Case dismissed
A judge threw out the charges against Amy Goodman on Monday.
Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now, was facing riot charges related to a report she filed earlier this month from a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. At a hearing Monday in Mandan, North Dakota, Judge John Grinsteiner ruled there was no probable cause to support the allegations, and he dismissed the case.
The attempted prosecution caused an outcry among environmentalists and free-press advocates. “We are dismayed that a prosecutor has filed charges against Amy Goodman, who was just doing her job by covering protests,” wrote Carlos Lauría of the Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement.
Yet again, this isn’t really a good thing, it’s just a bad thing averted – and only partially averted at that, since (as Jamila Bey pointed out on Facebook) the intimidation effect remains. Other accused journalists also remain.
Goodman is not the only journalist to be arrested this month while covering pipeline protests in North Dakota. Last week, documentary filmmaker Deia Schlosberg was arrested while filming demonstrators who shut down tar sands pipelines in Wallhala. Deia is facing three felony charges, which reports say carry a combined maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.
Maybe she won’t get the same result as Goodman.
Is there any provision for punishing police or prosecutors for such abuse of the law?
Almost never in US states, Jim. Immunity—both formally spelled out immunity in the law, and the informal immunity that comes from being part of the power structure—-makes it unheard of. They always get away with it. There is no mechanism for punishment or redress. (I don’t consider “voting them out” to be an adequate mechanism. *Electing* judges and prosecutors is an ethical scandal to begin with.)
Thanks, Jim & Josh. I was wondering about that myself.
There is one mechanism, but again, it’s rarely used. Contempt of court can be used, if they operate after the court declares, like with Judge Roy Moore and the 10 suggestions.
There’s also malicious prosecution, but that’s a high bar to clear and might not be applicable in this particular case.
Ooooooh! I just hate it when activist judges go around making their own law and refusing to punish people I think ought to be punished. Vote for u-kno-hu and put a stop to this.