TheAgitator.com
So About That Tree of Liberty…
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Tonight, a group of about 20 D.C.-area libertarians headed down to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial for some flash mob fun. The prank was harmless revelry: To ring in Jefferson’s birthday, we would meet on the steps of the memorial at 11:55pm, wearing iPods, then dance for about 10 minutes, capture the whole thing on video, and leave.
Courtney and I were about 10 minutes late, but by the time we arrived it was already over. The National Park Police broke the whole thing up just a few minutes in, punctuating their lack of a sense of humor by arresting one of the dancers (we’re keeping her name private at least until she’s released later this morning). She was cuffed, taken out to a paddy wagon, then booked and held at a Park Police station. Everyone I spoke with says there was no noise, there were no threats, and no laws broken (the park police I spoke with–including the arresting officer (who, oddly enough, denied to me that he was the arresting officer)–declined to say why she had been arrested).
The police refused to answer any questions, referring all calls to the communication number of the Park Police, which at this hour is closed. They also refused to give their badge numbers.
I’ll post some video tomorrow morning of two flash mobbers who say she was doing nothing at all–she was barely even dancing. Her crime was apparently to ask “why?” when the park police told the group they had to disperse. Note too that this was at around midnight. No one was bumping into tourists, or obstructing anyone’s way. I guess the only conclusion, here, is that it’s apparently illegal to dance on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial–even with headphones. You know, post 9-11 world and all. Harmless fun will be interpreted in the most threatening context imaginable. Whimsy and frivolity will not be tolerated.
Of course, the real irony here is that all of this happened at the Jefferson Memorial, in observance of Jefferson’s birthday. Go out to celebrate the birth of the most hardcore, anti-authoritarian of the Founding Fathers, get hauled off in handcuffs. The photo’s almost poetry, isn’t it? One of history’s most articulate critics of abuse of state authority looks on as a park police cop uses his elbow to push a female arrestee into one of said critic’s memorial pillars.
The people I spoke with say the other officer pictured in the foreground of this photo told the rest of the group to “shut the fuck up.” When one person politely asked why it was unnecessary to use the word “fuck,” the officer replied that if the guy who asked the question used any more profanity, he too would find himself arrested.
More from Julian Sanchez and Megan McArdle.
MORE: Sheesh. If you’re curious as to how we could be at the point where dancing is cause for arrest, read some of the comments at Megan McArdle’s site (link above). I guess an unlawful arrest is fine so long as the arrestee is upper class, privileged, and/or libertarian (because she’s probably a pot-smoker and/or illegal downloader, anyway!).
I can think of one D.C libertarian that finds nothing to celebrate in TJ’s birthday.
[...] but don’t dance peacefully in front of his memorial at midnight. That’s contrary to the whim of the [...]
Maybe dancing in the name of religion might have saved your asses.
Baby Jeebus says DANCE!
[...] Original post by The Agitator [...]
Time to move the capital out of DC!
Maybe a small church-going, gun-loving town in Pennsylvania?
I was thinking we should consider reparations for slavery. If there was one issue I would have never imagined I’d be for it would be to give every colored person in this country a check. But after Bill Buckley died I saw a debate he did with Reagan over the Panama Canal. Buckley’s point was the canal was in Panama, it was legal to give it back, they wanted it back, and we’re the USA, can’t we show that we have guts to do something that may make us look weak, but magnanimous. Can’t we show Central and South American people that no matter what the cost there will be justice from the United States of America. He was saying if we are truly a powerful nation we should not worry about a canal in a small nation.
We have bigger fish to fry like the dirty, godless, smelly Russians. You should expect justice from truly great countries and so lets cut some checks, we can afford it and can imagine a better stimulas package? My black friends like to spend cash fast, like myself. Plus any black from the south over the age of 44 probably had to but up with some short little local cop with an Napolean complex and the local magistrate to back him up. I really think we let the little things that piss us off from time to time in modern balck culture cloud our judgement of fairness.
Pete should know better than using the cops own language, as he is a mere citizen and not a hero-protector, who have special rights.
[...] Radley Balko (The Agitator) - So About That Tree of Liberty… [...]
[...] Balko writes about a little bit of police over-reaction during an impromptu birthday party for Thomas Jefferson: Tonight, a group of about 20 D.C.-area libertarians headed down to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial [...]
