NYC Subpoenas RNC Video from I-Witness Video

democracynow.org

NYC Subpoenas RNC Video from I-Witness Video

The City of New York is requesting an activist media organization to turn over hundreds of hours of videotape sho t of protests during the 2004 Republican National Convention. The city has issued two subpoenas to the group I-Witness Video for all videotapes relating to protests, demonstrations or arrests during the week of the convention. Lawyers for I-Witness have asked a federal judge to quash the subpoena request.



http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/23/headlines#12

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forwarded message:

I-Witness Video Subpoenaed


Friends,

I-Witness Video has been served with two subpoenas by lawyers from the
City of New York in connection with the 2004 Republican National
Convention. The City has demanded every piece of paper, electronic file,
and videotape related to the protests - even our copies of t he tapes shot
by their own NYPD!

We're fighting this gross abuse of subpoena power. Yesterday our lawyers
at Schulte Roth & Zabel moved to quash both subpoenas.

See the website for our statement.
http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/index.html

This is a link to today's New York Times article about the subpoenas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/nyregion/20convention.html

We need your support to continue this important work. Let us know if you
are interested in helping to document the presidential conventions in
Denver and Minneapolis this summer. And if you can make a financial
contribution at iwitnessvideo.info/contribute/index.html, it would be
enormously useful at this time, to help us fight these subpoenas, and to
continue our work=2 0opposing police misconduct.

In solidarity,

Eileen Clancy

e-mail: iwitness@iwitnessvideo.info
website: iwitnessvideo.info



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http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/06/98162.html


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http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/06/98162.html

June 22, 2008 06:29PM EDT [general.addtranslation] Download Article (PDF) [ insert language bar ]

2004 RNC protest videotapes subpoenaed by NYC government
0A

I-Witness Video is fighting two subpoenas by New York City in relation to RNC arrest civil lawsuits.

By I-Witness Video

I-Witness Video, which documented the police at the 2004 Republican National Convention in association with the National L awyers Guild, has received two subpoenas from the City of New York in connection with civil lawsuits related to the RNC arrests. The subpoenas are so broad that we believe the City's true motivation is not defending themselves from lawsuits about false arrests, but rather intelligence-gathering. We have moved to quash the subpoenas and are fighting their demand to turn over the names of individual videographers.

Keywords: Local, RNC 2004, Activism, Civil Rights,

I-Witness Video, which documented the police at the 2004 Republican National Convention in association with the National Lawyers Guild, has received two subpoenas from the City of New York in connection with civil lawsuits related to the 1800 arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention. The City has demanded every piece of paper, electronic file, and videotape related to the demonstrations - including, remarkably, I-Witness Video's copies of tapes shot by their own police officers! The subpoenas are so broad that the City is even demanding access to videotapes which do not show any arrests, but only First Amendment types of activity. Because of this we believe their true motivation=2 0is not defending themselves from lawsuits about false arrests, but rather intelligence-gathering.

We worked hand-in-hand with the National Lawyers Guild during the criminal trials of people arrested at the RNC. Video showed the truth about what happened in the streets, contradicting police testimony on multiple occasions. As a direct result, over 400 individuals had their cases dismissed or were acquitted at trial based on video evidence.

I-Witness Video is fighting this gross abuse of subpoena power. We are deeply concerned that any videotapes and other information we turn over to the City will be used to target demonstrators, who may then have their names added to law enforcement databases and become subject to government harassment. Our lawyers have moved to quash both subpoenas, and have asked the federal judge to allow us to withhold the names of the videographers who shot the tapes. While we are fighting against turning over any videotapes to the government, in the event that the judge orders us to give the City some portion of the video archive, we have asked for a court order that the tapes never be shared with law enforcement agencies.

See the I-Witness Video website for our statement.
http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/index.html

New York Times article about the subpoenas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/nyregion/20convention.html

By I-Witness Video http://iwitnessvideo.info

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http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/06/98162.html





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