Josh’s video, All Empires Must Fall, received the Judge’s Choice Award for Most Controversal Video and the People’s Choice Award for Best Male Vlogger. (more…)
UPDATEMy lawyer and I have been granted a two week continuance before we must appear before the grandjury. More information coming soon.
*** www.joshwolf.net is currently down, my website is still accessible through my blogger account. As soon as the domain transfer is complete, I’ll be importing this blog into wordpress. ***
On July 8th, I shot a video of a protest in the city of San Francisco. During this protest, a police officer was injured during some sort of assumed altercation. My video which I posted to Indybay ended up being used by all the major news outlets without my permission. After sending them a bill for the unauthorized use of the tape, I agreed to give them a full-quality copy of the edited video I had already posted.
Around this time I got a visit from the FBI, they asked for a copy of the video and after speaking with my lawyer told them that they would need to consider this conversation with him and I was not at this point in time going to provide them with a copy of the tape.
Fast-forward about 6 months: I get another visit from the same FBI agents and I am delivered a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury on February 2nd, this upcoming Thursday.
I’m a little worried about this whole thing, so please wish me luck guys… There should be a couple of videos leading up to and following the experience. So please stay tuned!
On July 8th, I filmed a protest in San Francisco. During the demonstration, an officer was injured.
Obviously the injury of the police officer sparked a media sandstorm; however, the newsmedia had elected not to cover the protest so they had no footage of the event.
Brian Shields of The Bay Area is Talking was compiling all the photos and reports as they came in from the protest and I contacted him about my footage shortly before posting it to Indybay and my vlog.
In an attempt to steer KRON’s story towards a more balanced outlook of the event, I elected to sell a selected portion of my footage documenting the police’s oppresive actions to the station.
Now that KRON had the footage, what would the rest of the stations do as the story became a major ratings grab? They did what everyone else did, they went to Indybay and watched my video of the events, only they also decided to put excerpts from my video on television without asking my permission, providing any sort of attribution or offering compensation.
Upon hearing this, I spoke to a few friends and one of them suggested that I simply send them a bill. So that’s what I did, I wrote a letter to each of the stations announcing my frustration with them using my footage and demanding fulfillment of my invoice for a sum significantly higher than the going stringer rate.
It worked, and almost all of them agreed to honor my invoice in exchange for the full quality footage already available on my website. I agreed, and have already recieved payment from most of the stations.
But that’s all backstory… well, tonight, CBS 5 aired a story about a report released by the police chief in regards to July 8th, and my footage was used quite liberally.
Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, I can’t really comment on the events of the night (yikes, I sound like Scott McClellan), I have an appointment with my lawyer tomorrow morning, and I’ll be sure to share what I can as soon as I discuss the matter with him.
But suffice it to say that the news report on CBS 5 was not accurate and neglected some very important elements of the story which are quite clear after watching this video which the CBS story relied on heavily. Judge for yourself, and please let me know what you think.
I’ll try to deliver a more direct response to the CBS story once, I speak with my legal counsel.
Just found this in my inbox:
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!!!
Dear Community,
The collective in support of July 8 anti-G8 protestors in San Francisco seeks funds for bail and legal defense of those arrested. Our immediate goal is to raise $5000 to post bail for the individual still in custody after one week. We want him back with us in the community! Let’s show our solidarity and pitch in what we can! Every little bit helps from $5 to $500! Once he’s out, funds will go towards the legal defense of others being targeted as part of this investigation. Please make checks payable to: Midnight Special Law Collective with “Anti-G8 Protest” written in the memo line. Send checks to: National Lawyers Guild, 558 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94110.
Please Note: This collective is distinct from any individual’s legal defense team or the organizers of the action!
Thanks everyone for your support and solidarity!
~The Collective
Update:Anarchist Action has released a communique regarding the event documented in this video.
The difference between an anarchist approach to organizing a march and typical authoritarian leftist and liberal methods is that the latter seeks to control the actions of the participants, often squashing attempts at direct action. Authoritarian leftist and liberal groups favor routine, symbolic protests and beg for reforms from the ruling class. This does little in terms of actual resistance to the war or to whatever social condition is being opposed. An anarchist approach rejects all forms of authority and therefore does not set protest laws or try to keep people within boundaries- we believe in freedom and when we take to the streets that is the atmosphere we want. Anarchist Action does not coordinate, plan or participate in direct action, economic sabotage, or any other similar actions, we simply organize a protest space in which people may autonomously enact a diversity oftactics, and express their resistance in whatever way they choose.
This is a first-person account of the protest that occured in San Francisco on the evening of July 8th, 2005. This protest recieved an exceptional amount of attention due to the injury of a police officer during a scuffle towards the end of the protest. This video makes use of all natural sound.
Too sleepy from editing this to make a video link. Watch This!
A bunch of you seem to assume that just because my website is called nogovernment.us I *Support* what these kids did. I’ve addressed this topic in a number of forums but suffice it to say, I think that this was a case of wrong place and wrong time for actions which may at some point be necessary but at this point were nothing but childish random acts of anarchy that served no purpose but to further divide the community.
I feel that the issue of the cop that was injured was one of collective self-defense or mutual aid. I neither condemn nor condone the action of whoever struck the blow.
I will have a more detailed post with a new video tomorrow.
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