The role of independent media in the continuing police state
By Marlena Gangi
An interesting thing happened at the Republican National Convention this past September. As police donned riot gear and readied their rubber bullet rifles 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. 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 busses. 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 underreported 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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