IMC reporters arrested at June 8th Reclaim the Streets

Sorry, but the medic is not even wearing something close to a ID that would make it clear he is a medic. No red cross or uniform at all. Also, was he taking part in the events in any way or standing at the side of the police and protesters? If he was not, was he treating someone at the time? The photographer is clearly not wearing any ID that would indicate he is a member of the press. Based on the limited information given, I would have to say the arrests were justified. You may not like it, but did you try and get arrested for enjoyment?

The medic did indeed have red crosses on his back and sleeves. The cops removed them while processing him. I didn't see the arrest of the IMC reporter so I can't comment about whether he had a visible press badge. Regardless, it isn't clear why he needed to be tackled.

Medics and photographers are useless unless they are in the thick of the action, which sometimes requires them to stand in the street during unpermitted marches, or dance parties. The other alternative is for them to be too far away to help.

I think Chris is speaking from naivety. Demonstrators may dance, sing, and chant to keep the energy up, but being arrested is never fun.

I am a videographer who was present at that event, and that medic was marked. That was an inappropriate arrest.
This comment is to the IMC people: I saw IMC videographers calling the police obnoxious names and screaming in their faces. After a long day of that they are naturally going to make some arrests. That street party was at the end of the day during rush hour traffic so I would naturally assume the SFPD concluded the disruption needed to end. A safe and quick way to end it is to make arrests. There called blanket arrests.
My opinions are: IMC photgraphers need to adopt some rules that appear professional to them. (ie police, media and bystanders).
Medics should try to make contact with the field officers at the events and try to find a way to prevent an arrest.

Look on the bright side. Straight people, gay men, are the least likely to get abused or taunted in jail. Based on experience. Transgenders get strip searched, raped, abused, starved, and taunted all in one visit. So consider yourself lucky if you got arrested and got out and was not abused.

San Francisco: My Mayor you really need to pay attention to how those cops are spending their money. You should also set up Free Speech zones, which is long overdue. San Francisco is a protest town, get used to it and adopt it as a part of its culture.

WE ARE MAKING HISTORY!

I think its pretty stupid to always say like "indybay reporter arrested" and so on. You think because someone has a silly indybay badge on, that makes them a "journalist" and they deserve some kind of protection? Hell, as far as I know Indybay doesnt even hold legitimate press credentials with SFPD, they only hold on to them as some kind of grudgematch with their perceived "scene" enemies.

The constant cries of "help! help! i'm being repressed" really do hearken back to a monty python movie. Grow up. You are out there in the streets, breaking the law, expect to get arrested. At least you arent in a country where you are openly beaten in the streets.

The more stuff I hear like this, the more I am convinced that this group has no coherent understanding of what they are or what they are doing.

The IMC/sfbay/sf reporters are all volunteers, and while there are editorial policies there is no way to compel people to follow them.

I have taken photos for various IMC sites and I am never confrontational with the police. It is easy to identify with people at protests, particularly if you agree with the politically, and it is very hard to watch people being abused and arrested while continuing to take pictures. I think, though, that it is very important to not get involved, and like legal observers, simply record the events.

In my opinion, and it is only mine, the real confrontation with the police for IMC reporters comes when photos and stories are posted, it is much harder to do this when you have been arrested. My attitude is "act like part of the corporate media while taking photos but be an anarchist online."

Nevertheless, it is possible to be completely non-confrontational with the police, respect all their commands, have a press pass (even an official SFPD pass), and still be rounded up in a mass arrest. This has almost happened to me on multiple occasions.

One last thing: It's easy to say that IMC reporters shouldn't act this way or that way, however, what would be more helpful is specific comments on tactics, and please note that IMC reporters can't really act like the corporate media as this would, essentially, mean colluding with the police.

1. I also saw the medic clearly marked with a large red cross on his back (at least two medics clearly marked, including the one in the picture) as well.

2. If our options for media coverage are either indybay in the thick of things, or acting like the corporate media and not bothering to show up until hours after it starts, I'll take indybay's coverage any day.

3. I do not (and will not) consider someone "lucky" because they aren't abused in jail. I see no positive effect of normalizing police abuse as inevitable.

Independent reporters have managed to cover conflicts in Iraq that the mainstream press is too scared to cover. The corporate press will embed itself with US troops but wont ever try to talk to Iraqis and safely get into areas where events are happening (expect for Al Jazeera) When the seige of Fallujah was going on there were several independent reporters in the city filming and taking pictures but zero people from the US corporate press.

Middle class journalists working for US news companies want to stay in nice hotels and are not willing to take the risks needed to cover real news. Interestingly some mainstream European newspapers have paid to get copy from independent Iraqi journalists and the trend is likely to increase since pay by the job use of reporting by independent reporters can get news traditional journalists are unable or unwiloing to cover. With increasingly cheap digital cameras its likely that at some point major news companies will drop the use of full-time journalists alltogether and start contracting out everything to freelance contractors. Corporate journalists and others may pretend to be dismissive of Indymedia journalists but with better and better free work appearing online, the dismissiveness may really be masking a fear that the independent press is undermining corporate journalist's job security.

