We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Student Photographer's Arrest: Snapshot of Systemic Abuse

Click here to access article by Linn Washington from OpEd News. (More material added on 3-31-2012)

There is widespread evidence of reactionary measures being taken by the enforcers of the One Percent against even the reporting and documenting by journalists or ordinary citizens of police brutality and other illegal activities. 
Police harassing citizens lawfully documenting police activities taking place in public is a "widespread and continuing" problem according to the ACLU.

"The right of citizens to record the police is a critical check and balance," an ACLU analyst noted during a September 2011 speech where he referenced six incidents in five cities of police arresting citizen photographers during just the spring of last year.

Yes, police attacking civilians for lawfully photographing public spaces, police routinely employing unlawful excessive force and prosecutors too frequently turning a blind eye to such police misconduct are all nationwide problems.
Also, see this audio report and transcript of a photojournalist from Santa Cruz, California, who is being charges with several felonies for simply covering a protest event in that city. See this regarding widespread arrests of journalists in New York during recent protests.