Legal Commentary

Charges Dropped Against Journalists Arrested at RNC

By TChris

No surprise here:

Charges will be dropped against journalists who were arrested during the Republican National Convention protests and cited with unlawful assembly.

Despite the St. Paul mayor's assurance that the decision to drop charges serves "the public's interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press," the charges are being dropped because they would have gone nowhere. It isn't unlawful to assemble (the First Amendment protects that right) particularly when journalists "assemble" to do their jobs as reporters (also protected by the First Amendment). The arrests were merely to keep the journalists from reporting on the tactics used by law enforcement to quash dissent. They were never intended to result in prosecutions.

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Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said, "It's always good to learn that a bogus charge against you has been dropped. We're still waiting for police to account for the unprovoked smackdowns of two of our photographers."

Amy Goodman is among those arrestees who will not face charges.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 27, 2008 (boomark / email).