Slashdot Mirror

Check out the Flow Studio to Transmitter Link project. It is being developed by the Philadelphia Independent Media Center and Radio Volta who are using it to feed audio to WPEB 88.1FM, a low power station in West Philly.

They have used modems, 802.11b, and the Internet to do the actual link, I'm not sure what they are using right now.

I strongly suggest you get in touch with the Prometheus Radio Project. They work with the above groups on this project and they help out LPFM's with all aspects of their stations, from the FCC process, to transmitter tech, studio setup, community outreach. They travel around the country holding radio "barnraisings" with the new crop of LPFM licenses that have been granted, I've been to one and it was fabulous.

"There really ought to be a section of politically aware sites like /. devoted to upcoming events where people can participate. I know I'd be there sometimes.

So, how about it? How many people would like to see a calendar page about upcoming political events that have significance to us? What do you think? There's a large readership here, and if only a small percentage turn out...it could be noticed. But that's just my opinion. "

Here's one: the Independent Media Center. It's a global network of independent media groups, offering news and opinion on issues like this that the MegaMedia won't cover, including upcoming protest dates and eyewitness coverage of same. I give occasional tech assistance to the group that runs the London site.
(NB: our Philadelphia site uses Slash! I wouldn't mind if the London site used it too!)
</feeble-karma-hoovering-attempt>

We need more info on actions defending Free Speech, IMHO, and we'd be delighted to receive articles, essays, and dates on actions against Copyright Barons like the ones described in this article.
--
JDF

According to this release from the Defence Attys there is no Jury at initial trial for Misdemeanors in Pennsylvania. There will, however, be a Jury for the Appeal. Don't ask ME to explain.

A more "newsy" source is needed? By now, everyone should know that Independent Media Center provides live coverage of the anti-globalization, anti-corporatization protests, as well as continuing coverage of local issues that are censored by corporate media.

See: Philadelphia IMC

See: R2K Support Site

See: Independent Media Center

My friend and roommate had har puppets and artwork destroyed by Philidelphia's police. She was building puppets and artwork for a political protest.

Their group was infiltrated by police detectives posing as activists. On August 1st, the warehouse was raided by the Philidelphia police (the police called her pupets weapons and considered the paints bomb-making materials). She was arrested along with 80 others in the warehouse (which was legimately rented).

Rather than roll over for the DA and take their slap-on-the-wrist plea bargin, she (and many others) have opted to go to court to not only clear their names, but flood the "justice" system which has so wrongfully screwed them.

This represents a major injustice -- the Philly DA publicly congratulated the police department for so efficently sweeping the undesirables under the rug for the duration of the Republican convention, effectively criminilizing orginization and peaceful protest (and I know this girl -- she's peaceful).

In any case, this is just the short of it, please visit this site for more information.

You can also contact the Philly DA and mayor here to tell them how much this sucks.:

Mayor John Street
City Hall
Philidelphia, PA
(215) 686-2181

District Attourney Lynn Abraham
1421 Arch St.
Philidelphia, PA
(215)686-8701

- I wrote an article for Hackedtobits.com (the "Home of Irresponsible Journalism") about my personal experiences in Philly. A draft of this article was posted on Slashdot (Danger in the Big Blue Room). You can see the entire piece here

Sincerely,
Vergil

I think Katz may be overreacting a bit here...and I'm not one of the Slashdot Peanut Gallery members who flash their street creds by bashing Katz.

Some sites set up recently to help facilitate coverage of political convention related news from an "outside the convention" perspective. The news is posted in a strictly "ground up fashion," and tends towards a leftist and anarchist user base. Unsurprisingly, I find it refreshing.

