Here's the link to the transcript from this morning's interview with Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous:

http://tinyurl.com/5d2bgf (link @ sig)

It doesn't appear that they were doing anything wrong and that they were, in fact, trying to follow law enforcement instructions and get out of the way, but were prevented from doing so due to the circumstances.

Of course, some people will immediately discount them as liars because they don't like Democracy Now! or because they don't want to hear something that doesn't jibe with their view that everything the cops do is presumably justifiable, even without any facts to support that view.

You make a couple of irrefutable points, but your tone makes you sound like you have an axe to grind against Goodman and Greenwald.

on the activities this week in St. Paul, I recommend the current top post at Firedoglake from Suzanne:

http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/02/saint-paul-or-beijing/

@CargoCult writes (September 2, 2008 11:39 AM):

"A.I., are you sure you yourself are not dabbling in one of the corporate establishment's favorite pastimes, Republican Party and Lieberman Democrat exceptionalism?"

Yeah, Ike, I'm real sure.

And if you'd read with only basic discernment and understanding even one of my posts here at UT regarding the US Corporate War Party, you'd be sure, too.

GG has already responded to your repeated and baffling complaint that he ignored protesting Iraq vets in Demver (props to Dennis Perrin).

And in view of that and your response to my last post here, I have to say that you seem to have some serious cognitive dissonance of some kind goin' on.

Democracy Now! Transcript...

Here's the link to the transcript from this morning's interview with Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous:

http://tinyurl.com/5d2bgf (link @ sig)

It doesn't appear that they were doing anything wrong and that they were, in fact, trying to follow law enforcement instructions and get out of the way, but were prevented from doing so due to the circumstances.

Of course, some people will immediately discount them as liars because they don't like Democracy Now! or because they don't want to hear something that doesn't jibe with their view that everything the cops do is presumably justifiable, even without any facts to support that view.

-- UsedtobeKristin

Usedtobe: I don't like Democracy Now!, nor anybody connected with it. But the reason that I doubt the simplicity of the defendants' stories, is that they are now charged with crimes. I have every reason to suspect that they'll claim, "But we're innocent!" Isn't that what all criminal defendants say?

Don't you think that the police might have a different story? I accept, arguendo, that you hate policemen the way that I hate Democarcy Now! That's okay. But that's what trials are for. Pick a jury of persons who might not harbor such intense hatreds, and let them hear the evidence. Both sides.

I am now satisfied that Amy Goodman erred significantly in her first interview upon being released from jail. I think she exaggerated her own arrest story. To inflate a claim of police brutality. I think she'll have a hard time overcoming that in court.

Naturally, the presumption of innocence prevails as a procedural matter. Any of you are free to presume that the Democracy Now! arrestees did nothing wrong. But why, exactly? Not as a procedural matter, enjoyed by every criminal defendant, but as a matter of fact based upon the record before us?

Do you have any comments from your perspective (justice system expert) on the transcript that usedtobekristin referred to a couple of messages above?

http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/02/saint-paul-or-beijing/

Many of you know me from Late Late Nite. What some of you may not know is that I am a lifelong Republican who served 24 years in law enforcement for a city police department on the West Coast. I've worked patrol and detectives and loved it all. It has been 4 years since I retired due to on-the-job injuries and, because of those injuries, I was driving a desk the last couple of years so my street experiences are even more out of date.

But I can say that, in my opinion, the tactics being used by law enforcement in Minneapolis/St. Paul appear to be very heavy handed methods whose sole purpose appears to be to intimidate. I'm ashamed of the unprofessional conduct - but feel I must add that I have no knowledge of standards of professional conduct in states other than California.

I don't know who is running this show but it smells like the Feds have been taking lessons from the pre-Olympics Chinese to me. In the America that I policed, all of the Bill of Rights were protected, including the First Amendment right guaranteeing freedom of speech and assembly and the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unlawful search and seizure.

I was attending a Homicide Investigation school when the Rodney King video broke and remember feeling ashamed to be wearing the badge because of the actions of my brother officers down in Los Angeles. Other officers attending (from all over the state including LAPD) were embarrassed and there was a lot of talk during breaks about the stain on the badge from the actions of those in the King video. The past several days and nights, I have been watching the videos over at the Silo and here at the Lake and I've got that same shame all over again. ...

Yes, well worth a read.

Why do you suppose they are guilty? Moron - go back to defending that class act you hung around mcsame's neck. And while you're at it can you answer the question on why Palin hates America? How do you explain away her and her co-governor husband's years long participation in a group who's founder states that he has "no use for America or its damn institutions?" Don't talk about Rev. Wright. Let's talk about Palin. It's so much more fun!

No way. No how. No mcsame!

Many of you know me from Late Late Nite. What some of you may not know is that I am a lifelong Republican who served 24 years in law enforcement for a city police department on the West Coast. I've worked patrol and detectives and loved it all. It has been 4 years since I retired due to on-the-job injuries and, because of those injuries, I was driving a desk the last couple of years so my street experiences are even more out of date.

But I can say that, in my opinion, the tactics being used by law enforcement in Minneapolis/St. Paul appear to be very heavy handed methods whose sole purpose appears to be to intimidate. I'm ashamed of the unprofessional conduct - but feel I must add that I have no knowledge of standards of professional conduct in states other than California...

I was attending a Homicide Investigation school when the Rodney King video broke and remember feeling ashamed to be wearing the badge because of the actions of my brother officers down in Los Angeles.

She doesn't say what city but it's not LA and probably not SF. My guess is it is a smaller city, obviously north of LA, that has never experienced a riot. I'd like to ask her the size of the force she worked on. I imagine it is not very large by major urban standards. SFPD has approximately 2000 about now and that's because of budget cutbacks. Riot and large crowd control tactics were something she's never trained in. Ask her, if you like.