Karen Moulding, fabulous activist lawyer and GLAMerican, gave me permission to post this report from yesterday's demo, where the police arrested people for simply being on the sidewalk with signs.
Yesterday morning I accompanied several members of the "Glamericans for Peace" at a legal, sidewalk demonstration in support of others committing non-violent civil disobedience outside a corporation called "The Carlyse Group." An attorney with ample demonstrations experience, I was there as a "legal observer," but no one in my group anticipated arrest, and we all assumed we'd be on our way to our jobs within an hour.The Glamericans stood with a few dozen others, holding funny yet to-the-point signs (many ironic, such as, "make war not love," "paranoia is patriotic," "more blood for oil," "stocks and bombs," etc.), and dressed as rich folk (pin stripe suits, etc.). Across the street, those who had planned to commit civil disobedience sat at the corporation's entrance, and were arrested as planned.
Then, without warning, police surrounded and arrested the peaceful demonstrators on the sidewalk across the street. The police gave no order to disperse, and, in fact, the demonstrators were not even in the way of other pedestrians. The cops simply surrounded the legal protest, and conducted a "surprise arrest" of everyone standing on the sidewalk, including a 70+ year old woman, a journalist, and dozens of others who had planned to go to work that day. Many asked the police if they could please leave, and were refused. When I approached the captain and asked what the charges could possibly be, and informed him that people were not causing any blockade and wanted to leave, he said, "get on the sidewalk or I'll have you arrested too."
This no-warning "surprise" arrest of peaceful legal demonstrators, who were not blocking pedestrian or vehicular traffic, serves no purpose other than to chill the First Amendment right to demonstrate. Someone in command apparently hopes that next time the demonstrators will remember the inconvenience and stay home rather than assemble to express their views. Even some of the cops themselves seemed privately distraught by this senseless tactic, which, apart from the violation of the 1st Amendment, is a waste of both energy and tax payer dollars.
The one hundred plus arrestees were charged with Disorderly Conduct, and held for up to 10 hours for processing. Many were not released until 10 p.m. I attempted to gain entrance to the precinct to oversee processing, and police officials told me "attorneys can stand over there" and pointed to a barricaded area outdoors. (It was 30 degrees out, and snowing.)
I've been an attorney at all kinds of demonstrations --hundreds and hundreds of demonstrations-- for years, and I've never seen police behavior so obviously designed to discourage the right to peaceful protest. We need to demand that the police be encouraged to proudly protect the First Amendment right to demonstrate peacefully, rather than use scare tactics to pre-empt it. Otherwise, any claim to "patriotism" is a farce.