DC Police Arrest Dancing Libertarians…
A bunch of DC area libertarians apparently decided to celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s birthday by congregating at his memorial at midnight and dancing to the sounds of their iPods for ten minutes. No, I don’t get it either.
At any rate, as J…
So much for this being the land of the free….:(
Forget history, fuck liberty.
Send in the troops
and maul the citizenry.
Love the state
and hate the free.
Try as I might to add something meaningful here, I find I am too much in shock to find the words. I am literally sitting here typing with my jaw practically in my lap. And I fear I am about to weep as the tears well up for the casualty that appears to be our freedom going away bit by bit.
How in the hell did we get to this? Dear God, can this really be happening?
Thomas Jefferson just spilt his whisky at the Great Poker Table in the Sky.
I fear for us all.
McArdle, the “libertarian,” once famously opined that those who opposed the Iraq war should be beaten with two by fours.
Perhaps the commenters were reminding McArdle that she’s a fraud who supports police brutality unless one of her friends is on the recieving end.
Of course what happened to the poor girl is pretty terrible, but whose idea was it to throw a midnight, silent dance at the Jefferson memorial? Because that is seriously lame.
I thought it was a pretty fun idea. Whimsical, spontaneous, and in observance of Jefferson’s birthday.
I even made a Jefferson mask to wear.
And of course the whole point of a flash mob is to do something silly and out of the ordinary.
Folks who want to read the permit requirements for “demonstrations” can do so here: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/03jul20071500/edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2007/julqtr/pdf/36cfr7.96.pdf
It also has the definition of “demonstration”.
Short answer: no permit required for under 25 people. Also see my comment on Megan McArdle’s site for a bit more info.
America, 2008…
I do believe that T-Jeff himself is weeping a bit today at the blind obedience to authority that has overtaken much of the nation he helped found….
Even without the under-25-people exemption, I’m not sure how you draw a crowd of onlookers at that hour at the JM.
Julian,
Not only that, but I’m not sure at all that it fits the definition of “demonstration”, which requires i”the communication or expression of views or grievances”. There are numerous court cases in which mere dancing (not part of a play or work or art) has been considered NOT to be free speech. The requirements for symbolic speech are usually not very easy to meet (particularly not these days with conservative judges).
As a side note, I was nearly arrested once at the Smithsonian because the guards did not like the way I was dressed (no, I was not exposing any part of my body that is not normally exposed). The guard who nearly did so was a former marine, and took the attitude that anything he said should be taken as an order, because he was in charge and we were the privates. Being with my family, I finally acquiesced and did not get arrested. However, after getting home I wrote a letter to the Director and got back an acknowledgment of the inappropriate behavior of the guards, and an apology.
These folks just like making up rules as they go along (not following the CFR in the least) and have the egos (and power) to take it all the way to arrest.
[...] Radley, Julian, and Jason all have good takes on what went down — I suggest checking out their posts [...]
John Galt - What bearing does that have on this case? Oh, yeah, none at all.
Just to wonder, why did you all sit there and watch an innocent person get arrested? On Thomas Jefferson birthday no less?!
Sock those pigs in the face and liberate your friend.
If your gonna celebrate Thomas Jefferson you may as well live like him….
Tom Jefferson, being the radical that he was, would not have been surprised by this sad story. Disappointed, yes. But the founders knew their gift to the world was fragile. That’s why they constructed such an elaborate system to preserve our human rights as long as possible.
Lesson: a benevolent government is possible only when natural resources are abundant. Once the wells begin to run dry, forget about your rights. You have none.
So, what time did the park close? 11pm?
So whoever is down-voting me (and up-voting Galt) please explain how a stupid statement McCardle made in the past has anything to do with yesterday’s unjust arrest? Somehow it just doesn’t follow that we should arrest Megan’s dancing friends because she endorsed beatings for war protesters.
Evaluate the message, not the messenger.
Matt, I agree that it doesn’t have much to do with the incident itself, but it is interesting that McArdle has supported thuggish behavior by the government in regards to Iraq and torture. So, it’s hard to take her complaints/positions seriously when she complains of thuggish behavior by the government which suddenly affects her, instead of nameless foreigners overseas.
