La Mexorcist

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Indy Media in the Police State

From 2009
The role of independent media in the continuing police state

An interesting thing happened at the Republican National Convention
this past September. As police donned riot gear and readied their
rubber bulletrifles and tear gas canisters to combat thousands of
anti-war/anti-police state protesters, minute-to-minute updates of police
brutality and resultant street fighting began to appear online on
Indymedia centers across the United States.
 
BY WHAT AUTHORITY?

It was truly an amazing thing to see, and we can thank resourceful
activists and Twitter in large part for this.

Twitter is the networking technology launched in 2006. Twitter
expanded "mobile blogging" (updating a blog from a cellphone) into
"microblogging," the updating of an activities blog (microblog) that
distributes the text to a list of names. Messages can also be
sent and received via instant messaging, the Twitter Web site or
a third-party Twitter application. Heady tactics for heavy times,
and an amazingly effective tool for organizing and on-the-fly
independent news reporting in the continuing police state.

During the RNC police riot, radical Twin City activists provided some
of the more savage police state imagery imaginable; we read and
viewed video of mass arrests of demonstrators who, in following
orders to disperse, were still corralled and maced before they
were beaten and dragged off to police vans and buses. On video,
tales of police torture and beatings began to emerge and were
posted to YouTube. In some cases, arrestees were denied
medication. Folks held in jail for over eight hours saw requests
for food and water ignored. Some toe-to-toe, blow-by-blow accounts
 were reported as they happened. That is effective reporting.

A day or so into the protests, a group of journalists and activists
held a press conference to report that police were increasingly
targeting independent journalists. Notes were confiscated along
with computers and video cameras. Film was exposed in cameras
and equipment was held as evidence. Reporters from Portland
Indymedia (OR) were among those who lost equipment.

Merchants of fear

Sept. 11, 2001 brought the first opportunity of the 21st century to
radically alter the mentality of "Amerikkka."

With this came the introduction of a new order of society; a New World Order. In a time when anyone
who stands up against the New World Order is labeled a terrorist, hotbeds of dissent are in danger of
falling silent. This is a grave time, and if ever there was a time of exposure of the under reported or the
unreported, that time is now.

This is not a time to fall to the language of fear. In addition, we cannot allow ourselves to exist in fear
of the season of the snitch. This is a time for coalition building and organizing and radical leftist and
anti-capitalist strategies. This is a time for cross-cultural and inter-cultural dialogs and exchanges,
the initiation of which should not fall on the shoulders of radical independent journalists of color or
different ethnicities alone.

With this, I must offer a challenge: Alternative independent media cannot wear the face of the white male
only! It also cannot continue to be offered only in the language of the oppressor. It is the task of the
white radical left to create meaningful and respectful ways to cover the struggles of people of color and
also include people of color in media organizations.

At the same time, the radical white left must take note that they are not "The Great White Radical Hope,"
 coming to the rescue of the disadvantaged.

Radical media cannot be limited or event oriented only. There must always exist ongoing activity in
regard to meeting the challenge of whatever the enemy has in store in a time of unchecked violation
of civil liberties. We must understand that, just because we cannot always hear the enemy walking
in lock step, this does not mean that the jack boot does not have itself poised to crush the back of
our necks.

Those of us who are privileged and gifted with any knowledge of technology must not waste this gift.
We need to share both with whomever and wherever we can. Our laptops are our weapon. We can
choose to use it in self-serving anonymous complacency or as a tool for change. Its all about
communication and reporting the unreported.

And perhaps most importantly regarding the new President-elect Obama: We must not allow
ourselves to be lulled into complacency as it appears most have. Our task is to hold him to his word on
campaign promises made. This must be our greatest task.

Our cameras, digital or not, are also weapons if we live with intent and commitment to our cause.
Videotape and photos can open windows to a whole different world. They can be tools for social justice,
 social parity and key in creating the inter-cultural collectives and communities that are essential to
movement building.

Moreover, when video and film capture and expose injustices, both can be tools for silencing the enemy.

All one needs to do is point and shoot.

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