Arrested and Abused for Doing Nothing

Article

This article represents a very mild case of police abuse.

“You got press credentials?”

I barely had time to say no to the mustachioed White Shirt before he grabbed my forearm and threw me to the ground.

Notice how cops never simply first just tell someone they are under arrest and to turn around so that handcuffs can be put on them? The first response is to commit violence against them -- throw them on the ground and have several government thugs jump on them while they scream "stop resisting, stop resisting" when the victim is obviously not resisting. They do this to justify the violence and it gives them an excuse to charge them for resisting arrest.

When we were finally brought to the final holding area for our arraignment we were informed that if we refused to submit to a retina scan we would likely be held overnight. The retina scan is a voluntary procedure that all 10 of us had already denied earlier that day. According to our lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild – who are heroes – the lieutenant on duty and the judge said that if we continued to refuse the scans we wouldn’t get out that night. With only a few exceptions due to personal commitments, we all stood in solidarity and refused to submit to the procedure. This was around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, roughly 36 hours after our arrest. Several of the women arrested and a majority of the men were going to spend another night in prison to protest the ever expanding security state. In many ways, this final hurdle was the most egregious encroachment on our liberties. The retinal scan is a voluntary procedure, but if you don’t submit to it, you will be punished.