I went to the Thirteenth Precinct station house in person and they gave me the same phone number for information on those detained at Union Square as they had given me last night by telephone.  This number was always busy or not answered (eventually switching, oddly, to a busy signal).  The officers at the station house told me Jennifer Whitney and everyone were held and would be processed on the West Side, where there was going to be a big protest.  They said if I went there I'd get arrested.

The protest (called for 10 a.m. by United for Peace and Justice) at Pier 57 at the end of 15th Street was fairly small at around 11 a.m. when I was there.  Not more than one demonstrator for each of the 1000 or so locked up.  I was wearing my best shirt (and I've got a Republican haircut, too) and walked up to a police officer as if I had nothing to do with the protest.  I said I had a colleague, journalist Jennifer Whitney, who had been detained yesterday, and that I needed to know how she was, what she had been charged with, if any bail would be needed or when she would be released.

He told me that everyone would be processed and released within 24 to 36 hours and there was no information I could get here.

So I joined the protests and held a UfPJ "immigrants rights and civil liberties" sign for a half-hour.  Code Pink was interviewed by a film crew and a guy with a guitar played folk songs.  We all cheered when I bus left the holding center.  With some effort I forced my sign onto someone else and went to talk to the highest-ranking-looking officer I could find.  I found I could step out of the pen on the side and walk freely.  The officer I walked up to was helpful and said everyone would be processed at the courthouse on 100 Centre Street; that's where the busloads of detainees were being taken.  I thanked him and used the subway system and the kindness of strangers to reach the courthouse.

Across from 100 Centre Stree a small but spirited crowd cheered every busload of detainees that arrived.  The police let people into the courthouse two at a time without harrassing anyone about why we were there.  The woman in the arraignment information office said she needed an arrest number first (she had looked up names for other people, but was clearly tired of doing this for detainees that weren't in the system yet), and she gave me three numbers I could use to call central processing for an arrest number.  Calling regularly throughout the day, the result was always the same on the rare time that I got through (sometimes by calling the arraignment office or central clerk's office, who would also look up the information): no record of Jennifer Whitney, no arrest number, try back later.  The central clerk gave me yet another number to try after 5 p.m., which I tried immediately (3 p.m.) and I never did get through on that number.

I'm discouraged that no one I managed to talk to made a note of my comments which might have been passed on to decision-makers and perhaps have a collective effect.  They maybe perhaps took note of the interest in Jennifer Whitney when I used the District Attorney's office (extremely helpful) a second time to break through to a phone that got answered (the first time the woman hung up on me when I tried to bring up the 24-hour limit).  At 8 to 8:30 p.m., told again she wasn't in the system, that there was no arrest number or any other record of her name yet, I asked how I could lodge a formal complaint for her being detained over 24 hours without a charge.  The woman said a lawyer could, and I asked her if I could get it on the record even if I wasn't a lawyer, and she said no.

To my knowledge, Jennifer Whitney still has not been released, or perhaps even processed.  You can take action here.  (The information at this link is of course also useful for anyone else who has a friend arrested in the past couple days.)

(A big thanks to the League of Independent Voters, also known as the League of Pissed Off Voters, for letting me use their small fourth floor 226 West 135th Street office to post these last two comments and call the court.)