Tuesday, October 18, 2016

1st Amendment still works in North Dakota


But as the actions of state prosecutor Ladd Erickson clearly showed, you can still officially be a total jackass without penalty. Reporter Amy Goodman saw Ladd's attempt to charge her with rioting for filming the thugs hired by the Dakota Access pipeline beating on peaceful protesters.
The radio journalist Amy Goodman spent the weekend with the threat of a riot charge hanging over her, arising from protests over a planned oil pipeline in North Dakota. But on Monday a judge rejected the case for lack of evidence.

Ms. Goodman, the host and executive producer of the syndicated radio, television and web show “Democracy Now!” on Pacifica Radio, had planned to enter a not guilty plea on Monday, but District Judge John Grinsteiner declined to sign the charging document, bringing the case to a stop — at least for now.

She and her lawyers declared victory on Monday, but Ladd Erickson, a state prosecutor who is assisting the Morton County state’s attorney’s office in the case, said other charges were possible.

“I believe they want to keep the investigation open and see if there is any evidence in the unedited and unpublished videos that we could better detail in an affidavit for the judge,” he said via email. “The Democracy Now video that many people have seen doesn’t have much evidence value in it.”

On Friday, the prosecutor, Mr. Erickson, dismissed the trespassing charge. Tom Dickson, one of Ms. Goodman’s lawyers, told The Associated Press that Mr. Erickson had informed him he planned to file a new charge against Ms. Goodman: engaging in a riot. The A.P. said the charge carried a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine.

“The prosecutor seems to be determined to charge Amy with something,” Reed Brody, a lawyer for Ms. Goodman, said in a phone interview on Monday, before the judge’s decision.

Ms. Goodman, 59, appeared in a short Facebook Live broadcast on Monday morning from Mandan as she was waiting to hear if a judge had approved the riot charge.

“I wasn’t trespassing,” she said. “I wasn’t rioting. The ‘Democracy Now’ team and I were there to report, to document what was happening on the ground. These charges are simply a threat to all journalists around the country: Do not come to North Dakota.”

Mr. Erickson, the prosecutor, told The Bismarck Tribune last week that Ms. Goodman’s actions went beyond reporting.

“She’s a protester, basically,” he said. “Everything she reported on was from the position of justifying the protest actions.”

Mr. Brody said that the prosecutor could seek other charges, such as disturbing the peace.

“It’s hard to see what the State of North Dakota gains by charging a reporter with a crime for doing her work,” he said. “If the attempt is to prevent people from talking about the Dakota Access pipeline, it certainly has not worked out for them.”
Showing the hirelings of TPTB brutalizing peaceful people will always embarrass them and when TPTB gets embarrassed they will continue to act as stupidly as they did in the first place. And in 10 years or so, we can expect Ladd Erickson to be running for Governor of North Dakota. It's what they do.

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