Arrest

A settlement was announced today in the case of three journalists arrested during the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota who later filed a federal suit against the U.S. Secret Service and the police departments of Minneapolis and St. Paul for what they call unlawful arrests while they were trying to cover a protest.

Publishers of an alternative Arizona newspaper can continue their civil rights lawsuit against a special prosecutor who they say violated their constitutional rights by arresting the pair for publicizing purported grand jury subpoenas, a federal appellate court ruled last week.

A 31-year-old Chicago man was sentenced to 300 days in jail on Sept. 8 after he reportedly resisted arrest while videotaping a speaker last year at the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago, in Skokie, Ill.

Cook County Circuit Judge Marguerite Quinn sentenced Gregory Koger after he was convicted in August of misdemeanor criminal trespass, resisting arrest and simple battery at the Cook County Court House in Skokie. Quinn sentenced Koger to 300 days in jail despite a petition signed by 1,000 supporters and 25 submitted statements calling for Koger to receive no jail time.

Journalists arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota have sued the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis for violating their First Amendment right to gather news, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

A reporter and six protesters were arrested by the Philadelphia police at the Army Experience Center (AEC) on Sept. 12, OpEdNews.com reported. OpEdNews.com reporter Cheryl Biren was taking photos of policing arresting protesters when her own arrest occurred.

An Oakland Tribune photographer who was arrested while taking pictures at an accident scene lost his civil rights case against the City of Oakland and several police officers on Tuesday.

Last summer’s Republican National Convention is just a memory in St. Paul now, but the controversy surrounding the overwhelming police presence and resulting mass arrests of protesters and journalists lives on. The St. Paul Ad-Hoc RNC Investigating Commission is expected to submit its final report to the City Council this Wednesday, although it is unknown if it will settle the issues or even be made publicly available.

The domestic and international blogging communities are increasingly facing lawsuits and threats of legal action, the Christian Science Monitor reported on Wednesday.

A Miami photographer, jailed last year after he refused to stop taking pictures of police officers who ordered him to put down his camera, has been convicted of resisting arrest.

Although on-the-job arrests of reporters are rare, Metropolitan Transit Authority police took WFSB-TV reporter Leon Collins and cameraman Pat Driscoll away in handcuffs and charged them with criminal trespassing last week after the two attempted to film footage of trains in a New Haven, Conn., train yard.

Collins said he planned to do a live shot for the 11 o’clock news, reporting on an informational meeting in West Haven, where there are plans to build a new train station.