Reply #161: It was a mass arrest. [View All]

[moriah]

There was a small group who went to the other side of the street in front of the business and formed a human chain to block entrance. It was maybe 8 or 9 people. They knew that they would be arrested. They'd participated in jail solidarity training.

After police arrived on the scene and arrested the people participating in the direct action, the order was then given to surround the protesters on the opposite side of the street, who were not blocking sidewalk or street traffic, and who had never expected to get arrested since they were in a peaceful demonstration. These people had not participated in jail solidarity training. They were ordered to disperse after the protest was surrounded by a line of officers with riot shields, but could not disperse because they were surrounded. They were then mass-arrested.

If you'd like to look up information about that protest, it's available online. It was overshadowed in the media by the police in Oakland who used less-lethal weaponry on the group of protesters, including wooden bullets -- that incident occurred on the same day. To my recollection it was April 7, 2003, in front of a building that was believed to house a sub-company of the Carlyle Group.

I believe that most police officers are good people who do not intend to violate people's civil rights. The officer who cuffed her probably had not had much training on how to appropriately use the plastic cuffs, and there were several wagons of people who were likely clamoring -- she wasn't the only one who suffered wrist injuries that day. It wasn't the individual officer that cuffed her who made the order to arrest everyone, it was the person in charge. He was following orders. They had to call in officers who had very little training in protest response.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/nyregion/20about.html is an article about that day and the lawsuit. Only 52 people participated in the lawsuit. Others took their Desk Appearance Tickets and took care of it separately.