I-Witness

… The house where I-Witness Video is staying in St. Paul has been surrounded by police.

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The house where I-Witness Video is staying in St. Paul has been surrounded by police.

Discourse.net: Something Very Bad is Happening in the Twin Cities 2008

Among them was Eileen Clancy, founder of I-Witness Video, as well as a producer with Democracy Now!

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I-Witness Video was instrumental in documenting police abuse during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, during which some 1,800 people were arrested.

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This summer, New York City authorities subpoenaed I-Witness Video for tapes from the protests.

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Asked what connection he had to the I-Witness Video activists, he replied, “no connection,” adding, “People needed a place to stay, and I support the work they do.”

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Instead, members of I-Witness Video, a New York-based media watchdog group that records police activity in order to protect civil liberties, were holding an organizing meeting at 949 Iglehart, the home of St. Paul resident Mike Whalen, when armed police officers arrived in the early afternoon and ordered their surrender.

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Working in cooperation with the National Lawyers Guild, I-Witness Video led to the dismissal of charges or the acquittal of some 400 protesters.

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“I-Witness definitely does document things like police brutality and policing in general during situations of conflict,” I-Witness member Emily Foreman, one of three members who managed to leave the house only to be followed by police and pulled over on their bikes, told a reporter with The Uptake after the raid, noting that that could make the group a target, “not because of anything illegal but because of our interest in upholding the law.”

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Unlike the preceding raids, including one targeting the convergence space of the RNC Welcoming Committee — an anarchist group dubiously described by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher as “a criminal enterprise … intent on committing criminal acts” — the raid on the I-Witness house was specifically designed to target media activists whose mission is to hold police officers responsible for abusing their authority.

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