And I don’t think anyone’s saying that Megan’s friends deserved to be arrested because of her hypocrisy, only that her opinion on government thuggery is somewhat useless.
[...] Just a little dancing? Dig a little bit down and it sounds like this was an organized activity - “flash mob” - that probably requires a permit. Do I think that permits to join up with 20 of your friends at [...]
Tom Jefferson, being the radical that he was, would not have been surprised by this sad story. Disappointed, yes. But the founders knew their gift to the world was fragile. That’s why they constructed such an elaborate system to preserve our human rights as long as possible.
And to preserve their right to fuck their slaves for even longer.
While I agree that there was nothing inherently wrong with this, it is interesting to note that the comments on McArdle’s blog point to a couple of statutory provisions that may have put the police officers in the right as far as shooing the dancers away.
They just happened to be acting like assholes about it.
Nonetheless, I hope they do lawyer up. Statutes limiting free speech/demonstrations like the ones that would govern this situation should be challenged.
Ahcuah: Keep scrolling down. It also says that demonstrations (outside of the official Jefferson’s birthday celebration) are never allowed at the Jefferson Memorial.
The Jefferson Memorial is open 24 hours.
Brian,
And as I noted, this does not fall under the definition of “demonstration.”
“You don’t understand. We aren’t lamely dancing at midnight. We’re FLASH-MOBBING.”
Oh, in that case, it isn’t lame at all.
DC Flash Mob Gone Bad [Jefferson Memorial edition]
Note to self: Do NOT go dancing at Jefferson Memorial with 20 of your closest friends…at midnight.
J.D. Talley: Free the Jefferson 1
[...] Arrested for Celebrating Jefferson Here is the link to the story! [...]
The police are very correct. Dancing is extremely dangerous and contagious. Once you get one persons “gettin’ down” it can spread to others and then satan himself could appear. References to dancing dangers see .. “Dirty Dancing”, “Flash Dance” “Fame” “Foot Loose” and Chorus Line.”
[...] Agitator: So About That Tree of Liberty… and Jefferson Arrest [...]
[...] ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: DC fascist pig police arrest Libertarians who dared to dance (with headphones) a… Taxpayers funded the memorial, and any taxpayer can go there. The first amendment guarantees right to peaceful assembly, and that’s exactly what this was. This also does not meet the DC definition of “demonstration”, which is at least 25 people. PIGS! (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority ConstitutionalRights rights FreedomOfAssembly peacefulAssembly FirstAmendment Washington DC WashingtonDC memorials ThomasJefferson birthday ThomasJeffersonMemorial fascism police policeState unconstitutional) [...]
This is becoming a very authoritarian country. Watch “Cops” or a similar show sometime. Police are trained — not that it takes much — to assert their authority in all kinds of obnoxious and unnecessary ways, and take down anyone who gives the smallest sign of protest.
[...] for political or national or sectarian or religious reasons.” Meanwhile, libertarians were arrested for dancing on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. Animal lovers in one of the wealthiest corners of the [...]
Aw, man…I was actually in DC last night! I totally would have come to this!
Since I assume a significant portion of the people in attendance are media-connected, I sincerely hope you guys make the Park Police’s life a living hell. Seriously.
The smartest thing Richard Nixon ever did was allow the protesters in DC to have the run of the place. It was about 1970 people started hating hippies because of what they saw guys like Abby Hoffman swearing and acting like turds. The argument of who was right about the war no longer mattered. Nixon was a lock in 72 after that.
The biggest mistake ever made by Mexicans living in this country and trying to stay was to take the advice of some gringo puke american hater that told them to protest carrying Mexican flag.
“I guess an unlawful arrest is fine so long as the arrestee is upper class, privileged, and/or libertarian (because she’s probably a pot-smoker and/or illegal downloader, anyway!).”
Hmm..
how about no matter if the arrestee is upper of lower class, privileged or historically oppressed, libertarian, or not. so long as they disagree with a police officer.
because corruption and police brutality victimizes people from all walks of life, but it is hardly fair to say that upper-class privileged people are the usual victims when in fact the opposite is true.
