2,000 Protesters March On Koch Industries’ D.C. Office

By Alex Seitz-Wald

Though they don’t want you to know about it, the billionaire Koch brothers are bankrolling a massive campaign to roll back progressive achievements, and today, labor, civil rights, and climate activists turned out at dozens of rallies across the country to demonstrate against the Koch’s secretive influence in American politics and to stand up for labor and civil rights.

In Washington, D.C. today an estimated 2,000 protesters marched on Koch Industries’ Washington D.C. offices and attempted to give Charles and David Koch an invitation to come out and speak with the protesters. Not surprisingly, the building’s doors were locked and no one was allowed inside. However, a representative from the real estate company which managed the building told an handful of organizers who attempted to deliver the invitation, “I’d be here with you guys if I wasn’t working right now.” Noting that he works for the building, not Koch, he said, “I don’t want to be here.”

The events were scheduled for today because it marks the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, TN. King traveled to Memphis tosupport a strike by the city’s sanitation workers, and was an ardent supporter of workers’ rights. Dr. Earl D. Trent Jr., the senior pastor at the Florida Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, told ThinkProgress that if King “were alive today, he would be right here at the forefront, no doubt.” “And that’s why we have to carry this out.”

Watch ThinkProgress’ video report:

Last Thursday, tea party activists rallied on Capitol Hill to pressure Republican lawmakers to cut government spending. Crowd estimates ranged from “dozens” to “fewer than 200,” yet the event attracted dozens of reporters and significant media interest, producing hundreds of stories in local and national press. At today’s rally, which was ten times bigger than the tea party one, ThinkProgress spotted three reporters — none from mainstream publications.

Protests Planned Over Snyder Budget And EFM Plans

MRN Reporting

Protests are already being planned to oppose Governor Rick Snyder's budget proposal and other plans for emergency financial managers. The Michigan AFL CIO says it will be gathering members in Lansing on Tuesday to send a strong message to state legislators against what it calls their anti-union, anti-democratic emergency manager bills. The union says the proposed state budget will place cities and schools in emergency situations and emergency financial managers will be used to wipe out all collective bargaining and remove locally elected officials. The group will meet at Central United Methodist Church just across from the Capitol at nine AM on Tuesday.

Democracy Now! journalists sue police, Secret Service over ‘violent’ RNC arrests

By Stephen C. Webster

For what she called her "violent" arrest outside the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC), journalist and author Amy Goodman has joined with The Center for Constitutional Rights in filing a federal lawsuit against police and the Secret Service, issuing a stark challenge to policies governing their treatment of protesters.

Goodman said her producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were injured as police took them to the ground, with Salazar's nose bloodied and Kouddous's arm severely twisted. The whole time, they were demanding police not place them under arrest, shouting "Press! Press!" and waiving their media badges.

Instead, Goodman told RAW STORY during a Thursday conference call that unnamed Secret Service agents "ripped the credentials from around our necks" and police removed the batteries from their cameras, "which makes it very clear what they were after."

The YouTube video of Goodman's arrest quickly became the most popular clip on the site in the 2008 RNC's first days.

"I think that's what freed us after a number of hours," she told reporters.

"Goodman v. St. Paul seeks compensation and an injunction against law enforcement’s unjustified encroachment on First Amendment rights, including freedom of the press and the independence of the media," The Center for Constitutional Rights summarized in an advisory.

"Attorneys say the government cannot limit journalists’ right to cover matters of public concern by requiring that they present a particular perspective; for instance, the government cannot require journalists to “embed” with state authorities," they continued. "Goodman further asserts that the government cannot, in the name of security, limit the flow of information by acting unwarrantedly against journalists who report on speech protected by the First Amendment, such as dissent, and the public acts of law enforcement."

"The media are the eyes and ears of the American people—that is why there are laws to protect them," CCR attorney Anjana Samant added. "Law enforcement and Secret Service agents are not exempt from those laws in their dealings with un-embedded journalists who are documenting peaceful protestors or law enforcement’s use of force and violence against those protestors [sic]."

"While most protesters demonstrated peacefully, some engaged in property damage, slashing car tires, throwing bottles, tipping trash bins and breaking windows of cars and buildings," Democracy Now! reported shortly after the arrests. "One of the broken windows came in the building that houses Saint Paul Neighborhood Network—that’s SPNN —where Democracy Now! is broadcasting from this week.

"But police used harsh tactics, including chemical irritants, to disperse everyone, even those protesters who remained peaceful. Officers in riot gear fired teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets in a series of standoffs around the downtown St. Paul area."

Police arrested 283 people during the RNC's opening day and had in the weeks prior been engaging in targeted harassment of activists. Over 800 arrests were made during the convention. The New York Times noted that an estimated 50 of those detained were journalists.

Said Goodman: "Democracy is a messy thing and it's our job to capture it all. We shouldn't have to get a record to put things on the record."

This video of Amy Goodman's arrest is from outside the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, published to YouTube on Sept. 1, 2008.

This video of Nicole Salazar's arrest is from outside the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, published to YouTube on Sept. 2, 2008.

This video of the 2008 RNC protests was captured by protesters on the scene and features some narration by a reporter from Minnesota citizen journalism outlet The Uptake, published Sept. 3, 2008.

eaten sedition and disrupt anything they want and no one gets arrested? The double standard of arresting left wing protestors is patently obvious.