Indymedia LA

Indymedia Philly (a neat implementation of slash)

And if you want to bypass the corporate press:

The Media Channel

Check out www.indymedia.org for links to the independent media centers that are covering the conventions (with as much access that they can get, which generally means the streets, and the shadow convention..) www.phillyimc.org for RNC and la.indymedia.org for DNC and www.freespeech.org for live and archived TV coverage or get it on Dish Network Channel 9415 ask your local cable company, public access, or public television station, or get it on your BUD (big ugly dish - KU band) Lots of other links for a few live radio/audio broadcasts can be had there...
And even if you dont agree with the politics one way or another (or arn't even from the US/care about the US) then at very least you might find it interesting that the IMC sites are based upon a hacked up version of slash that supports multimedia submissions

These people are being arrested because the establishment wants to silence their views. I think everyone deserves to be heard, Dems, Repubs, and everyone else too. Granted, this particular story of swearing at cops & pointless arrest is stupid, but the reason that people were willing to be arrested is simply that they realize and accept the reality that speaking your mind in this country gets you thrown in jail.

And the issues that this is meant to raise are as follows: to show the the wealth gap between the upper 10 percent of Americans and everyone else, to show the senselessness of the failed drug war, to show the brutal treatment that the "criminal justice" system metes out, campaign finance reform, all issues that both major parties are totally ignoring. Republicans & Democrats are really the same party these days anyway.

For more info on the actual issues people want raised - http://www.shadowconventions.com
For protester stories with a point - http://www.phillyimc.org

From the IMC News Blast:

WHY PROTEST THE CONVENTIONS? by Mike Albert
The usual answer to "why protest the conventions"? is to list various violations of humanity that the two branches of our one corporate party - the republicans and democrats - persist in maintaining, and to note that we are demanding change in all these areas: bombing other countries like Iraq and Yugoslavia; starving countries to death as in sanctioning Cuba and Iraq; aiding and abetting massacres in Timor and Turkey, and with increasing danger, Colombia; propelling IMF and World Bank income inequality and ecological devastation; advancing domestic police and prison violence that turns communities into occupied battle zones; imposing welfare havoc that further impoverishes the already poor; facilitating generalized corporate rapaciousness that materially and socially diminishes workers?"

JELLO BIAFRA COMMENTS ON PHILLY AND SEATTLE:
Philly: "It's interesting the planners would have Republic National Convention here because it's one of the most third worldified dramatically unequal cities i know of in the U.S. Seattle: "When high finance becomes a street issue you know something is getting through and it's getting through outside the corporate mass media. What was different this time was seeing the activist environmentalists walking side by side with labor. I see a meeting of the minds and it's very important that everybody out there become a part of this, this isn't just about waiting for us to create the media reports for you. . . it's don't hate the media, become the media."

WHY ARE THEY PROTESTING? Letter to the LA Times 8/2/00
A recent article in the LA times makes no mention of why the protesters are in the streets; rather it drives a wedge between the protesters and the community the protesters want to help. Here's one person's response.

A MOVEMENT-BUILDING CRITIQUE OF PHILLY PROTESTS by Chris Crews
Did Philadelphia build on the momentum of Seattle, and DC? Did the movement get it's message across? This commentary critiques what happened in Philly with the hope of hitting harder in LA. "As this social movement grows, we need to begin to not only think strategically, but also about the big picture. Where do we want this Movement to go, what will that direction look like, what structural changes need to occur, and how will we begin to move there?

These people are being arrested because the establishment wants to silence their views. I think everyone deserves to be heard, Dems, Repubs, and everyone else too. Granted, this particular story of swearing at cops & pointless arrest is stupid, but the reason that people were willing to be arrested is simply that they realize and accept the reality that speaking your mind in this country gets you thrown in jail.

And the issues that this is meant to raise are as follows: to show the the wealth gap between the upper 10 percent of Americans and everyone else, to show the senselessness of the failed drug war, to show the brutal treatment that the "criminal justice" system metes out, campaign finance reform, all issues that both major parties are totally ignoring. Republicans & Democrats are really the same party these days anyway.