I think its more to do with security then a ‘lack of sense of humor’ or that the police are out to ‘get cha’. There was no reason for anyone to be hangin around there at that hour, even though its not uncommon or wrong. The cops probably just got jittery when they saw a buncha suspicious teens wondering about there and so choose to take action in the assumption that they were vandals about to thrash the place when everyones gone.
Having attended many demonstrations, I’ve become used to police taking liberties with civil liberties. From minor things like officers tearing up people’s signs to randomly spraying people in a crowd with pepper spray. The most common tactic is to arrest people en masse in order to break up a protest, then drop all the charges since no crime was committed in the first place. I’ve also seen people pepper sprayed and arrested for violating a noise ordinance – by speaking on a bullhorn. No warning from the cops, of course.
If a police officer grabs you, and you instinctively yank your arm away (in a crowded protest, you might not even know who is grabbing you), you will now face the charge of “resisting arrest”. They don’t need to charge you with any original crime; you’ll go to jail for resisting arrest for a crime you never committed.
When I attended my first demonstrations, being the naive kid from the suburbs, I would often ask the police why they were arresting someone without cause. I was threatened with arrest every time.
Yes, good Idea to dance at the right place at the right time
Dont let this incidenct disparage you from performing more public dancing! I think dancing is your basic human right and nobody should be able to take it away from you!!!
Anybody who claims to work for the government but won’t produce valid ID might be a TERRORIST IMPOSTOR!
[...] any rate, as Julian Sanchez and Radley Balko report, the constabulary showed up, ordered everyone to move along, and arrested a young woman for [...]
+1 on the authoritarian nature of police. I see all these shows like Cops and Dumbest criminals and sometimes I like to see the cops lose. Call me weird.
I saw one last night where a police officer pulled over a truck because the passenger didn’t have a seat belt on. He went up to the car and asked for the driver’s license. The driver asked why and the cop responded “because I said so”, the driver then refused to comply until he was told why he was detained, the cop then dragged the driver out of the car and started to push the guy around, trying to handcuff him.
The passenger came out and then all Hell broke lose. I can’t help but think that maybe the whole thing would have been averted if the cop told the guy why he was detained.
But in this country we blindly follow authority, allowing seat belt stops or sobriety checkpoints.
It frightens me how much we Cow Tow to authority anymore, and allow those in authority to commit acts of destroying our liberties.
Well, the US haven’t been the land of the free in a long time. More like the land of the world’s biggest prison population. I’m not surprised.
I want to point out how much of an idiot Pat Teashoch is. For some reason he seems to think every black person in America deserves a check for the slavery inflicted upon their ancestors. Now I have grandparents who were affected by World War II, and they are still getting paid reperations for suffering at the hands of the Nazis. My point in this is, I’m not getting any reperations, I didn’t live then, and they didn’t harm me. I am alive, and instead of holding on to a grudge that occurred 50+ years ago, I don’t really care. So unless someone in your family is still alive who was actually a slave, stop your bitching.
so, having never been to the Jefferson memorial I thought “hey, maybe I should look up the hours of operation”.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
900 Ohio Drive, SW
Washington, DC 20024
202.426.6841
HOURS OF OPERATION: 8:00 am to 11:45 pm daily. Closed on December 25th.
It closes at 11:45. you were there “innocently dancing” when it was closed. Sorry, but the arrest was legit if you offered any resistance to leaving.
I don’t particularly like cops, but breaking laws is a good way to get arrested.
I hope someone got pictures of the cops that refused to give their badge numbers, even better with video of cops using that language and refusing the give information. Press charges. This will only continue if we allow it to.
Having had 24 hours to digest this after my first comment, I had been wondering if my thoughts on this were a bit on the over-emotional side. As I sit here reading about the aftermath from the various sites linked . . . the comments are what struck me the most. In particular, the ones that basically are indifferent to what occurred. To those who think this is no big deal, I suggest you take a good look around you. This incident is indicative of the police state we are now living in. Make no mistake. When someone can be arrested for simply questioning why they being told to disperse, you can look at all of the incidents reported here at Radley’s blog and elsewhere on the other abuses of power by those in authority over us all and see the pattern emerging.
