Dissenters Beware

"Every person, from the president of the United States down to you and me, has to give information to the grand jury if the grand jury wants it." So says U.S. District Judge William Alsup.

Had President Bush personally not blocked a Justic Department Inquiry on his NSA spying program just last month, I might actually believe those words. Normally, statements from a robed man at a bench should be honored as truthful and trustworthy. When put in context with the Bush Administration however, they simply sound like coercive bullying tactics to scare yet another journalist.

"U.S. District Judge William Alsup found Josh Wolf in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena that the grand jury issued in February for tapes Wolf made of the July 2005 demonstration in the Mission District."

In July of 2005, an anti-war demonstration was held in San Francisco where a police car was supposedly torched. Wolf - a freelance video journalist - was shooting at the protest and prosecutors believe that he might have captured images of a few pesky anarachists who possibly could have set the car ablaze.

Now. The 'anarchists' that I've seen at the anti-war protests that I've been to wear a lot of black clothing with either masks or hankerchiefs on their faces so they can't be identified. I'm not familiar with the San Francisco anarchists, but given the liberal nature of the city, maybe they're out-of-the-closet-anarchists.

While that may not be a consideration, Alsup still wants the tapes, and he's putting a young, fresh 24 year old journalist behind bars until he gets them.

I know it's government property paid for by tax payers dollars, but do you really think this much time and energy would be devoted to the burning of a normal citizen's car? Possibly. But I'm sure this case has more to do with knocking down the dissent of a few anti-war 'undesirables' as opposed to the value of a police car.

But this guy should be okay, because Journalists are protected, right? Under the California shield law, yes. But prosecutors claim the car owned by the San Francisco Police Department was bought with federal funds making it a federal case. And journalists aren't protected under federal law. So here we go again.

The wave of censorship and journalist bullying brought on by this administration is an all out assault on the First Amendment. If you want documented proof, check out Stephen Kaus's blog over at the Huffington Post. Better yet, go to the Josh Wolf site and help im out.