For more info on the actual issues people want raised - http://www.shadowconventions.com
For protester stories with a point - http://www.phillyimc.org

From the IMC News Blast:

WHY PROTEST THE CONVENTIONS? by Mike Albert
The usual answer to "why protest the conventions"? is to list various violations of humanity that the two branches of our one corporate party - the republicans and democrats - persist in maintaining, and to note that we are demanding change in all these areas: bombing other countries like Iraq and Yugoslavia; starving countries to death as in sanctioning Cuba and Iraq; aiding and abetting massacres in Timor and Turkey, and with increasing danger, Colombia; propelling IMF and World Bank income inequality and ecological devastation; advancing domestic police and prison violence that turns communities into occupied battle zones; imposing welfare havoc that further impoverishes the already poor; facilitating generalized corporate rapaciousness that materially and socially diminishes workers?"

JELLO BIAFRA COMMENTS ON PHILLY AND SEATTLE:
Philly: "It's interesting the planners would have Republic National Convention here because it's one of the most third worldified dramatically unequal cities i know of in the U.S. Seattle: "When high finance becomes a street issue you know something is getting through and it's getting through outside the corporate mass media. What was different this time was seeing the activist environmentalists walking side by side with labor. I see a meeting of the minds and it's very important that everybody out there become a part of this, this isn't just about waiting for us to create the media reports for you. . . it's don't hate the media, become the media."

WHY ARE THEY PROTESTING? Letter to the LA Times 8/2/00
A recent article in the LA times makes no mention of why the protesters are in the streets; rather it drives a wedge between the protesters and the community the protesters want to help. Here's one person's response.

A MOVEMENT-BUILDING CRITIQUE OF PHILLY PROTESTS by Chris Crews
Did Philadelphia build on the momentum of Seattle, and DC? Did the movement get it's message across? This commentary critiques what happened in Philly with the hope of hitting harder in LA. "As this social movement grows, we need to begin to not only think strategically, but also about the big picture. Where do we want this Movement to go, what will that direction look like, what structural changes need to occur, and how will we begin to move there?

These people are being arrested because the establishment wants to silence their views. I think everyone deserves to be heard, Dems, Repubs, and everyone else too. Granted, this particular story of swearing at cops & pointless arrest is stupid, but the reason that people were willing to be arrested is simply that they realize and accept the reality that speaking your mind in this country gets you thrown in jail.

And the issues that this is meant to raise are as follows: to show the the wealth gap between the upper 10 percent of Americans and everyone else, to show the senselessness of the failed drug war, to show the brutal treatment that the "criminal justice" system metes out, campaign finance reform, all issues that both major parties are totally ignoring. Republicans & Democrats are really the same party these days anyway.

For more info on the actual issues people want raised - http://www.shadowconventions.com
For protester stories with a point - http://www.phillyimc.org

From the IMC News Blast:

WHY PROTEST THE CONVENTIONS? by Mike Albert
The usual answer to "why protest the conventions"? is to list various violations of humanity that the two branches of our one corporate party - the republicans and democrats - persist in maintaining, and to note that we are demanding change in all these areas: bombing other countries like Iraq and Yugoslavia; starving countries to death as in sanctioning Cuba and Iraq; aiding and abetting massacres in Timor and Turkey, and with increasing danger, Colombia; propelling IMF and World Bank income inequality and ecological devastation; advancing domestic police and prison violence that turns communities into occupied battle zones; imposing welfare havoc that further impoverishes the already poor; facilitating generalized corporate rapaciousness that materially and socially diminishes workers?"

JELLO BIAFRA COMMENTS ON PHILLY AND SEATTLE:
Philly: "It's interesting the planners would have Republic National Convention here because it's one of the most third worldified dramatically unequal cities i know of in the U.S. Seattle: "When high finance becomes a street issue you know something is getting through and it's getting through outside the corporate mass media. What was different this time was seeing the activist environmentalists walking side by side with labor. I see a meeting of the minds and it's very important that everybody out there become a part of this, this isn't just about waiting for us to create the media reports for you. . . it's don't hate the media, become the media."

