Blogger Covering Anarchist Rally Goes Free
Josh Wolf was a young video blogger who covered an anarchist protest in San Francisco. (On NPR I heard some of the footage--kids chanting "Smash the state! Smash the state!") Apparently a police officer was injured and a cruiser burned. Since the cruiser was purchased with government money, the gov't claimed it was a federal crime, and thus Wolf enjoyed no protections as a journalist. He refused to give up his out-takes (which the gov't claimed may have had incriminating evidence) and finally struck a deal to end his 7 1/2 month prison stay. For what it's worth, he sounded fairly articulate and reasonable in the short clips I heard.
In any event, it's pretty ridiculous that someone can go to jail for not handing over videotapes that (everyone now stipulates) contain nothing incriminating.
Comments (7)
Left-wing Anarchists are a worthless bunch indeed. If you watch the garbage coming out of their mouth on the video, they sound more like left-wing liberal democrats than anarchists.
Published: April 4, 2007 9:00 AM
Worse than useless. They are positively devastating. Especially their recent burning of American soldiers in effigy. They set the entire libertarian movement back 200 years.
Published: April 4, 2007 9:17 AM
I seriously question the anarchist label for such people. Many of these people are radical environmentalists and anti-globilizationalists. Somehow, I don't see how anarchy serves their goals, other than as a transition to a different kind of a state that implements their desired policies.
Published: April 4, 2007 10:34 AM
Awful or not. These folks and any other folks should not be imprisioned for NOTHING. Not even uncool people like Martha and Scooter.
It is very sad that judges are allowing this to happen. But what do you expect from government empolyees?
Published: April 4, 2007 2:20 PM
May be we should call themselves Ancratists to avoid being associated with that bunch. It still sounds too close, though.
Published: April 4, 2007 8:17 PM
"In any event, it's pretty ridiculous that someone can go to jail for not handing over videotapes that (everyone now stipulates) contain nothing incriminating."
Who's fault is that? Is it the fault the guy who had the tapes or the people who knew crimes were committed at the scene but did not know what was on the tapes? I have no idea what right this guy thought he was protecting. Perhaps the right to obstruct justice?
Published: April 6, 2007 5:27 PM
Brian Macker writes: "Who's fault is that? Is it the fault the guy who had the tapes or the people who knew crimes were committed at the scene but did not know what was on the tapes? I have no idea what right this guy thought he was protecting. Perhaps the right to obstruct justice?"
If they were his tapes, they were his property, and the police had no right to them. "Obstruction of justice" — refusing to cooperate with the state — is a non-crime. See William Anderson on this:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson124.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson95.html
Published: April 7, 2007 10:12 PM