According to National Public Radio there were some 1700 arrests over the course of the Republican National Convention. Photojournalist Moises Saman who works for Newsday in NYC was one of them.
Another highly subjective arrest was of activist and artist Joshua Kinberg. Watch this interview on Hardball with Ron Reagan on Sunday August 29, 2004.
And then there is this article about Arun Venugopal's experiences at the RNC.
I wonder who is more out of control.
Seshu is an Avon, Connecticut based headshot photographer and family portrait photographer. He edits and publishes Tiffinbox and produces Tiffincast for photographers like you!
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NYPD just went berserk arresting everyone in sight during the protests.
I was photographing a group of protesters in a street when the police blocked the street from both sides and without even giving a warning to disperse, they arrested everyone in the street, including school kids going home, people living in the apartments in that street who were just walking on the sidewalk. I was detained and arrested for 27 hours inspite of showing my press credentials. And the treatment NYPD gave us was infuriating. I got back my film and cameras after they made me wait for 6 hours in the night after I was released. My friend Betty had even worse experience than mine.
Here is her letter:
I need to get this off my back by sharing what’s happened to me during the last 2 horrendous days!! I’m asking for each of you to please take the time to read this as its good to know about the system you live in.
I have just undergone one of the most inhumane, undignifying, and downright illegal experiences of my life during the past 2 days of being detained by the police. On Tuesday night, I was out photographing a
street fair that was taking place on 16th street in response to the RNC- its part of a photo documentary on Union Square that I have been working on. The next thing you know, the police blocked off the street, both ways, and everyone, including innocent bystanders that were on the sidewalk not taking part of the march, were blocked off and cornered. I was one of them. After 2 hours of being on the ground and not being told why we were being detained, NYPD handcuffed us tightly and took us to an extra jail space they had arranged in response to the RNC. This space was an old warehouse garage (Pier 57) for buses and trucks hence the floor had toxic oil, and was so greasy and black (I’m not exaggerating!) I can’t believe they actually expected people to sleep on this dirty ass toxic floor, but that is what we did. Nowhere to sit, just stand, we fell asleep awaiting to be informed of why we were being detained, and when we would have access to speak to a lawyer. This happened to 1800 people, “detained” from 24 hours to almost 3 days that night, taken from various locations. The cops were so disorganized, inconsiderate, and mad that they were working long hours and could give a shit about us. At 5AM I finally I got a voucher for my property which they confiscated. My camera equipment (worth about $1800) was taken as “evidence of arrest” and I won’t get it back until the date of appearance before the judge, which is a month from now. We were then escorted out the next morning at 11:30am, to only be taken to Central Booking downtown, again with handcuffs and dirty as hell from the oily floors we slept in. Central Booking is normally a male detention center and they placed us in a jail cell. An hour passed and they transported us to yet another cell to await to get fingerprinted- another 3 hour wait. Then another cell for another 2 hours before we got our pictures taken. And then more waiting, and then another cell until it was 1 am, I finally gave up on thinking I was going to be released. It was cold, and we slept on some plastic mats on the floor. NYPD came around with blankets at around 8am in the morning, and my name finally got called at 10:30am today only to be given a desk appearance ticket to appear before a judge on October 5. So for a summons, I waited more than 40 hours!! That has been my story for the past 2 days and I am LIVID. I feel this was downright illegal, degrading, and disgusting!!! and a tactic to keep people purposely off the street for stupid ass Bush’s acceptance speech tonight …and the cops – they were just tools for this fucked up system.
Is it all worth it? I don’t regret a thing although I feel like SHIT and emotionally distressed. This horrible experience has served to make me fight against all this dirty bureaucracy, and red tape system we have in place. To stand even stronger against BUSH and to fight for justice. I was basically detained since Tuesday at 7:30 ..fucking 40 hours for NOTHING- practicing my constitutional rights and doing my job. This is the first time the city has detained these many people at one given day and the first time in my life, I’ve been arrested.
Currently @700 people are being held, in spite of 3 judge’s orders to release people. The latest court order was to release 470 people immediately. The latest update I got is that the city in contempt of
its ruling regarding the release of prisoners and will be charged $1000 per each of the 470 prisoners that should have been released by 5pm. Although I was not one of them, I feel bad for those that are still detained under these horrible conditions.
Also, there was a dispute in court over the exact number of detainees who are currently “lost” within the system, meaning they are in limbo between being handcuffed and actually being charged. city has admitted there are 54 of these cases. Legal is saying there are up to 700.
There is a supposed Class action suit against the city, which I am definitely being part of. The city has let me down and I want JUSTICE for my unconstitutional incarceration,
If you made it this far, thankx for reading this guys. Your acknowledgment already makes me feel better about this.
Both Theo and Hari, also photographers and friends of mine, were also detained with me but eventually after being moved around so much, everyone was split up and lost within the chaos.
