Thanks for sharing that story. It's no wonder some protesters become rioters. The choices made by the police are pushing them in that direction as exemplified by your friend thinking large demonstrations are safer than small ones. Two-thousand people are more apt to get rowdy than 200. The performative rioters are granted a bigger stage, more attention, and also enjoy some safety in numbers.
Thanks for doing this interview. I’d just like to add that this happened over and over again in 2020, but people who weren’t there had a hard time believing it. Believe it now!
Thanks, Seth, for sharing this account of the entrapment by the police of peaceful protesters exercising their first amendment rights—and arrested for it. It completely refutes the narrative being promoted not just by the white house but by innumerable media outlets and reporters.
While reading it, suddenly I realized that For What It's Worth by Stephen Stills & Buffalo Springfield was 'playing' in my head. I'd never have guessed that the soundtrack from my high school years would be so relevant in my 70's: “There's something happening here / What it is ain't exactly clear / There's a man with a gun over there / Telling me I got to beware // I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound / Everybody look what's going down".
Excellent interview. I've had the experience of being kettled twice. The first time was at the Hail to the Thief protests against George W. Bush's first inauguration in 2001. In that case, the police ultimately relented, perhaps because there were a lot of old lady Gore/Lieberman supporters and some crying children. It was just one city block and literally nothing rambunctious was happening to justify penning us in. The second time was a few years later and they let me out because I was press (writing freelance for In These Times). As I left one cop muttered, "He probably made that press badge himself." Which I had, actually, but I was still press.
I'd add that C.A. should DEFINITELY reach out to the ACLU or another group because there have been numerous instances of cities having to pay significant damages for civil rights violations such as those she describes.
Was your friend talking about leaving the country when press gets arrested? The USA has arrested press since the John Adams administration. Press were arrested, beaten and blinded during the 2020 protests.
I think that white Americans have been ignorant, deluded and insular when it comes to the real history of this country. Black Americans who are the descendants of people kidnapped and enslaved in this country, know that the arrest of the press is something that has happened since the founding of this country. That the governments - from city to federal- have targeted, arrested and killed people who were deemed as “agitators.”
I continue to be astounded by people who bought into the propaganda and think that the current regime is different than regimes of the past. It is not. Ask any Native American about America. Press were arrested at Standing Rock.
Why didn’t people use their privilege and leave the country then?
If they marched you through the jail to an outside holding facility, you were in fact jailed.
Sound to me like you and many others were illegally detained.
Thanks for sharing that story. It's no wonder some protesters become rioters. The choices made by the police are pushing them in that direction as exemplified by your friend thinking large demonstrations are safer than small ones. Two-thousand people are more apt to get rowdy than 200. The performative rioters are granted a bigger stage, more attention, and also enjoy some safety in numbers.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for doing this interview. I’d just like to add that this happened over and over again in 2020, but people who weren’t there had a hard time believing it. Believe it now!
Yup. Agreed. Thanks.
Well done, Seth: this is great stuff. Am linking to it in tomorrow's post.
Much appreciated, Claire
Thanks to both of you! (former S CA social scientist, watching in growing frustration and deepening concern from a SE univ)
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this and to C.A. for explaining it, and what happened, what to look for. Helpful at this time.
Thank you
Thanks, Seth, for sharing this account of the entrapment by the police of peaceful protesters exercising their first amendment rights—and arrested for it. It completely refutes the narrative being promoted not just by the white house but by innumerable media outlets and reporters.
While reading it, suddenly I realized that For What It's Worth by Stephen Stills & Buffalo Springfield was 'playing' in my head. I'd never have guessed that the soundtrack from my high school years would be so relevant in my 70's: “There's something happening here / What it is ain't exactly clear / There's a man with a gun over there / Telling me I got to beware // I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound / Everybody look what's going down".
Time to up my subscription to paid.
Excellent interview. I've had the experience of being kettled twice. The first time was at the Hail to the Thief protests against George W. Bush's first inauguration in 2001. In that case, the police ultimately relented, perhaps because there were a lot of old lady Gore/Lieberman supporters and some crying children. It was just one city block and literally nothing rambunctious was happening to justify penning us in. The second time was a few years later and they let me out because I was press (writing freelance for In These Times). As I left one cop muttered, "He probably made that press badge himself." Which I had, actually, but I was still press.
This police repression of protests has been going on a long time. I reported about instances of it for the alt-weekly New Haven Advocate at IMF/World Bank protests in Washington, DC: https://web.archive.org/web/20000815064105/http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/articles/democracy3.html
But the Trumpist GOP has taken it to another level.
I'd add that C.A. should DEFINITELY reach out to the ACLU or another group because there have been numerous instances of cities having to pay significant damages for civil rights violations such as those she describes.
Was your friend talking about leaving the country when press gets arrested? The USA has arrested press since the John Adams administration. Press were arrested, beaten and blinded during the 2020 protests.
There is a group that has been tracking press freedom since 2017. https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-arrested-in-the-us-2017-present/
I think that white Americans have been ignorant, deluded and insular when it comes to the real history of this country. Black Americans who are the descendants of people kidnapped and enslaved in this country, know that the arrest of the press is something that has happened since the founding of this country. That the governments - from city to federal- have targeted, arrested and killed people who were deemed as “agitators.”
I continue to be astounded by people who bought into the propaganda and think that the current regime is different than regimes of the past. It is not. Ask any Native American about America. Press were arrested at Standing Rock.
Why didn’t people use their privilege and leave the country then?
Informative article. Thanks for doing the interview and posting it.
Please read my Substack post of this morning and subscribe for free. See:
https://tommast.substack.com/p/federal-debt-risks?r=b29s7
Tom Mast