WHY ARE THEY PROTESTING? Letter to the LA Times 8/2/00
A recent article in the LA times makes no mention of why the protesters are in the streets; rather it drives a wedge between the protesters and the community the protesters want to help. Here's one person's response.

A MOVEMENT-BUILDING CRITIQUE OF PHILLY PROTESTS by Chris Crews
Did Philadelphia build on the momentum of Seattle, and DC? Did the movement get it's message across? This commentary critiques what happened in Philly with the hope of hitting harder in LA. "As this social movement grows, we need to begin to not only think strategically, but also about the big picture. Where do we want this Movement to go, what will that direction look like, what structural changes need to occur, and how will we begin to move there?

These people are being arrested because the establishment wants to silence their views. I think everyone deserves to be heard, Dems, Repubs, and everyone else too. Granted, this particular story of swearing at cops & pointless arrest is stupid, but the reason that people were willing to be arrested is simply that they realize and accept the reality that speaking your mind in this country gets you thrown in jail.

And the issues that this is meant to raise are as follows: to show the the wealth gap between the upper 10 percent of Americans and everyone else, to show the senselessness of the failed drug war, to show the brutal treatment that the "criminal justice" system metes out, campaign finance reform, all issues that both major parties are totally ignoring. Republicans & Democrats are really the same party these days anyway.

For more info on the actual issues people want raised - http://www.shadowconventions.com
For protester stories with a point - http://www.phillyimc.org

From the IMC News Blast:

WHY PROTEST THE CONVENTIONS? by Mike Albert
The usual answer to "why protest the conventions"? is to list various violations of humanity that the two branches of our one corporate party - the republicans and democrats - persist in maintaining, and to note that we are demanding change in all these areas: bombing other countries like Iraq and Yugoslavia; starving countries to death as in sanctioning Cuba and Iraq; aiding and abetting massacres in Timor and Turkey, and with increasing danger, Colombia; propelling IMF and World Bank income inequality and ecological devastation; advancing domestic police and prison violence that turns communities into occupied battle zones; imposing welfare havoc that further impoverishes the already poor; facilitating generalized corporate rapaciousness that materially and socially diminishes workers?"

JELLO BIAFRA COMMENTS ON PHILLY AND SEATTLE:
Philly: "It's interesting the planners would have Republic National Convention here because it's one of the most third worldified dramatically unequal cities i know of in the U.S. Seattle: "When high finance becomes a street issue you know something is getting through and it's getting through outside the corporate mass media. What was different this time was seeing the activist environmentalists walking side by side with labor. I see a meeting of the minds and it's very important that everybody out there become a part of this, this isn't just about waiting for us to create the media reports for you. . . it's don't hate the media, become the media."

WHY ARE THEY PROTESTING? Letter to the LA Times 8/2/00
A recent article in the LA times makes no mention of why the protesters are in the streets; rather it drives a wedge between the protesters and the community the protesters want to help. Here's one person's response.

A MOVEMENT-BUILDING CRITIQUE OF PHILLY PROTESTS by Chris Crews
Did Philadelphia build on the momentum of Seattle, and DC? Did the movement get it's message across? This commentary critiques what happened in Philly with the hope of hitting harder in LA. "As this social movement grows, we need to begin to not only think strategically, but also about the big picture. Where do we want this Movement to go, what will that direction look like, what structural changes need to occur, and how will we begin to move there?

(1) Political demonstrations are certainly interesting to me, but why is this "news for nerds", as opposed to just news?

