Narco News Reporter Whitney Illegally Detained in New York

Posted by Al Giordano - August 31, 2004 at 10:23 pm

AUGUST 31, 2004: Three Narco News reporters, in New York City's Union Square tonight, covering the protests in favor of regime change in the United States during the Republican National Convention, exercizing their right and duty to report the news, were encircled by the New York Police Department on East 16th Street: Teo Ballvé, Jennifer Whitney, and managing editor Dan Feder.

Feder and Ballvé managed to escape from the police blockade on East 16th Street, but Authentic Journalist Jennifer Whitney - cordoned in with the Infernal Noise Brigade marching band - was taken into custody along with the members of that musical group.

Narco News issues the following statement... PRIMERO: The detention of journalist Whitney is a violation of the December 5, 2001, order from the New York Supreme Court, which declared that Narco News journalists are "entitled to heightened protection under the First Amendment (New York Times Co. v Sullivan, supra, 376 US, at 270-280)."

Source:

http://www.eff.org/Censorship/SLAPP/Forum_shopping_BNM_v_Narco_News/20011205_decision.html

For more background on that landmark decison, follow:

http://www.narconews.com/docs/ontrial.html

SEGUNDO: As we communicated to the National Lawyers Guild this evening, and we communicate to the national and international press and public tonight, the journalists at Narco News offer to pay the bail of our colleague, if bail is required.

TERCERO: We demand not only the immediate freedom of journalist Whitney, but also that of all members of the musical group Infernal Noise Brigade, who are also protected by the laws pertaining to freedom of speech and freedom of the press in New York State.

CUARTO: It has come to our attention that the New York City authorities, and possibly federal authorities with the U.S. Secret Service, among possible other agencies, in blatant violation of the 2001 New York Supreme Court decision, refused to recognize Indymedia.org press passes as proof that those journalists are legitimate press in New York State, and that various credential-carrying Indymedia reporters, videographers, radio journalists, and online journalists, have also been detained tonight and this week.

This is an absolute violation of the will of the New York Supreme Court, which extended rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the 14th Amendment of the New York State constitution to Internet journalists.

QUINTO: We plead to any legal observers or future arrestees who can get word inside the pier where our reporter Jennifer Whitney and members of the Infernal Noise Brigade, are illegally detained, that the entire international Narco News team, and our attorneys, will not rest until they are released.

SEXTO: We will exercise our rights under New York law to the ultimate consequences, including, if necessary, an expensive Civil Lawsuit, to gain the freedom of our reporter, and will join in coalition with Indymedia or any other media organization that wishes to do the same on behalf of its reporters, who were all detained, and many arrested, in violation of New York case law.

SEPTIMO: If anybody has information on the whereabouts or status of our reporter, please contact me immediately at publisher-at-narconews.com

ULTIMAMENTE: The refusal of New York City and federal authorities to recognize the protections afforded by the New York Supreme Court to all Internet journalists in the illegal detentions of reporters from Narco News, Indymedia, Guerrilla News, and other online news organizations places those agents and agencies that participated in this illegal act as culpable for a crime under New York law. We hereby hold Mayor Michael Bloomberg and any and all of his functionaries involved in this violation of law as responsible, both as citizens, and as public officials, for this gross attack on the First Amendment rights of Internet journalists, and for the personal safety and freedom of journalist Whitney and all others illegally detained today.

From somewhere in a country called América,

Al Giordano
Publisher, Narco News
http://www.narconews.com/
(and native New Yorker)

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Let NYPD know you care-- tell 'em to free Whitney

Submitted September 1, 2004 - 1:18 am by Benjamin Melançon

Union Square Park, where Jennifer Whitney was taken into custody, is in the 13th precinct of the New York Police Department. The station house is at 230 East 21st Street, New York, New York 10010.

I have no idea if a telephone campaign will be of any effect, but the 13th precinct's phone number is 1-212-477-7411 (the phone number on the main page is incorrect).

When I called this number asking for information about the Narco News journalist Jennifer Whitney that was taken into custody near Union Square, I was told to call 1-212-255-0372. This number has been busy every time I've called it, starting about 12:30 a.m.

Other phone numbers for Precinct 13 that might be worth calling are community affairs, (212) 477-7427, and community policing, (212) 477-7446.

Perhaps the best method would be to call the main number for precinct 13, 1-212-477-7411, and ask to speak to Commanding Officer Deputy Inspector Paul G. McCormack.

