Kentucky Kernel staffers arrested outside RNC
Two students and one adviser were held in custody for 36 hours.
Published Sept. 9, 2008
When Brad Luttrell, editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel, an independent student newspaper at the University of Kentucky, came into his office on the morning of Sept. 2, he intended to start work on the daily paper.
Instead, he received a voicemail message from Kernel photo adviser James Winn's wife telling him Winn and two Kernel staffers, Britney McIntosh and Edward Matthews, had been arrested at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
The two staffers were not on assignment for the Kernel but were documenting demonstrations outside the convention, according to a news release by the American Civil Liberties Union.
McIntosh said the three had been watching the protests all morning Sept. 1. In the afternoon, a fight broke out between law enforcement and protestors on Kellogg Boulevard in St. Paul. Police started throwing tear gas bombs and using pepper spray to control the crowd.
The police corralled about 50 journalists and protesters in an adjacent parking lot, McIntosh said.
"They said, 'Get on the ground' and started arresting everyone," McIntosh said. "(Matthews) and I were lying on the ground saying, 'We're with the media,' but they arrested us anyway."
The two students were released Sept. 3 after being held 36 hours without charge, according to the news release. Their equipment was seized, and the two were informed that they could be charged with crimes at a later time. Winn was released earlier without charges.
No charges have yet been pressed, McIntosh said, but if the two are convicted of felony rioting, they could face a minimum sentence of one year in jail and a minimum fine of $3,000.
McIntosh said she and Matthews are supposed to receive their camera equipment and cell phones later this week. Representatives of the St. Paul District Attorney's office did not return phone messages left on Sept. 8 regarding the case.
The students' arrests, coupled with the charges currently being pressed against other journalists and protestors at the convention, has raised a national discussion about the interactions between police, protestors and journalists.
The arrests included Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, according to a Democracy Now! news release.
Goodman was charged with a misdemeanor-level offense, and the producers were released without charge, according to a statement on the Ramsey District Attorney's Office Web site.
Videos of the arrests are currently circulating the Internet, and the broadcast organization is asking readers via its Web site to petition the St. Paul City Attorney's and Ramsey County District Attorney's offices for charges against Goodman to be dropped.
The ACLU also became involved with the case. McIntosh and Matthews are being represented by ACLU lawyer Matt Ludt. ACLU Executive Director Charles Samuelson said the organization was "continuing to monitor the situation."
"My biggest issue is that the police were allowed to keep them so long," Luttrel said. "It's scary that those kinds of things can happen here. I hope this isn't the direction our county's going."
However, McIntosh said she views the whole experience as necessary for a journalist.
"If I'm doing my job right, it won't be my first run-in with the law," McIntosh said. "You can't quit doing your job just because you get knocked off your horse. I don't want to get arrested again, but it's something I'm going to have to deal with."
