfortunately they called in a good deal of Minneapolis cops (who have a reputation for brutality) as well as outer ring suburb cops and nasty friggin private security scum.

[Downtown Hound]

18. I'm curious, were you there?

Your profile says you live in St. Paul. I'd be interested in hearing any personal stories you have about what happened if you attended any of the protests.

[barbtries]

10. hang those motherfuckers OUT

the behavior of the police during the RNC was clearly criminal. how dare they try to hide evidence away? i'm so proud to be an ACLU member.

[Pastiche423]

11. K&R!

[backscatter712]

14. Awww, piggies are gonna be made to obey the laws they enforce...

Fucking pigs.

Did anyone forget to mention how much I detest and distrust the police these days?

Nothing but a bunch of psychopathic, power-tripping, bullying sadists.

Fuck the pigs. Fuck 'em all!