Nice comments. I am a amateur journalist and I agree with the fact that IMC should be recognized as press.
Amatuers become professionals.

I think the question of journalistic ethics, press credentials and the police respecting them is an important one that needs to be discussed.

Generally speaking, a journalist can participate in a protest or can cover a protest as a news item, but cannot do both simultaneously. In the same way a journalist cannot report news on organizations that he/she is involved in.

For instance the Arizona Daily Star's Code of Ethics says:

∫ Do not serve on any organization’s publicity or fund-raising committee. That can quickly become
a conflict of interest for you.
∫ Do not cover an organization in which you are active. If this comes up, always discuss it with
your editor. You may be permitted to continue in the organization, with someone else handling
that particular assignment.
∫ Do not play a role in reporting, editing or shaping policy on coverage of any organization that
you belong to, support or have a direct interest in.
∫ Do not take an active role in any political campaign or political organization. To do so would
make you and the Star vulnerable to charges of favoritism.
∫ Do not run for political office. If you choose to do so, you must first resign from the Star or
StarNet. http://www.azstarnet.com/staff/CodeOfEthics.pdf

I too have observed IMC journalists both participating in demonstrations and trying to cover them as a news item. In fact, I have seen IMC "journalists" vandalize camera equipment of corporate media sourses and assault reporters (not in SF or Tucson, but elsewhere). Clearly, the police are not going to recognize press credentials from a media organization that both protests and pretends to cover the news. I say pretends to cover the news because if you're protesting you are not a in the role of a journalist. You may have a camera in your hand, but if you're protesting you are protesting.

This I think is a very important topic which needs to be hammered out at the highest level of the IMC collective, both in the local collectives and the top level domain. In addition to this, the whole concept of annonymous journalism is a problem for people who with to carry press credentials. I write under a nom de plume, but when I make contact with a news organization or an individual whom I want to write about with my real name. I carry clips of my published work and I identify myself fully "[name] freelance reporter [news organization that will publish the news item]" "Hello my name is....I'm a freelance reporter...I'm working on a story for the ..."

In the past activists have abused bone fide press credentials in order to infiltrate and disrupt events. Many of the left wing political parties like Workers World and the Revolutionary Communist Party cannot get press credentials because they have abused the Press and the 1st Amendement by pretending to be reporters when in reality they stormed stages and captured microphones or unfurled banners and tried to shout down speakers. But [blank] reporters have spray painted media vans unplugged camera equipment shouted "Corporate media lies" in reporters faces and the like. I don't have IMC credentials and wouldn't use them if I did, because I know the police think the IMC is an activist organization NOT THE PRESS!

If the IMC wants to overcome this problem then it will need to hammer out a code of ethics and its reporters will have to go above board. I've been in the shadows a long time, but I'm looking at trying to get paid for what I do.

I thank the IMC for giving me the opportunity to learn something about being a reporter and an editor, but I think serious changes loom on the IMC horizon if it wants to develop into a true alternative to corporate media.

I respectfully disagree with your comment about not being openly beaten in the streets. People are beaten by cops *in this country*. Fuck the cops, people actually see SF as a protest city, ya need to rock your style.

I basically agree with you Madjur, however, I believe it is possible to be an activist journalist and still work using a code of ethics. In fact there is a long history of activist journalism (a history that the current media owners would rather not be remembered.)

The problem, of course, is that being an activist journalist will not endear you to the police. Certainly, if you follow the code of co duct of a standard newspaper and/or work for an "official" news source you will have fewer problems with the police you will soon notice that if you publish stories or photos unflattering to the police your press credentials will be yanked regardless of your behavior at protests, and you will be subject to arrest once again (or shot and killed if you happen to be in Iraq.)

I would suggest a code of ethics, and I am only speaking for myself here, that allows for IMC journalists to also be activists but understands that while at specific protests or events IMC reporters should behave more like legal observers (though, this doesn't quite work as, frankly, the police have much more to fear from photos than written observations.)

In any case, I don't have fully thought out solutions to this, and I hope discussions continue.

Even the members of the IMC collective that edit the news are annonymous even to me. Its a simple fact that responsible people need to be above board. Of course the police and the city will say "be accountable". That could mean being arrested. Real press credentials do not prevent reporters from being arrested anymore than they actually prevent reporters from being killed, held hostage, tried as spies, etc. But real journalism is fraught with these kinds of risks. Claiming the need to be completely annonymous in order to avoid repression then fails as an argument since press credentials do not prevent the supression of the press.

What press credentials do is give the reporter access to areas and to people where the police feel there is a need for heightened security, but this guarantees nothing if you print something the powerful don't like.

I agree amatures become professionals. But the IMC as a whole does not necessarily model itself on the concept that we are amature journalists that want to be professionals. In fact, the underlaying trend at the IMC is that the IMC is a clandestine activist organization. In my opinion the IMC should aim at becoming the "opposition press". But in order to be come a true opposition press its official reporters will have to come out into the open and its editorial board would have to become public knowledge. This of course brings risks in terms of possible repression, but it also brings credibility to the organization.

