Journalist Cleared of Riot Charges in South Dakota (nbcnews.com) 79
Her video went viral, viewed more than 14 million times, and triggering concerns online when she was threatened with prison. But a North Dakota judge "refused to authorize riot charges against award-winning journalist Amy Goodman for her reporting on an attack against Native American-led anti-pipeline protesters." An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes NBC News:
Goodman described the victory as a "great vindication of the First Amendment," although McLean County State's Attorney Ladd Erickson told The New York Times that additional charges were possible. "I believe they want to keep the investigation open and see if there is any evidence in the unedited and unpublished videos that we could better detail in an affidavit for the judge," Erickson told the newspaper.
The native Americans "were attempting to block the destruction of sacred sites, including ancestral burial grounds," according to a new article co-authored by Goodman about her experiences, which argues that "Attempts to criminalize nonviolent land and water defenders, humiliate them and arrest journalists should not pave the way for this pipeline."
The native Americans "were attempting to block the destruction of sacred sites, including ancestral burial grounds," according to a new article co-authored by Goodman about her experiences, which argues that "Attempts to criminalize nonviolent land and water defenders, humiliate them and arrest journalists should not pave the way for this pipeline."
s/South Dakota/North Dakota/ (Score:3, Informative)
As a North Dakotan, I've always suspected no one knows the difference.
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As a North Dakotan, I've always suspected no one knows the difference.
Yes we do. You guys don't have Mount Rushmore!
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As a South Dakotan, I can say that South Dakota is better than ND in every way possible. **FLAME**
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As a South Dakotan, I can say that South Dakota is better than ND in every way possible. **FLAME**
Sorry, but North Dakota has the best hockey arena anywhere. #RalphEngelstadArena
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I've been to a UND game there, and it is very nice.
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Maybe up until this month... Edmonton's new arena "Rogers Place" has kneecapped pretty much every bee in the Northern Hemisphere.
Re:s/South Dakota/North Dakota/ (Score:5, Funny)
As a North Dakotan, I've always suspected no one knows the difference.
I was planning to visit a friend in North Dakota, and he gave me directions to his house that included "Drive about half an hour until you see a tree, then turn left." When I asked for more specific directions, like the name of the road, he ensured me that just looking for a tree was sufficient. He was correct.
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Did he ensure you or assure you?
It's a very nutritious tree...
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No, but his yacht was rigged.
Still a justice failure (Score:4, Insightful)
Many may say "this is the justice system working as intended" . If you are one of those people: you are wrong. This is the justice system being abused to send a message to all who disagree. "careful, we can hurt you. you mind want to consider before becoming going against us."
And people still wonder how we managed to end up with the presidential candidates we currently have... We do not vote in anticipating for a bright and better future anymore. We vote in fear.
Re: Still a justice failure (Score:5, Insightful)
They did not succeed in their stated aims, but that is not the same as "failed". I'd hazard these douchebags were happy with the message that they sent.
The only "fail" condition for these officials would have been some form of punishment up to and including deprivation of the roles and responsibilities as government agents.
They basically threw some shit at the wall to see if it would stick. It didn't, but it did leave a nice stain, and they're free to do it again and again in the future.
Re: Still a justice failure (Score:4, Interesting)
In 2008 Amy Goodman filed a civil suit against the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police Departments, the Ramsey County Sheriff and United States Secret Service which resulted in a settlement.
So, the day ain't over yet.
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A settlement.
That's legalese for taking a bribe to go away, right?
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So, the settlement money came out of the taxpayer's pocket in the end. Great. Just great.
Can't the assholes responsible be sued personally?
Re: Still a justice failure (Score:5, Insightful)
Well it is the justice system just like it should.
Not true. Dragging someone through an expensive and time consuming legal process is often far worse than any possible judicially imposed punishment.
Some assholes _tried_ to abuse it though, and failed.
1. They abused it by spending the tax dollars, and on behalf of, the citizens of North Dakota.
2. There is (apparently) no consequences, either legally or politically, for the abusers.
This is not "as it should be".
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it needs a better title like "journalist released after being warned to "dont do that again or else"
Is malicious prosecution ever treated as a felony? (Score:5, Insightful)
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This might have happened decades ago, when things like Watergate were possible. But now the media are fully beholden to the Ruling Elite, and the Patriot Act is there to punish those who think otherwise. Things will go as the Caste decide.
Goodman works for the independent and viewer funded Democracy Now! network. She is one of the anchors. I agree that a lot of the media are under control, but not her.
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SHUSH! She broke a law. Breitbart and Drudge told him, and thus was it so! Details are for those who hate America.
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Well rassle up your rooty-tooty-point-and-shooty and go take care of them radical leftists, Dippity Internet Warrior.
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Re:progressive thinking (Score:5, Insightful)
But heaven forbid people want to build an oil pipeline, something that actually makes roads safer and actually saves energy: then progressives are up in arms and start protesting and rioting, and they are not above using Native Americans as props in their political theater.
Until you start using the most primitive of available technologies to make oil pipelines safe, like double-walled pipes with interstitial leak monitors, you can stick those oil pipelines up your ass.
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That's a bullshit argument. The pipeline uses whatever technologies federal regulators imposed on it. And that's obviously not going to satisfy either Amy Goodman or the tribal chiefs.
You're projecting your own desires.
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That's a bullshit argument. The pipeline uses whatever technologies federal regulators imposed on it. And that's obviously not going to satisfy either Amy Goodman or the tribal chiefs.