You can also e-mail Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

This was my e-mail:

Yesterday night (Monday August 31) at Union Square journalist Jennifer Whitney was detained in violation of her right to peaceably assemble and the "heightened protection under the First Amendment (New York Times Co. v Sullivan, supra, 376 US, at 270-280)" granted to journalists. This protection was explicitly extended to her publication, The Narco News Bulletin, by the New York Supreme Court in 2001.
I am a colleague of Jennifer Whitney's and would like to know her physical condition, her location, what charges if any have been made against her, and when and where she will be released.
Thank you,
Benjamin Maurice Melançon

I am in New York City until Thursday September 2nd if anyone has any ideas for freeing Jennifer that require a body to be there.

1:52 a.m. - I Just Spoke with Our Reporter

Submitted September 1, 2004 - 1:54 am by Al Giordano

Thank you, Ben, and everyone else who has moved the "Narco News swarm" in the past three hours, including certain old Bronx neighborhood buddies who are now NYPD sargeants and such, and also Lord High Webmahster Dan Feder, who remained at his post late into the night to make some magic happen.

In this world of total surveillance, sometimes we get a break.

I just spoke - from somewhere in a country called América! - to journalist Jennifer Whitney, live, via contraband cell phone. She is inside the entrails of the New York City penitentiary system, from a pier off West 15th Street.

She is alive, she is well, she has not been poisoned by industrial toxins (like some, reportedly, yesterday, were), she has not been beaten (like others were), she is with most members of the musical group known as Infernal Noise Brigade, also detained, who are also well, and she is of good cheer.

And she thanks all the members of the Narco News Team who have worked overtime tonight to locate and protect our own.

In a few hours, the jailbreak begins. Here, we leave no Authentic Journalist behind.

For the Defense: Ron Kuby

Submitted September 1, 2004 - 1:28 pm by Al Giordano

Prominent New York criminal defense attorney Ron Kuby (also known for co-hosting the city's top-rated morning talk radio show on 77-AM WABC) has agreed to represent our illegally detained journalist Jennifer Whitney - still being held on Pier 57, and possibly not yet formally charged - to the ultimate consequences.

She's in good hands now.

Kuby, law partner of the late William Kunstler, who sued Bernard Goetz on behalf of his black shooting victims, and has represented leaders of the Latin Kings, the American Indian Movement, the Puerto Rican independence movement, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, and even Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, now adds to his illustrious client list Authentic Journalist Jennifer Whitney.

Thanks, Ron.

Free Jennifer Whitney! Contact courts & top cop

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 1:38 pm by Benjamin Melançon

Well over 36 hours after being detained, Jennifer Whitney has not been released yet, to my knowledge.

Here are the numbers I was given, and called ("I'm a collegue of journalist Jennifer Whitney, I would like to know her arrest number -- or when and where she will be arraigned and docket number -- and what she is charged with..."):

Central Booking office (get arrest #)

(212) 374-3942

(212) 374-3921

(212) 374-3838

Arraignment Information (use arrest #)

(212) 374-6537

(212) 374-6538

(212) 374-6242

The central clerk's office, 212-374-6261 and the number I was given by that office, 212-374-6258 might also help.

If anyone has a good calling plan and lots of patience, you can try to break through the barrier of busy signals and occasional no-answers. I'm hesitant to ask this because I know other people are looking to get through also, but illegal detaining added to illegal holding means war. Please [mailto:ben_freejen@melanconent.com e-mail me] if you get through.

The precinct stations apparently were not involved in the processing of people arrested during the protests, so I guess we can leave them alone.

To express general discontent, use the NYPD's e-mail form for Commissioner Kelly: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mailnypd.html.

You can also call the NYPD Switchboard, 646-610-5000, or if you are in New York City 311 is the number for all non-emergency city information, even "opinions to mayor."

A letter from the New York City Police roundtable gives this fax number 646-610-5865 Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, and I think it is accurate.

There is this mail address also, if you want dear Ray Kelly to always remember you and your concern for Jennifer Whitney and the other musicians, journalists, demonstrators, and bystanders who were arrested, mostly for trying to walk from one place to another:

1 Police Plaza
New York, New York 10038

I, for one, want the New York City establishment, police state wing, to remember the reaction their actions received.

UPDATE: Jennifer Whitney now processed

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 2:48 pm by Benjamin Melançon

I have Jennifer Whitney's arrest number. So cancel contacting the courts, but complaints to the police commissioner et. al. can go on.

Melançon Rocks New York!

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 3:29 pm by Al Giordano

Ben "Duraznote" Melançon, 2004 Narco News Authentic Journalism scholar, and superstar redtape cutter extraordinaire... Way to go!

Keep up the good work, Ben. Others, including the Lord High Webmahster, are on their way down to the courthouse to join you and spring our reporter into freedom.

Portland Indymedia Also on Whitney's Trail

Submitted September 1, 2004 - 7:09 pm by Al Giordano

Thanks, Portland IMC!