In the process of becoming the oppostion press the IMC as a whole would tend to look like it was also becoming "corporate" in its own way which is another problem for the theoretical tenets of the organization as a whole. I personally would prefer to be a completely above board "accountable" reporter for an opposition press than an annonymous "reporter" that continually blurs the line between activism and journalism. As long as these lines are blurred, however, the IMC will suffer in terms of its development as a bone fide opposition press organ.

These are things which are going to require some very serious thought. Do the IMC want to designate "staff" vs "freelance" vs "open publishing [i.e., annonymous] and become more "corporate" in its own right?

Madjur, your tone is really quite condescending. Particularly when you talk about "real" journalism. I am hardly in complete agreement with the behavior of some IMC journalists, however, it seems as the though you are attempting to place your own personally desired structure on top of IMC.

I am not sure IMC would even work without open and/or anonymous publishing. In any case, if we approach this from the point of "how can we appease the police so that they don't arrest us" rather than what would enhance the mission of IMC, then we will walk from one defensive battle to another and will ultimately lose any independent credibility that we have.

People are beaten by cops in *every* country.

I don't mean to sound condescending. I'm not suggesting that anonymous publishing go away but I question it as the IMC's sole mission. But I can't really put my opinion at the top of the IMC structure since I'm really not involved in it except as an anonymous publisher. I'm not involved in any of its collectives.

Since I have recently become aware that everthing I say is landing front and center on Ashcroft's desk in Washington DC and that I have apparently been placed on the terrorism watch list, I have to ask whether or not anonymity really helps my cause. In a strange way I feel slightly reassured that the DOJ can call me up and talk to me if they really wanted to. (I know that sounds weird). I tend to think that its better to actually be a member of the press than to be a member of the press in some ambigious or undefined way under these circumstances. I want to be able to claim that I'm a reporter and a publisher, but I don't feel assured that my contribution to the IMC as a completely abstract unknown soildifies my claim.

Anyway, you're right in the sense that the IMC could lose something in either situation and I don't know how to solve the problem myself and I'm not really in a position to influence the outcome of the debate either way. But in terms of amateur journalism vs professional journalism this type of publishing doesn't put me in a situation where I can get off the streets and put a roof over my head though I wish it could. Its not enough to say "get a job" and do this in your spare time. That's the activist's approach. Some of us are basically full timers at this...not something else where we do this when we can. I want to be able to keep my hard line anti-imperialist style, have a roof over my head and be a journalist too.

Anyway...I don't have the answers at all. Just a few thoughts.

occasionally made money here and there with my photos. Not a lot. AP, AFP, Getty Images, etc., don't have quite as many rules on your conduct outside of work if you simply post photos as long as your captions seem "balanced." Talk to one of the presswire photojournalists that show up at protests. The one from AFP is pretty reasonable.

Making money like this is quite difficult, though, as you really have to be out taking photos every day of things far removed from protests and activism.

It may sound somewhat silly, but what some people do is put together a website with their photos/stories and sell things like t-shirts with political content on them.

Also try contacting magazines like The Progressive and Mother Jones. They will publish things and actually pay you for it.

Just throwing out ideas as you will never make a living publishing to IMC.

I am only speaking for myself and what I saw but I was one of the five medics with our group that got caught up in everything on Market. All of our medics were very clearly Identified with red crosses and some with clearly visible star-of-life/ EMT patches. 2 of our medics were were the first to be arrested and two of them were the close to or the very last to be arrested. My partner and I did take off our identification after seeing other medics arrested just in case... and I reattached my EMT star of life once the scene became much more relaxed. I was arrested with my star of life (which clearly reads"Nationally Registered Emergency Technition") attached to my chest. Police even made a comment about me I was a medic during the initial proccessing. I was finally released at around 2am.

It is my personal belief, Yes we do need to be in the thick of things esspecially when we can not cross police lines and there is a potential for bodily harm (police, cold, hydration, hunger). Ambulances, EMTs, Paramedics would not have been allowed into the circle by police. police would have not deemed it safe, dangerously delaying treatment for any injuries. We were not allowed though police line most of the week except on a very few occasions thoughout the week.

I am so sorry for the typos, I'm really tired and I got distracted, the post was supposed to read:

I was arrested with the star of life (which clearly reads "Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician") attached to my chest. Several police even made a comments about me being a medic during my initial processing - especially while they were searching my bag (which they did seem to have quickly given up on).

and this tennis court is in sf, its were it at. the score is still 0=0 no one can communicate and life is a playground this was just a game of capture the flag

ethics are lost in the integrated spectical


indy media and sf indy bay , continue to fight the fight with the federation of sorts . were all in this integrated spectical together. we have no agendas like that of the buogie press. we are all CNN and this last week was all in real time . so fuck the ethics. ethics of what corperately controled image and sound desemnation. all people working with in the system are probably tainted by it enough to compramise the ethics of the people its reporting on so as to make us all look distorted or undermine a idea. thats bullshit. are reporters are the people who want the history told from the dialectical extream subjectivity.

and can i say DIALECTICS CAN BREAK BRICK, my friends.

Fight the fight inday media and i will be there in the front doing my 1+1 photos for the love of it. ciao im posting with out re reading cause im tired ciao for now brown cows