Arresting Protestors for Doing Nothing.

[strredwolf]

If you watched MSNBC, you'll probably know about this story.

A fairly adept biker, Joshua Kinberg, had modified his bike with a laptop and wireless connection so that you could SMS a message to be sprayed, with water-soluable chalk, onto the ground as he rode it.  He planned to execute this protest durring the Republican National Congress, but in the middle of being interviewed by Ron Regan for MSNBC's Hardball, HE WAS ARRESTED WITHOUT ANY REASON!  He was put into a makeshift jail for 24 hours before a courtdate was set, and the bike with hardware confiscated.  Officers interviewing him got basically nothing illegal out of him -- his plan wasn't to do anything illegal.  ( Water soluable chalk isn't destructive )  So he's got to find another lawyer, write a motion to dismiss, and show up in court at the end of the month.

WTF is NYC DOING?!?  I think you have to have a lawyer on speed-dial in order to enter the city limits now.

Comments

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

That would be the fault of the Patriot Act. It allows law enforcement to do whatever the f#ck it wants. A lawyer won't help you if you just disappear; which just happens to be within the governments power now.

[caesarsalad77.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify, even before the patriot act, the police were allowed to arrest a suspicious person any time they wanted and hold them...without telling them why...for up to three days at maximum. Yes, the Patriot Act has given the government many powers it shouldn't have and I can't wait until it's repealed or at least amended, but even before the government could do things like that.

[caesarsalad77.livejournal.com]

Addition: They could do things like that, but the conditions didn't warrant it. Now with terrorism paranoia the instances are just more often and more public.

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

"suspicious person" Yeah. A guy PLANNING to put chalk on a street is suspicious. I think he's hoping to get a warlock to email him some spell that will summon an Ifrit to go eat the president. Or maybe that's what I'm hoping will happen.

Just wait until patriot act version 2. I think I hear sirens approaching my apartment now. The Ifrit confessed to my paying him a virgin for an assassination.

[caesarsalad77.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to defend them...I think the police were in the wrong...but let's look at it from their point of view. A guy is on an obviously modified bicycle that probably has wires and a strange box and a laptop for no discernable reason. It looks suspicious. Could they have asked him what it was for? Yeah. They probably didn't because I'm betting they had orders from the top brass in the department to not take any chances. Anything that's remotely out of the ordinary has to be detained in the interest of public safety during a very volatile time, the RNC.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

There's a problem with that: They did ask him. He answered truthfully. He showed him his ID to boot. He fully cooperated with the law, and they arrested him anyway.

Happend to me once

[felinoid.livejournal.com]

They didn't ask for my ID they just went for the arrest.
This was in the 1980s... LONG before 9-11.

The patreot act has extended the police powers to a grostesc extream that has set civil rights activists to research abuses however the abuses of power they are uncovering aren't even news to me.

In the 1980s and 1990s I checked into conspericy theroys and a number of them were attempts to explain away how the police got away with some of the very same abuses when in reality they've gotten away with it for decades.

For the record the disapearing deal isn't a power given to the police. It's a possability due to procedure. The arresting officers tend to be trusted far to much and an "accadent" in paperwork is all it takes.

[caesarsalad77.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well they are technically allowed to arrest him...and they don't have to tell him why for 24 hours. Most likely, they got a bit freaked out by what must have looked like an oddly wired bicycle. Who's to say it couldn't have been a bomb?

Anyways, I'll bet he can sue. And I know he'll get any charges tossed out.

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

What they were really doing was halting his freedom of speech and the freedoms of others by right of that hateful Act. WAY too many people want republicans to keep control. They can't afford to let the "other side" say anything during their little party.