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/296233.sh tml

Thanks also to 2004 Authentic Journalism Scholar Ben Melançon, in New York, who has been calling the NYPD and court system every half hour to find out if Whitney has been arraigned yet.

And to Feder and Ballvé, of course, who are also doing the NN swarm on this thing.

And to others who cannot be thanked by name, but who are working the inside.

Press Freedom Solidarity Letter from Caracas...

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 7:37 am by Al Giordano

From the country where journalists don't go to jail....

1 September 2004, 11:46 p.m. Caracas, Venezuela
Dear Al,
I just checked into Narco News and saw that Jennifer Whitney was detained yesterday in New York. I was about to send her an e-mail because this afternoon I was in Nueva Tacagua and Victoria Osuna and her daughter Catalina asked me if I had heard from Jennifer. It surprised me that they remembered her from our short visit to their home and asked about her by name. I did tell them that I was sure she was in New York, but that was all that I knew at the moment.
I will try to get in touch with the Osunas tomorrow to let them know about Jennifer. The Osunas are a very strong Pentecostal family and I am sure that Jennifer will be the recipient of a ton of prayers and good wishes from their religious brothers and sisters. If you are able to communicate with her, let her know that people in Nueva Tacagua are thinking of her and her companions in New York.
I am, too.
Con un abrazo,
Charlie

Publisher adds: Here's a photo of the Osunas in their living room, by Noah Friedsky:

http://www.salonchingon.com/exhibits/caracas2004/s ource/barrio-bests-10.html

My day contacting the New York City authorities

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 1:51 pm by Benjamin Melançon

Full report on yesterday's contacting of the authorities about their detention of Jennifer Whitney:

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.)

Journalist Freed, Judge Cites City for Contempt

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 7:12 pm by Al Giordano

Thank you again, colleagues and readers, for your sleepless work of the past 48 hours to free our colleague from an illegal detention.

Authentic Journalist Jennifer Whitney is out of police custody.

Her release, and that of others, came shortly after a judge named Cataldo slapped a finding of contempt of court upon the City of New York with a fine of $1,000 per person held in violation of the court's order this morning to free these citizens. With as many as 1,700 people detained since Tuesday, that fine could add up to more than a million dollars.

And the inevitable civil lawsuits against the illegal detentions have not even begun yet.

Whitney reports that she is unharmed and of good cheer. That sound you hear across América is a collective sigh of relief from her colleagues.

Freedom!

Submitted September 3, 2004 - 4:26 am by Benjamin Melançon

Jennifer Whitney was released with other members of the Infernal Noise Brigade without being charged, but the authorities expect her to return in October and be charged. Y'can all let the city know how you feel about that. I'd like to see commissioner Kelly receive a couple faxes outlining the illegality of Jennifer Whitney's arrest, detention for over 30 hours without arrest and over 40 hours never being charged, and unhealthy conditions without access to a bed. These facts of course also go for the Noise Brigade members and many, many others protesting (or just in Manhattan at the time of) the Republican National Convention.

My talking to New York City authorities didn't make a minutes worth of difference in Whitney's release. It was the absolutely rocking National Lawyers Guild that pushed the court to force the city to release all people who had been in police custody, without being charged yet, for way over 24 hours.

Peter Gorman Email on NN Support for Journo

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 11:07 pm by Al Giordano

Authentic Journalist Peter Gorman writes from Austin, Texas...

Al: Way to back up your reporters. Most organizations could learn from this quick response.
Gorman

They won't learn, Peter. But not to worry. We have built the better network, and the "press freedom bureaucrats" are now irrelevant (Yes, I mean YOU: Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press... useless during these days in which at least 15 journalists were detained illegally for 48 hours in New York).

Bill Conroy Email on NN journo protection network

Submitted September 2, 2004 - 11:12 pm by Al Giordano

Bill Conroy writes from San Antonio, Texas:

Good work on Jennifer Whitney's story in NYC... it is good to know that there's a network like Narco News that is loyal to its people ... makes me more willing to step out on a limb for the truth as well.

Yep, Bill, step out on that limb, and we are here for you, too.

There is no journalist brave enough to affiliate with Narco News or the J-School who will ever be left behind when the censors come attacking.

Especially not you!

- Al

Protestor control

Submitted September 9, 2004 - 12:23 pm by Christopher Hyde

This is more in the nature of a query than a comment. I had heard somewhere that in Venezuela the average man, or woman, on the street is likely to be armed, and that was one factor in the failure of the CIA-sponsored coup attempt against Chavez. Could anyone familiar with Venezuela let me know if this impression is correct? Thanks.

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Reporter's Notebook: Al Giordano