I’ll keep you posted and let you know what happens. You can get more info on http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/114761
The Indy media is good about covering news that tends to get overlooked by big media corporations. I’ve attached 2 pics that were sneaked off by someone there. Don’t know how since everyone’s stuff was confiscated.
Yours truly,
Betty A. Bastidas
NYPD just went berserk arresting everyone in sight during the protests.
I was photographing a group of protesters in a street when the police blocked the street from both sides and without even giving a warning to disperse, they arrested everyone in the street, including school kids going home, people living in the apartments in that street who were just walking on the sidewalk. I was detained and arrested for 27 hours inspite of showing my press credentials. And the treatment NYPD gave us was infuriating. I got back my film and cameras after they made me wait for 6 hours in the night after I was released. My friend Betty had even worse experience than mine.
Here is her letter:
I need to get this off my back by sharing what’s happened to me during the last 2 horrendous days!! I’m asking for each of you to please take the time to read this as its good to know about the system you live in.
I have just undergone one of the most inhumane, undignifying, and downright illegal experiences of my life during the past 2 days of being detained by the police. On Tuesday night, I was out photographing a
street fair that was taking place on 16th street in response to the RNC- its part of a photo documentary on Union Square that I have been working on. The next thing you know, the police blocked off the street, both ways, and everyone, including innocent bystanders that were on the sidewalk not taking part of the march, were blocked off and cornered. I was one of them. After 2 hours of being on the ground and not being told why we were being detained, NYPD handcuffed us tightly and took us to an extra jail space they had arranged in response to the RNC. This space was an old warehouse garage (Pier 57) for buses and trucks hence the floor had toxic oil, and was so greasy and black (I’m not exaggerating!) I can’t believe they actually expected people to sleep on this dirty ass toxic floor, but that is what we did. Nowhere to sit, just stand, we fell asleep awaiting to be informed of why we were being detained, and when we would have access to speak to a lawyer. This happened to 1800 people, “detained” from 24 hours to almost 3 days that night, taken from various locations. The cops were so disorganized, inconsiderate, and mad that they were working long hours and could give a shit about us. At 5AM I finally I got a voucher for my property which they confiscated. My camera equipment (worth about $1800) was taken as “evidence of arrest” and I won’t get it back until the date of appearance before the judge, which is a month from now. We were then escorted out the next morning at 11:30am, to only be taken to Central Booking downtown, again with handcuffs and dirty as hell from the oily floors we slept in. Central Booking is normally a male detention center and they placed us in a jail cell. An hour passed and they transported us to yet another cell to await to get fingerprinted- another 3 hour wait. Then another cell for another 2 hours before we got our pictures taken. And then more waiting, and then another cell until it was 1 am, I finally gave up on thinking I was going to be released. It was cold, and we slept on some plastic mats on the floor. NYPD came around with blankets at around 8am in the morning, and my name finally got called at 10:30am today only to be given a desk appearance ticket to appear before a judge on October 5. So for a summons, I waited more than 40 hours!! That has been my story for the past 2 days and I am LIVID. I feel this was downright illegal, degrading, and disgusting!!! and a tactic to keep people purposely off the street for stupid ass Bush’s acceptance speech tonight …and the cops – they were just tools for this fucked up system.
Is it all worth it? I don’t regret a thing although I feel like SHIT and emotionally distressed. This horrible experience has served to make me fight against all this dirty bureaucracy, and red tape system we have in place. To stand even stronger against BUSH and to fight for justice. I was basically detained since Tuesday at 7:30 ..fucking 40 hours for NOTHING- practicing my constitutional rights and doing my job. This is the first time the city has detained these many people at one given day and the first time in my life, I’ve been arrested.
Currently @700 people are being held, in spite of 3 judge’s orders to release people. The latest court order was to release 470 people immediately. The latest update I got is that the city in contempt of
its ruling regarding the release of prisoners and will be charged $1000 per each of the 470 prisoners that should have been released by 5pm. Although I was not one of them, I feel bad for those that are still detained under these horrible conditions.
Also, there was a dispute in court over the exact number of detainees who are currently “lost” within the system, meaning they are in limbo between being handcuffed and actually being charged. city has admitted there are 54 of these cases. Legal is saying there are up to 700.
There is a supposed Class action suit against the city, which I am definitely being part of. The city has let me down and I want JUSTICE for my unconstitutional incarceration,
If you made it this far, thankx for reading this guys. Your acknowledgment already makes me feel better about this.
Both Theo and Hari, also photographers and friends of mine, were also detained with me but eventually after being moved around so much, everyone was split up and lost within the chaos.
I’ll keep you posted and let you know what happens. You can get more info on http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/114761
The Indy media is good about covering news that tends to get overlooked by big media corporations. I’ve attached 2 pics that were sneaked off by someone there. Don’t know how since everyone’s stuff was confiscated.
Yours truly,
Betty A. Bastidas