https://smotus.substack.com/p/arrested-in-la

«So I decided to walk backwards to 3rd Street, which was away from the action, away from all of the officers to just like check on things and ensure that we could still leave, and that they hadn’t kettled us in on all sides.

It was down to maybe 150 people. There was a row of officers. I asked if I could just get by to leave. They said no. I told them that I wanted to exit the area. They said that I couldn’t. I showed them that my car was right behind them, to the point that they could hear it when I hit my key fob.

…

And I said, “Well, if I’m trying to leave, on what grounds are you arresting everyone?” And they said, “Well, maybe we won’t arrest everyone.” And I said, “Okay, well, in that case, can I leave?” and they said no.

…

SM: Did they eventually tell you what exactly you were being arrested for?

CA: Yeah. The charge was failure to disperse.»

😐

«The other thing I’m rethinking was the narrative that by the end of a protest, the people left are agitators — people who are there for something other than the cause. We hear it and easily accept it because we know that some people do exploit protests for chaos. I heard that about this protest the following day and it just wasn’t true. I realized that even I assumed that some of the people who are actually arrested were arrested because they disobeyed orders. To be clear, I believe that’s also a valid form of civic action, but it wasn’t my experience or that of the majority of people there.

That was really eye-opening for me and all the people we were with. We were all talking about how we assumed people had to do something to get arrested. Something more than showing up.»

Why am I googling “what is the best way to video the police?”