Image used totally without permission. Sorry. Photo by Matt Rourke of the AP

UPDATE: Both Ed and Britney are out of jail now. Charges on them are still pending, but at least they’re not behind bars any more.

MP3: Dirty Projectors - Police Story

YANP is almost exclusively a music blog, but I just had to throw a little light on this. For the full story, go here.

The above photo is a picture of my friend Ed being sprayed with mace while photographing the protesters at the Republican National Convention today. He and my friend Britney, both photographers for the University of Kentucky’s paper the Kentucky Kernel, went to St. Paul to photograph the events there. I received a text just now that said that they were maced, arrested on charges of felony rioting and held in jail. As of right now, they’re still waiting in jail.

Personal connection put mostly aside (Ed and Britney are two of the nicest people you could hope to meet), this is just absurd. I thought the insanity had maxed out when they arrested Amy Goodman, host of the nationally syndicated program Democracy Now!, but apparently they’re just getting started. According to the Kentucky Kernel story, if convicted, they would face a minimum year in jail and $3000 fine.

Crazy.

Anyone with friends in a similar situation should probably direct them to Cold Snap Legal, who I’m told are handling a lot of these cases right now.