Ah, so you admit the glorious job creators wouldn't give two wet squirts about safety if the evil government didn't impose upon them to do so!
I feel like progress has been made.
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Well, yes, as owners of the land that the pipeline runs over, the government is naturally the institution demanding safety. What makes government "evil" is that it usually acquires property by force, gives it away to powerful special interests, and does a piss poor job managing and preserving it.
That is, if this land (and the Indian
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as owners of the land that the pipeline runs over, the government is naturally the institution demanding safety. What makes government "evil" is that it usually acquires property by force, gives it away to powerful special interests, and does a piss poor job managing and preserving it.
That is, if this land (and the Indian territory) actually was private property and managed as private property, then there would be nothing to riot and protest about.
Wait, is it evil to acquire property by force, or not? Because... how do you think the government got the land this nation is based upon?
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To a classical liberal like myself, of course it is.
If you're a progressive, socialist, or other kind of statist, on the other hand, then the use of force to take people's property is necessarily OK, since your kind of government wouldn't function without it.
Some of the land was taken by force, other land was simply unoccupied.
Are you trying to get at something?
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Some of the land was taken by force, other land was simply unoccupied.
There was no land which was simply unoccupied. Some of it was very sparsely populated, but the natives had over ten thousand years to figure out what the population densities should look like.
Are you trying to get at something?
It's the government's land, because they took it by force! But wait, it's wrong to take land by force. So... give your land back to the natives and fuck off.
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What you call "the natives" were thousands of different tribes, groups, and nations. And there was plenty of unoccupied land after European diseases had (unintentionally) killed off more than 95% of the population of the Americas. You're demonstrating your ignorance and racism by reducing the pre-Columbian people and t
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You're saying it was OK to take land as long as you kill the occupants first, as long as it's your doings that killed them but it's not really your fault.
The natives were here first. Sure, their ancestors came from East Africa like all the rest of us, but centuries or millenia of one group occupying land does qualify them as natives, if the word has any meaning. US settlers didn't seem to care much about the diverse political and social systems, as long as they could get rid of them and take their land
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The pre-Columbian people that land was taken from are dead; you can't return anything to them.
I think you mean pre-Columbus. Pre-Columbian would be prior to the founding of Columbia. That would also be the case, but it's not really what you're going for.
Regardless, some of those peoples are still around, in spite of our government's best efforts to commit genocide.
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If you don't understand a word, I suggest you use a dictionary [dictionary.com].
Well, yes, some of those peoples are still around, which matters to racists and fascists, who believe that races and peoples have rights and share collective guilt. None of those people are still around, which is what matters from the poin
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Well, yes, some of those peoples are still around, which matters to racists and fascists, who believe that races and peoples have rights and share collective guilt. None of those people are still around, which is what matters from the point of justice and liberty.
It was the peoples who owned the land. They were very much territorial. In some cases, land was owned by a smaller group like a tribe or tribelet. The land was taken from them collectively, so any redress must be to them collectively. You might not recognize the value of the collective, but they do.
The truth is that the land you currently possess was taken from the prior owners by force. It's quite possible that they or their descendants are still around, and if you actually believed that taking property by
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Stolen property is only returned to someone who can actually establish legal ownership. That means demonstrating that the item was originally owned by the person and that the person now making a claim has inherited that property. Furthermore, there are statutes of limitations and issues of jurisdiction, which means
Had similar issues in NH, but we are winning a war (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a migration movement in New Hampshire called the Free State Project and its attracting a lot of liberty-minded individuals to the state for the purpose of pursing liberty and freedom. The underlying philosophy is that you should not utilize violence, fraud, or coercion to achieve social or political goals. Unfortunately that's exactly what a state does. If there is no victim, violence, theft, fraud, or coercion there should be no crime. Principled libertarians (as opposed to the frauds that make up
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That's a nice euphemism for 'a bunch of freeloaders who want all the advantages of a modern state but refuse to pay for it'. Don't believe me? Then why is the first reason the Free State Project puts up on its list taxes?
Nothing to do with freedom, unless it is the freedom to be a moocher on what others built.
Let's get the other journalists cleared as well (Score:4, Informative)
By all means, celebrate Amy Goodman's charges being dropped. But did you know there are many other journalists also facing charges for covering the pipeline resistance?
Two documentarians facing decades in prison. [theguardian.com]
Four Unicorn riot journalists facing charges in North Dakota and Iowa [www.unicornriot.ninja], and another was arrested on Saturday [www.unicornriot.ninja] as part of the largest set of arrests in one incident to date.
Follow /r/NoDAPL [reddit.com] for more.
Read the New yorker article (Score:2)
In the 24 October issue, there's an article about former detective Peter Forcelli, who now works to get wrongfully convicted folks exonerated. It's a sad tale about failings (and biases) of juries, judges, cops, and DAs. Just like the quote in this case, where the local DA wants to keep the case open just in case they can find something else indictable. He got caught doing bullshit and now wants to cover his ass regardless of the truth.
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Seems to me that the judges are doing their job by tossing these charges as soon as they look at them, so juries aren't involved. The abuse is from the cops and DAs.
Not over and not just one journalist (Score:2)
Other journalists are also facing charges. This is not over by a long shot.
It should be noted that the charges are being brought at county level. State/Federal prosecutors can AND SHOULD step in to curb this kind of legal system abuse.