(2) There are stories leaking about some *serious* abuses of police authority going down in Philadelphia, like severe beatings before and after arrest, protestors held for several days without a charge, and so on:
http://www.phillyimc.org/
http://www.indymedia.org/

(3) As far as I can tell, these stories are not making it into the print media. If you're not on the net, you don't even know that there are thousands of people protesting, and over 300 people arrested. Oh, wait a minute, I guess there was this *one* story in a local SF paper, I just missed it:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/ex aminer/archive/2000/08/08/NEWS114 31.dtl

(4) If it makes you all feel any better, a bunch of the lefty activists I know are running down to Los Angeles to protest at the Democratic convention (anyone who's paying any attention realizes that the Democrats aren't all that much different from the Republicans these days):
http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/45/45nfdnc. html

...can be found on the Philadelphia Independent Media Center website. Warning: this information is heavily slanted to the protesters' points of view. On the other hand, it's also a neet application of Slash.

The Tyrrany Begins....

This is turning into WTO all over again: lies, abuse, police brutality etc.

You say 'huge about of property damage' in Seatlle. Really? Where? The Starbucks that got its windows broken? Or were there mass burnings and bombings by the protesters that I somehow missed?

Windows breaking, even done on a much bigger scale than in Seattle, is not a 'hue amount of property damage'.

'Police arrested people. Everyone complains'. Police teargassed and pepper-sprayed people. I have the damn video footage, and I know for a fact that police, many times, took non-violent protesters and forced their eyes open and pepper-sprayed their eyes at range of one foor or less. THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THAT. If you think that blocking traffic deserves pepper-spraying in the eyes, I pity you. 'Everyone complains': that's not true either. A lot of people didn't complain, notably the mainstream media. As for your suggestions about doing something about it, please be serious. You have to give up your career and become a cop to protest the system? Doesn't seem right, somehow... and police review boards are notoriously ineffectual.

As for the 200 guy, and the other people being held on misdemeanors charges: all those tihngs are isdemeanors for a reason. I doubt he was making gas bombs, incidentally. Also, since they arrested everyone at a puppet-making factory (how surreal can this stuff get?)on misdemeanor charges and also set ridiculous bails for them, it's entirely reasonable to think that the 2600 guy was in some kind of similar situation.

Oh, and sure, let's pull out the 'everyone in jail says they're innocent' line to discredit the reporting. How powerful an argument that is... it seems clear from the reports that in general there was a pattern of arrestingand harassing organizers. That's why this guy was arrested. He wasn't 'doing nothing' but he wasn't guilty of anything except looking like (and possibly being, I don't know) a protest organizer. Which isn't exactly a crime for which really high bail is reasonable.

The reporting may not have been stellar, and perhaps the 'New Media' get little respect because of it. However, there has been no coverage by the mainstream media, who are too busy falling over themselves about the 'compassionate new face' of the Republican party. So don't hold them up for respect either.

Your father was a cop for 20 years... does this make you unable to believe the stories of torture and abuse in the prisons? Does this make you believe that I'm lying above about the pepper spray? Does it make you think that any police action must be justified, and that therefore all of the above are justified by default? A lot of people seem to have that last view: 'the police are (by and large) good and decent people, and so if they're abusing these people there must be a good reason'. Which is rather flawed reasoning. While your father, and lots of other police, may have been entirely honorable, good people, that doesn't change the fact that police, especially the riot forces, are used to protect the interests of the powerful, and are fairly brutal towards groups they don't like. (Peaceniks, hippies, 'anarchists', etc.). The harsh truth, which a lot of people don't want to face, is that the US bears an awful lot of resemblance to a police state whenever the usual boundaries of discourse (i.e. 'Democrat or Republican?') are exceeded.

For some of the the demonstrators' points of view, see www.phillyimc.org

Specifically a link to the relevant article..

Here

It is a letter from the prisoners which basically does not put up any hard facts and its more or less a nice witty letter one of these guys have written

However right now its just to early to say who is right or wrong... Period. We dont have all the facts so its hard to really make personal judgements yet.. .so wait this out and do our best to be well informed such as reading things like this..

