Activist journalists get their gear back

Early Tuesday morning, police detained three visiting activist journalists in town to videotape cops during RNC protests as the three walked in northeast Minneapolis. The officers confiscated their belongings, which included computers, cameras, cash, and personal effects.

Yesterday, the cops gave it all back.

In between, the wronged parties, who belong to the Glass Bead Collective, managed to kick up a bit of a media storm, with everyone from the Strib to Newsday reporting on the incident.

All the publicity, says Glass Bead Collective co-founder Vlad Teichberg, has brought in a torrent of phone calls from like-minded videographers descending on the Twin Cities to document police behavior during the RNC.

Teichberg's group, which he says consists of about eight or nine people, therefore may become something of an informal assignment editor for videographers in town to monitor cops, with an eye toward ensuring that they spread out their coverage and so maximize their potential impact.

Says Teichberg of his brush with the law: "Maybe something good has come of it."