*Last night John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for President of the United States. While a momentous occasion, the mainstream media has missed the story completely. Demonstrations have been taking place all week in the Twin Cities that have led to hundreds if not close to one thousand or more arrests of protesters. While many protesters were instigators, most were not, simply using their First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech. This is something that I take great pride in and seeing fellow young people express their voice only to be shut down is despicable.
Even more disheartening is the total lack of mainstream media coverage this is receiving. If you scroll through the top stories on CNN.com, there is finally, now at the conclusion of the convention, a link letting you view a few videos of the protests that took place. Police arrested protesters, charged them with felony riot and have released most. While the severe charges will not stick, some face up to a year in jail for their actions. The media has remained silent.
Protests began as soon as the convention started on Monday, overshadowed by coverage of Hurricane Gustav and came to a head on Tuesday evening. There was a music festival called the Ripple Effect Music Festival, which had all the proper permits to hold this festival in St. Paul on Tuesday. The popular band Rage Against the Machine, well known for their political activism, was scheduled to play the event. Upon attempting to take the stage, police prevented the band (who just recently reunited) from even taking the stage. The band took to the streets. Grabbing a megaphone, singer Zach de la Rocha and guitarist Tom Morello addressed the crowd about protesting peacefully and proceeded to perform two songs sans instruments. After the band left, police promptly arrested nearly 200 more protesters.
Rage did get to play a show the following night, Wednesday at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Upon concluding the show de la Rocha told fans to leave peacefully. Not all did. Police in riot gear were waiting and promptly arrested after fans took to the streets and began protesting what de la Rocha called the "fascist Republican agenda."
The protests for me became a bit more personal when a photographer from my former school, the University of Kentucky was arrested amidst the protesting this week. He was a photographer, press pass included. He was doing what any responsible journalist might do, cover the story. He was charged with felony riot.
The media continued their silence all week. Now agree or disagree with the protesters taking to the streets, this was a story. A major one at that. The journalists that did take to the streets were being intimidated, threatened, and yes, even arrested. This prevents Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Speech, and is downright un-American. Pro-war, anti-war, pro-Bush, anti-Bush, Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, young, old, it doesn't matter folks. These were people that couldn't express their right to free speech because a few decided to spoil it for the many and the cops went overboard. Round up those that are causing destruction to property, interrupting the protests, or threatening police. Next time, I shouldn't have to look very hard to see police blasting a woman in the face with pepper spray or dragging someone through the streets. We did this in 1968, let's never do it again and shame on the media for shoving to the back page.
Cops should be there to serve and protect. Arrest those that are causing a danger, but kids waving American flags calling for an end to the war giving you the peace sign? Why spray them? What did they do? Oh yeah, they decided to disagree with the establishment. They paid the price.
*The picture is of Kentucky Kernel photojounrnalist Ed Matthews. He was photographing the protests and was not taking part in them. He was doing the job of the people we study in this class, reporting the news. At least he was trying to, and trying to do it honestly.
