MINNEAPOLIS — Two University of Kentucky journalism students remained jailed today, more than a day after they were swept up with nearly 300 others during protests in downtown St. Paul.
Police arrested students Edward C. Matthews and Britney D. McIntosh along with their newspaper adviser Jim Winn on Sept. 1. Winn was released around 6:30 a.m. today. All came to the Twin Cities to document protests held in response to the Republican National Convention, meeting this week in St. Paul.
Matthews' father, Tom Matthews, heard about his son's arrest yesterday morning, then saw him in an Associated Press photo that showed him turning away from a stream of pepper spray.
"I feel for him," his father said. "He's taking it in the chops."
The elder Matthews, of Lexington, Ky., spent much of yesterday trying to learn whether his 21-year-old son would face charges or be released from the Ramsey County jail. He was told later that Edward would remain in jail for a second night.
The three arrested are affiliated with the University of Kentucky student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel. Matthews is a photographer, McIntosh is the multimedia editor and Winn is the newspaper's photo adviser.
Editor Brad Luttrell said the three traveled to St. Paul for the experience of working with professional journalists on a big story, not to cover the convention for the college paper.
"Their intent was to document. They were not protesters," Luttrell said. "They were doing what all the other journalists were there to do."
The photo of Matthews reacting to pepper spray was atop the Kernel's Web site yesterday, and Luttrell said it would be the 17,000-circulation daily newspaper's top story today.
"What's troubling to me is the censorship that's involved here," Luttrell said. "If the police arrest our journalists and they can't tell what's going on, then who is there to describe it?"
Matt Rourke, the AP photographer whose picture showed Matthews, also was arrested, though it wasn't clear if both were arrested in the same incident. Rourke was released hours later and not charged.
Amy Goodman, host of the syndicated radio and television program Democracy Now!, and two of the show's producers also were arrested and then released. Goodman was cited for a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the legal process, said Ramsey County Attorney's Office spokesman Jack Rhodes.
No charges were expected against Goodman's colleagues, Rhodes said. It was unclear whether Goodman would be charged.
All four, plus those from Kentucky, were among nearly 300 people arrested at the Sept. 1 event that attracted about 10,000 primarily peaceful marchers. A splinter group estimated by police at about 200 broke windows, slashed tires and harassed delegates.
Rourke was covering the protest when he was swept up by police moving in on a group of protesters in downtown St. Paul. Goodman was arrested as she asked police in riot gear about the status of two producers who had been arrested, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.
Goodman interviewed her two producers on her show yesterday where they recounted their experience. A video of Goodman's arrest, aired on her program and also posted on YouTube, shows her begging police not to arrest her before being taken away in handcuffs.
Protests are again expected to mix with politics today in St. Paul as the Republican National Convention resumes at the Xcel Energy Center.
Another rally is planned at the Capitol and protesters have promised to resume their often confrontational actions until the GOP convention ends its four-day run tomorrow night.
Late yesterday, police said they had arrested 10 people throughout the day, but they declined to offer specifics about each incident.
At least three of the arrests came during a march against poverty. The march was tense but neither as widespread nor violent as the Sept. 1 protests.
Police estimated about 2,000 people took part in yesterday’s anti-poverty march, which lasted about three hours. It ended near the convention arena with police using tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse protesters they said were trying to get past security fences, said Tom Walsh, a St. Paul police spokesman.
Police then pushed remaining protesters north, away from the arena and toward the Capitol grounds, and the crowd slowly trickled away.
Jan Nye, 62, of Minneapolis was part of the march and thought it was going well until police used the percussion grenades.
"It was really scary. But most of the scariness comes from them," she said, meaning police. "They really got adrenalized and there was this horrible inevitability to it. They've got their toys and they want to use them."
The arrests yesterday came a day after violence erupted following a largely peaceful anti-war march by some 10,000 people. Afterward, police blamed a splinter group of about 200 for harassing delegates, smashing windows, puncturing car tires, throwing bottles and starting at least one fire.
The RNC Welcoming Committee, a self-described anarchist group that has worked for months planning convention disruptions, claimed success in e-mails to its members and media. "The spectacle has been crashed!" read one.
That group wasn't officially connected with the organizers of either march.
According to a search warrant application and supporting affidavits obtained by news organizations yesterday, the Ramsey County sheriff's office and other law enforcement agencies started investigating the RNC Welcoming Committee just over a year ago. The document said investigators determined that the group's membership had fluctuated between 30-35 members who had met more than 100 times in the past year.
Investigators identified six leaders of the Welcoming Committee, all Minneapolis residents, who they alleged were particularly active in organizing efforts and in stockpiling materials. Five of them were arrested last weekend when authorities executed the search warrant.