An arrest warrant was issued in Morton county, North Dakota on Saturday for Democracy Now! executive producer and host Amy Goodman, who is being charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.
According to Democracy Now!, the charge stems from filming that took place on September 3 for a segment on a North Dakota pipeline company’s violent suppression of protestors. The Democracy Now! crew filmed security guards employed by Dakota Access Pipeline attacking protestors with pepper spray and dogs.
The segment aired September 6 and went viral, hence the reprehensible actions of Dakota Access were criticized, which means journalism happened.
Amy Goodman said in a statement, “I was doing my job by covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on Native American protesters.”
Police arrested 38 people in connection to the pipeline protests. At least one other individual who had been present at the scene, an organizer with the Red Warrior Camp, was also charged with misdemeanor trespassing, according to the Grand Forks Herald.
Lefty celeb Twitter weighed in:
The warrant appears only to be a tool for suppressing quality journalism—hopefully this time the bad guys won’t even come close to winning.