Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - National Lawyers Guild

Cover Story
RNC Street Coverage: Audio Document Features
Guild Members
“Law and Disorder” radio program, hosted by Guild members
Michael Ratner, Michael Smith, and Heidi Boghosian, along
with Dalia Hashad from Amnesty International, featured a
30-minute special on the Republican National Convention.
The show’s producer Geoff Brad Geoff Brady and Heidi
traveled to Minneapolis/St. Paul to document the event.
With press passes from Pacifica Radio, they were able to enter
the many areas closed off to the public surrounding the Xcel
Center. The program features in-depth interviews with Bruce
Nestor and Dan Spalding, along with the voices and sounds of
protesters, demonstrations, and interviews with legal observers
and activists. To listen to the show, and to see photographs
from the protests, go to http://lawanddisorder.org/
nlg-rnc-coverage/.
Excerpt from the “Law and Disorder” RNC special
Heidi: Just blocks from the Xcel Center we caught up with a
local activist and independent journalist named Nick. He
described in detail the launching of paint and flash bang
grenades, the arrests of journalists, and the unwarranted use
of pepper spray by police.
Nick: What they would do is, they would shoot people with
paint, like balls of paint, like paint bullets. I kept tasting paint.
It was green paint. And they would hit people. I saw people
splattered, covered with it. They would ignite some smoke
bombs and then spray mace on just a couple of people, and it
would carry down all Kellog Boulevard. And you could see it.
I felt it from about 150 yards away. It hit me in my eyes and
my mouth. It was like getting burned. I felt it; it was right
there.
I had some press passes for inside. I kept trying to get up to
get photos because I’m doing a blog about it, and I would
come up and the police would scream “get back!,” and I
turned around and I had a big gun pointed in my face. I
would hold up my press credentials and yell “press corps,
press corps,” like don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me! He’d say:
“Get back!” In my face! Like don’t get in my way. It’s
overwhelming how scary these guys really are.
The green paint grenade looked like a one-barrel shotgun.
It reminded me of the gun in Terminator II, that’s what it
looked like. I saw them shooting, I saw one of the bullets lying
on the ground and I was like “Back up, get away, get away.”
I did not know what it was.
At first I kept tasting paint. And I had the mace burning.
Heidi Boghosian speaks to reporters about the Guild Legal Observers.
I kept tasting paint. Smelling paint. And I had my mask on,
my little “SARS” mask, and here comes a guy with splatters,
like Jackson Pollock splatters all over his pants. He had his
disposable camera in his pocket. He was taking pictures. The
bullet hit the disposable camera, shattered the camera and
saved his leg. But he showed me the bruise, and it’s this black
smear, bruise smear on his leg. From the paint guns! It hit him
right there.
Oh there was the boom! It wasn’t like a tank; it was like an
echo. When you hear it you duck, you get down. It was one of
the loudest things I’ve heard in my life. There were people
dancing, like Funk the War. At that point I was ready to get
out of there, but obviously I didn’t because I wanted to see
what happened.
“Law and Disorder” airs weekly on Pacifica’s WBAI station
in New York, as well as on several public radio stations around
the country. To download past programs, or to podcast, go to
http://lawanddisorder.org/. •
PHOTO: GEOFF BRADY
8• GUILD NOTES • WINTER 2008