We are living in a police state! It’s not around the corner. It’s not on the way. It’s not trending. It’s here. Right underneath our very noses. And it happened while we were sleeping. It happened while we were busy saying it was OK to let go of the little freedoms we had one by one that got us to this point. And it’s only going to get worse. Little by little, day by day. With seemingly tiny freedoms taken from us while we say, meh, no big deal. I doesn’t affect me. Or, as long as there are no terrorist attacks on American soil. Or, insert comment for the greater good here.
I know that some of you have seen this coming for some time. I wasn’t so sure. I like to have faith in mankind. But I am finding out that mankind has very little to do with government and oppression. So all of you who think this is no big deal, I say again, take a good look around you. What liberty you see may not be around for you to poke fun at 10-20 years from now.
May God help us all.
I agree with Danno 100 pa’cent that we are NOW living in a police state. It’s here.
[...] A group of libertarian bloggers and journalists had themselves a little iPod dance party at the Jefferson memorial this weekend. They were soundlessly boogieing to honor their free-thinking hero when Park Police approached and “forcefully asked us to leave.” One girl kept dancing as her friends were led away and got herself arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. She’s been released but her blogging friends have chronicled the hilarity here, here and here. [...]
we have become nothing but a tyrannical police state. such a harmless gathering to celebrate a founder ends in the arrest and charging of a crime to a particiant who questioned the police. Jefferson would have opposed any such impingments upon a peaceful citizens freedom. what a pathetic anecdote in our nation’s troubled history.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial’s “contact us” page.
let’s ring em off the hook
Phone:
202.426.6841
Write to:
900 Ohio Drive SW
Washington, DC 20024
Maybe the fact that you all were there at MIDNIGHT. C’mon, think about it. I would be suspicious if I were a cop of a bunch of people milling about a national landmark at midnight.
I hope you will continue to dance there on a freaking mission now! Make it weekly, monthly, whatever…really fun & full of cameras! This is bs and we can’t be bullied out of our rights anymore!
Kelly, let me explain something to you:
I work on rock tours. Depending on my specific function on the show, my work-day will typically start anywhere from 8:00am to Noon, and run until 1:00 or 2:00am. After a show and a load-out, even after a day like that, it’s impossible to just screech to a halt. It usually takes an hour or two to wind down from something like that.
Well, many times in the past nearly twenty years, you could have found me and a handful of tour-mates wandering around the Vietnam Memorial or the Jefferson or Lincoln Memorials in the middle of the night. Fairly freaky-looking, too: filthy as a dirt-road from breaking a rock-show out of Constitution Hall, or what-have-you. You know: long hair and everything, making the most of a visit to D.C. while they can.
Now, I beg you to think about what you’re saying. You’re talking about bringing the power of cops to bear against people who don’t behave the ways that you might — visiting American memorials in the middle of the night — just because they don’t behave the way you might and without a single other reason.
Let me tell you something, man: I would never endorse that sort of thing against you.
That’s because I understand freedom.
“She was cuffed, taken out to a paddy wagon, then booked and held at a Park Police station.”
I am shocked and appalled at your use of the archaic term, “paddy wagon”. Paddy is a derogatory term meant to ridicule and demean Americans of Irish descent. The term coming from the idea that the police wagon was always full of Irish prisoners.
I’ll wager 20 euros you wouldn’t call a Cadillac a “Jew Canoe” or a “Pimp Mobile” but I guess it’s still acceptable to ridicule the Irish.
Whenever a police state occurs, i.e. like Mussolini’s Italy, it takes years for the general population, and even legislators to catch on. Why? Either they don’t want to believe it or they don’t really mind.
Kelly,
Were they breaking curfew? Who cares that it was at MIDNIGHT, you silly prig.
lisa simpson wasn’t arrested when she slept on the lincoln memorial. I think that is a valid legal precedent. lawyer up!
Kelly,
I hope you remember your comments when you are pulled over going to get medicine for your child/significant other in the middle of the night looking disheveled a few years from now. Make sure you have your papers. But you don’t have anything to worry about as I’m sure you’ll have them. But don’t fault the cop for detaining you . . . you were out after MIDNIGHT looking suspicious.
Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone in the DC area who believes in civil liberty decides to show up at the same time, same place next saturday.
Don’t forget your iPOD
I bet they were black. should of been arrested for making america look stupid and degrading a founding father
“I hope you remember your comments when you are pulled over going to get medicine for your child/significant other in the middle of the night looking disheveled a few years from now. Make sure you have your papers. But you don’t have anything to worry about as I’m sure you’ll have them. But don’t fault the cop for detaining you . . . you were out after MIDNIGHT looking suspicious.”
