Activist 'kidnapped' on live TV is found in jail. Lawyer: “He had his hands up the whole time.”

[Permalink]

I am so sick and tired of this country.
Wish there was some place better.

1 Like

I think in the future everyone should peacefully surrender. Think of the headache the cops would have trying to book thousands of people and make up crimes to charge them all with.

“Subject was uhhh. . . ‘loitering at a bus stop.’ (sigh) Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.”

If I’m remembering correctly this happened after 10PM so the curfew was in effect. How does having your hands up prevent one from being arrested if you’re violating the law, whether peacefully or not?

6 Likes

Am I missing something? He wasn’t kidnapped or snatched. He was arrested. Reasonable people can disagree about whether police should have arrested him. But they clearly had the legal authority to do so, regardless of how peaceful he was, because he was violating the curfew.

7 Likes

Kent’s sudden disappearance around 11.10pm ET Tuesday was filmed by live CNN cameras, and prompted an outcry on social media. He had his hands in the air when riot police swooped in, and a police humvee-style truck temporarily blocked him from view of the media.

The student then seemingly vanishing without a trace.

Is this standard arrest procedure, now? For the crime of being where the police do not want you to be?

Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

9 Likes

1 Like

He was violating the curfew. He was engaging in direct action protest. If you’re going to do that, and I have done it in the past, you have to be willing to accept arrest. Calling it kidnapping is ludicrous, it was literally done on live television to the commentary of a CNN reporter. I say this as a Baltimorean who just drove home from my buddy’s house so I could be in by the curfew. I know full well, as he did, that if I’m out past curfew I might be arrested. Not only did he violate curfew, he literally was THE closest guy the the main line of riot police almost an hour after it began.

3 Likes

What about the procedure is problematic?

Also, courts have clearly held that reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on speech are constitutional. A curfew is a reasonable restriction.

1 Like

There are a lot of better places.

5 Likes

Land of the free* home of the braveª

* freedom is conditional on obeying the 10pm curfew ª the brave will be arrested
12 Likes

Arrests aren’t typically made by rushing a nonthreatening suspect and immediately bundling him into a Humvee and driving away like some banana republic death squad.

This is how it’s supposed to go: “You are under arrest, put your hands on your head.” (handcuffs) “Do you have any sharp objects in your pockets I should know about?” (frisk, pocket search, Mirandize, put suspect in back of vehicle, process at station, provide phone call, etc.) There was no reason for this to go down the way it did.

25 Likes

Show of force.That’s the only reason. And you’re right about the banana republic tactic - this is better termed “disappeared” than arrested. Of course, he did eventually appear, which is better than what happens to some.

9 Likes

So free to you means free to disobey lawful orders?

I question the lawfulness of orders for people who’ve not committed any crime to stay in their house.

Telling people they must stay in their house certainly seems at odds with core concepts of freedom, but by this stage I’d not be surprised if Americans have adopted Stockholm Syndrome en-masse.

19 Likes

Really? That’s a matter of perspective. I can’t think of any circumstance where a curfew imposed by the government is a reasonable restriction.

9 Likes

So, they effected the arrest too quickly? I fail to see how that makes it more troubling. The vehicle was the problem? Again, what difference does that make? It looks to you like a “banana republic death squad,” but what distinguishes such squads from the police is what happens after they seize you, not how they seize you.

Lawful orders (not an exaggeration, these were lawful orders, and this is where thinking like yours leads.):

9 Likes

Courts routinely and uniformly disagree with you.

You mean like when they murder you after they seize you, which is what sparked this protest in the first place?

12 Likes