According to Democracy Now! over 400 people, including 12 journalists were arrested on the last day of the Republican National Convention yesterday. Among the arrested were Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and Democracy Now! producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who had already been arrested earlier in the week.
Again, not that any of this is surprising, its another deployment of the now infamous Miami Model, first seen in the US at the protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas protests in Miami in 2003. And its a reality that many around the world (and in our own city) live with day in and day out.
And again, its not that these events are more newsworthy than other incidents of police brutality, torture, and political repression, but they are still shocking.
This, detailed in the transcript from DN! below, illustrates what I think we're going to see more and more of, and what we're going to hear very little about from the mainstream media. Thanks again to Democracy Now! for their amazing coverage of the RNC, and day-to-day. Keep it up.
Demand that charges against DN!'s producers and host be dropped here.
AMY GOODMAN: News conference of the RNC Eight. During it, a nineteen-year-old activist named Elliot Hughes said he was beaten and tortured inside the Ramsey County Jail.
ELLIOT HUGHES: My name is Elliot Hughes. E-L-L-I-O-T, H-U-G-H-E-S. Me and some friends were chanting for-so that we could receive food in Ramsey County Jail, because we hadn't been provided food. And six or seven officers came into my cell, and they took-one officer punched me in the face, right here where you see this bruise. And then they slammed-and I fell to the ground, unconscious. And the officer grabbed me by the head, slammed my head on the ground and re-awoke me out of-to consciousness. And I was bleeding everywhere. They dragged me to another detaining cell. They put a bag over my head that had a gag on it. And they used pain compliance tactics on me for about an hour and a half. They pressed-they separated my jaw as hard as they could with their fingers. And they bent my ankles back. They basically bent my foot backwards. I was screaming for God and like screaming for mercy, crying, asking them why they were doing this. And I've never been so violated in my life.
AMY GOODMAN: That was nineteen-year-old Elliot Hughes, speaking at a news conference on Thursday. Sheriff Bob Fletcher told the Star Tribune that Hughes was, quote, "extremely disruptive in jail," and that, quote, "it took some force to control him."
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