Don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have the police pull me for looking for suspicious, that means that they are stopping others that are looking suspicious. I might lose a few minutes for an inconvenience, but then again, maybe they have pulled people off the street that was not only looking suspicious, but actually does harm to others. I don’t know, that seemed to have worked with say Ted Bundy and William Rudolph to name just a few.
Wow every day i read more and more about the decline of Amrican freedom and every day it get’s an bit sadder…Once when i was an kid America was this symbol of wat it meant to be in an truly free country.It was were we all wanted to be…but these day’s I find my self feeling more and more pity for your nation…How have you all been fooled into so readly trowing away your freedoms.I find it amazing that in 8 short years your administration had managed to destroy so much of your country’s image..It’s kinda scary.I for one cannot believe that 9/11 could be souly responsible for this kind of rot…i hate to sound dramatic but the way your freedoms are being reduced is eerily similar to the way nazi germany came to be…maby i’m being an bit dramatic.I hope that in the coming years American’s can over come this problem and maby become an positive symbol…
please excese the spelling.i am quite deslexic.
@Sean #61: “I am shocked and appalled at your use of the archaic term, “paddy wagon”. Paddy is a derogatory term meant to ridicule and demean Americans of Irish descent.”
You know that episode of South Park where Chef is trying to change the flag because it shows 4 white men hanging a black man, and the kids are against changing the flag because they don’t understand the distinction of race involved? I think this pretty much falls under the same umbrella. There have been 2 generations of children born since the civil rights movement, and in that time a lot (not all) of intolerance and racism of all types have been reduced or removed due to education and understanding. Thus you have a lot of young people today who don’t even understand why some terms are derogatory because they haven’t been used in a derogatory fashion since before they were born. I never knew why it was called a “paddy” wagon until you explained it. It doesn’t make the origins term itself any better, but I would guess that the original poster didn’t have a clue about it’s origins either. Until I was 12 I had no idea that the phrase “let’s call a spade, a spade” had any meaning outside a deck of cards. The point being, educate people about why the term is bad, but don’t condemn them immediately when it’s pretty clear from context that they weren’t trying to be racist (there were no Irish references in the rest of their comment).
[...] Arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial. Go out to celebrate the birth of the most hardcore, anti-authoritarian of the Founding Fathers, and get hauled off in handcuffs. http://www.theagitator.com/2008/04/13/so-about-that-tree-of-liberty/”; rel=”dc:sourceR… [...]
#61 - Sean
Who cares if he called it a paddy wagon? I’m largely of Irish descent and that term doesn’t bother me one bit.
It’s people like you who are so obsessed with being “Politically Correct” that are part of the problems that have led up to the situation we’re in now.
In the words of Jefferson:
“Dancing is a healthy and elegant exercise, a specific against social awkwardness . . . .”
He recommended dance intruction and practice to his daughters and as part of the University of Virginia curriculum.
Jefferson himself had taken dancing lessons at about age 14.
#55 –
I don’t know where you got your information, but it’s wrong.
From the NPS website:
http://www.nps.gov/thje/planyourvisit/hours.htm
“The public may visit the Thomas Jefferson Memorial 24 hours a day. However Rangers are on duty to answer questions from 9:30 am to 11:30 pm daily.”
#72
You are the perfect example of indifference and how things are only going to get worse the more people that think like you are around.
Thanks for sticking your neck out.
I’m the one who just voted-down your comment, Casper.
If you think this shit started with Bush, you’re just ignorant or deluded.
[...] police broke up a group of libertarians for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial: “I guess the only conclusion, here, is that it’s [...]
[...] Fascism kicks ass by gatlinSomeone was arrested for dancing at the Jefferson memorial: http://www.theagitator.com/2008/04/13/so-about-that-tree-of-liberty/ [...]
It’s no wonder we’re in such a sorry state of affairs when someone gets offended by the phrase, “paddy wagon.”
I’d recommend that the person arrested contact the ACLU.
People need to fight back when they’re wrongfully arrested.
Being libertarian is reason enough dude, bootstraps lol