Tag Archive for 'Ed Matthews'

UK photographers released from jail

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on September 3, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 12 Comments

(Also see: Ky. photographers arrested at GOP convention)

By Jim Warren
jwarren@herald-leader.com

Minneapolis police Wednesday morning released three photographers from Kentucky who were arrested during a disturbance at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, but their legal status remains unclear.

Carla Winn, whose husband, Jim Winn, the photo adviser for the University of Kentucky’s student newspaper, was among those arrested, said that no charges have been filed against the three. She said by cell phone from Minneapolis that police told her husband to check back with them on Monday about his case.

Another of those arrested, Ed Matthews, a senior at the University of Kentucky, said most their camera equipment and personal property were confiscated when they were arrested and remain in police custody. Matthews, a student photographer for the Kentucky Kernel, said police also confiscated his car keys, so he can’t leave Minneapolis until he gets the keys back or finds a locksmith to make a new ones.

“All I have right now is my ID and my debit card, and I only have them because I hid them in my shoe,” he said.

In addition to Jim Winn and Ed Matthews, UK photographer Britney McIntosh and Nathan Weber, a Western Kentucky University graduate and photographer, were arrested during the disturbance.

Weber was still in custody Wednesday morning, but probably will be released later today, Karla Winn said.

According to Matthews, the photographers were taking pictures of a group of demonstrators about 5 p.m. Monday, roughly a block from the convention site. Eventually, police herded the protestors into a parking lot and began making arrests, he said.

Matthews said he had press credentials, but officers ignored them.

Matthews said he and other photographers knew that some sort of disturbance was possible when they went to Minneapolis.

“But to see it happening right in front of your eyes was really something,” he said.

Although Matthews, Winn and McIntosh all work for the Kentucky Kernel they were not on assignment for the paper at the time of their arrests. Matthews said they went to the Republican convention because of personal interests in seeing and photographing the event.

According to Matthews, the American Civil Liberties Union is planning to hold a press conference on the arrests in Minneapolis later today.

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Ky. photographers arrested at GOP convention

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on September 2, 2008
in Police
. 14 Comments

(See UK photographers released from jail)

Steve Lannen
slannen@herald-leader.com

UPDATED: Three photographers with connections to the University of Kentucky’s student newspaper were arrested Monday night at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

James Winn, the photo adviser for the Kentucky Kernel, and Ed Matthews, a student photographer at the paper, were arrested Monday night and booked into the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center in Minnesota on charges of felony rioting, according to staff at the jail. Britney McIntosh, also a Kernel student photographer, was charged with rioting.

Police use pepper spray to break up a group of protesters during a rally at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Monday, Sept. 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Police use pepper spray to break up a group of protesters during a rally at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Monday, Sept. 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

 

 

A Western Kentucky University graduate and photographer, Nathan Weber, was arrested on a charge of gross misdemeanor rioting. 

As of Tuesday night, none had been formally charged. That could come Wednesday, a jail staffer said, adding that several hundred people faced similar charges. A total of 284 people were arrested, according to several news reports.

The arrests came Monday after a planned march in downtown St. Paul. “Breakaway anarchists” who left the parade route caused havoc in parts of the city, leaving slashed tires, broken windows and glass bottles heaved at police, according to TwinCities.com and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Police used pepper spray, tear gas and Tasers to subdue some crowds.

Jonathan D. Woods, a Western Kentucky graduate and photographer for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette covering the convention, saw the arrests take place.

About 5 p.m. Monday, police ordered about 300 protesters to disperse from an area near Seventh and Jackson streets in downtown St. Paul. After multiple warnings they used pepper spray, rubber bullets and then tear gas to break up the protesters. Between 60 and 100 people broke off from the group and ran through the streets, blocking intersections, Woods said. Some threw sandbags and newspaper racks into the streets.

Eventually police cornered the protesters in a parking lot, ordered them to the ground and placed zip-tie restraints on them, including the photographers from Kentucky.

“These photographers were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Woods said. “They were acting responsibly as photojournalists and capturing some good moments, and everything went south pretty fast.”

Brad Luttrell. the Kernel’s editor in chief, said that the photographers arrested were not covering the convention for the Kernel and had gone with the understanding that their photos would not be published in the paper. That decision was made because similar coverage was not planned for last week’s Democratic National Convention, Luttrell said.

He did agree to let them write about their experiences and publish their photos in a blog about photojournalism, linked to the Kernel’s Web site.

“From what I understand, they went out there with every intention to be photojournalists and do good documentary work and in no way did they have any intention to do any protesting or participate in any rioting,” Luttrell said. “I don’t know how many other journalists were arrested. I don’t know how they (police) decided who was who or if they just arrested everybody and decided to sort it out later.”

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