MINNEAPOLIS, MN (September 2, 2008) – Associated Press photojournalist and NPPA member Matt Rourke, along with Democracy Now! television and radio host Amy Goodman and two of her producers, were released from a county jail a few hours after they were arrested Monday while covering an anti-war march during the first day of the Republican National Convention.
In addition, two University of Kentucky students and the photography advisor for the UK student newspaper, along with a freelancer shooting for Atlas Press, were also arrested while photographing protesters.
Rourke told News Photographer magazine tonight that when he got out of jail he had a drink and "tried to wash off all the pepper spray and get some sleep."
And yet by Tuesday night he was back on the police lines with cameras covering protesters about six blocks from the convention site. "It was a low-key night" compared to Monday, Rourke said. "The police were throwing flash grenades, which are deafening, and a little pepper spray." But tonight the photographer didn't get arrested. He laughed, "I had specific instructions not to!"
The Kentucky Kernel, UK's 37-year-old student newspaper, reports that UK student photographers Ed Matthews and Britney McIntosh and faculty adviser Jim Winn were arrested while covering the protests Monday and were detained at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center in St. Paul. The Kernel says the three have been charged with felony rioting. If convicted the charge carries a minimum sentence of one year in jail and a $3,000 fine. Their arraignment could come as late as Wednesday.
An AP photograph shot by Rourke shows Matthews being hit in the face with pepper spray being fired by police from a large canister
AP says Rourke was covering protesters Monday when he was "swept up" by police who were moving in on a group of demonstrators in downtown St. Paul.
"It was the kind of day that just dragged on," Rourke said. "People were creating havoc all over the city and I was trying to stay abreast of the head of the group to cover them. Then the police swept in on us from all directions, and I was taken down from behind."
Once he was on the ground, Rourke says he recovered one of his cameras and flipped over on his back and kept shooting. His Canon Mark III cameras, scratched but not broken, were still working and he shot "until I was flipped over on my stomach and cuffed."
The photojournalist identified himself over and over to police as an Associated Press photographer. "There's a guy from The New York Times who has a picture of me on my back, holding up my credential to an officer who is standing over me with a nightstick," Rourke said. "I made it clear to police that I was an AP photographer.
"I had been moving toward the police in a passive posture, and they appeared not to have an issue with me. The police in front of me, they probably knew I was a journalist. But the one who took me down from behind, who knows.
"When I went down, the camera with the wide angle lens went one way, and the one on my right with the long lens – that's the side that I hit – I started shooting with it."
The last photograph on Rourke's memory card shows a picture of a police officer dressed in riot gear subduing and arresting an unidentified protester. The protester is face down on the pavement, and the policeman is using his left knee and the weight of his own body to press down on the back of the neck of the protester he is handcuffing.
"It is unacceptable for a working, credentialed photojournalist to be detained in the manner that AP photographer Matt Rourke was on Sept 1, 2008, in St. Paul," AP's director of photography Santiago Lyon said today. "Upon ascertaining his status as a journalist, police should have released him immediately."
A New York journalist covering the protest who witnessed the arrests said that the detained journalists were at first told by police to stay in front of the riot police, which means the photographers were situated between the advancing police line and the protesters, and then they were ordered to get down on the ground. Despite holding up their credentials to identify themselves as journalists, they were arrested, he said.
More than 280 people were arrested, police said, from the estimated 10,000 marchers who were otherwise peaceful in their protest. Law enforcement spokesmen said the arrested demonstrators were people who had broken windows, slashed tires, or harassed delegates.
Freelance photojournalist Jason Nicholas, shooting for Atlas Press, was also reportedly arrested. James McGrath at Atlas Press told NPPA's executive director Jim Straight today that Nicholas was being held on felony riot charges and may be arraigned on Wednesday, some 48 hours after his arrest.
Goodman was arrested when she asked police, who were wearing riot gear, about the status of two Democracy Now! producers who had been arrested earlier, AP says. The producers are audio tech Sharif Abdel Kouddous and producer Nicole Salazar.
Goodman approached police because she was concerned about rumors that one of the arrested producers was bleeding.
"I held up my press pass as I was filming," Democracy Now! producer Salizar told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Salizar said she had a bloody nose as the result of being pushed by police into a parked car. CPJ reports that audio technician Kouddous was arrested as he came to Salizar's side to assist her, while he was also holding up his press card.
Rourke had been held on a "gross misdemeanor riot" charge but was released early today, and a member of the Ramsey County prosecuting attorney's office told AP that no charges against the photojournalist were anticipated.
Kouddous and Salazar were arrested on a felony riot charge while Goodman was charged with misdemeanor obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer, Democracy Now! said in a statement.
A video of Goodman's arrest, aired on her program and also posted on YouTube, shows her begging police not to arrest her before she was taken away in handcuffs.
"Covering news is a constitutionally protected activity, and covering a riot is part of that coverage," AP's assistant chief of bureau David Ake said. "Photographers should not be detained for covering breaking news."
The Reporters Committee has set up a convention hotline for journalists who face legal hurdles as a result of covering the political conventions and demonstrations surrounding them, arrest, or detention. More information is online here.
Rourke has been an NPPA member since 2000. Before working for AP he was a staff photographer for the Austin American-Statesman. Rourke is a 1999 graduate of George Mason University with a BA in government and politics. Three years ago his photographs of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans ran not only in the Statesman but in news magazines around the world.