Jeremy


If you think education is expensive, try ignornace

Besides, they ripped someone's ear off. They RIPPED SOMEONE'S EAR OFF! Disfigurement is an extreme punishment for a misdemeanor.

Ch

And just like the WTO, there is an Independent Media Center in Philly - this had been in the works since far before the protests in Washington DC in April (when the IMF and World Bank met) - the Democratic Convention in LA is going to get the same treatment, it is like the WTO, because we are still out here and we are still angry about these things, and everytime someone pushes us down, we get right up and work harder.

Check out The Philly Independent Media Center - they've got quite a juicy bit of information covering the protests - pictures, videos, etc. Not only that, but they are running Slashdot (or a significantly hacked version thereof). I've been going to their site most of the week because the larger corporate media has hardly said a peep about the massive protests and arrests that have been happening. On NPR's "All Things Considered" [sic] a reporter said that Bush's acceptance speach was going to be the biggest news of the whole week. Probably if you don't pay attention to anything BUT the RNC.

www.phillyimc.org has a lot of info related to what happened during the RNC. It's nice getting another point of view...

-k

Others will mention it, but the SLASH-based site to go for news about the protests is philadelphia independent media center.

I'm sure that they would just frame you for something similar if they happened to get inadmissible evidence.

"Scott, Ann and Milo were transporting the other 16 people in their van to the scene of an area to protest. Kendall and I were going to be support people for the group. Kendall and I were supposed to rendezvous with the group at the Greyhound bus station at 3:00 p.m., at which point we would go to the scene of the protest (two blocks away) and perform the action we had planned. The group never showed up.

Finally, at 3:30 p.m., Kendall got a phone call on his cell phone. It was Scott. He told Kendall that 15 Philadelphia State Police officers had surrounded his van and arrested everyone in it. The 19 had not committed any crimes or actions of any kind. They were not anticipating arrest."

"Despite denials by the Philadelphia police to some Green Party members from Houston and me, Scott has confirmed the civil and human rights abuse stories. He says none of the prisoners were given food for 14 hours. He says they never had bathroom breaks. He was told by jail guards that an ACLU lawyer came to represent the arrested activists at their arraignment hearings, but that he was not allowed to meet with any of the arrested activists.

Scott says that asthmatics and diabetics were not allowed to have their medicines. He told me that one diabetic woman became sick and passed out from not having had her medicine, and that the arrested activists had to chant for several hours before the nurse finally came to check on her."

"But whatever the number is, the reports from the inside are not good. For at least ten hours there was no food, at one point the guards had suspended bathroom ?privileges?[MS '?' for "'" retained], the legal team representing those arrested had very little access to their clients, and many of those held were told that their lawyers were not coming to see them when in fact the real story was that the authorities were not telling the legal team who was being held where. On top of this, there are reports of police and guard violence against people in custody, and at least one woman was seen being dragged naked and bleeding. Several people have been held in isolation, including those identified as organizers, and are being given more serious charges. The medical needs of some of the arrestees are not being met, including the withholding of asthma inhalers and medication for hypoglycemia."

"Valocchi [a journalist arrested while covering the protests], still wearing a red jailhouse wristband, said he did not get food for 24 hours, and did not get access to a telephone for 48 hours, even though he cooperated fully with police. In all, he was held for 49 hours. "I hear my girlfriend's been looking for me for like three days," he said. He also said there was one man in a cell near him "vomiting profusely for at least an hour before he got any medical attention. And when he did, that medical attention was a cup of juice and a sugar pill."

Valocchi said he was not the only innocent bystander thrown into jail. "There was a jogger who got yanked in. He was just a scared mama's boy in running shoes and a security shirt. I heard him on the phone with his mom, and he sounded completely terrified, telling his mom they were treating us like pigs."

"As a journalist, I've always been a big defender of the Philadelphia Police Department in general," he said. "But no more. They were completely out of control." "