TheAgitator.com
Jefferson Dance Party Article at the American Spectator
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008R.J. Lehman writes up the incident, and reveals the name of the arrestee, which I guess I can now also reveal: It’s Brooke Oberwetter.
Brooke’s a good friend and former Agitator guest blogger. I’ll concede, as some as suggested, that the camera man was probably more confrontational than he should have been. But I’ve yet to talk to anyone who says Brooke was anything other than polite. She did calmly inquire about why exactly she was being asked to leave. But that appears to have been the extent of her “crime.”
I thought the camera operator acted like a wimp. There’s not much chance that I wouldn’t have been arrested in those circumstances.
I never once heard him call the cops fascists or jack booted thugs. Those are the nice things I’d have been yelling at them.
Radley, those videos should have been destroyed. I believe you that she’s a reasonable woman who asked reasonable questions, but that cameraman is so damning.
I concur with Alex. Those videos should be destroyed.
People immediately began to speculate that she was drunk or argumentative or looking for it. But Brooke is not any of those things, and the evidence that she was not, indeed, “disorderly” is certainly backed up by the video.
Any opinions on the behavior of the cameraman are quite irrelevant as applied to Brooke.
How delightfully Stalinist - advocating the destruction of documentary evidence because you don’t like what it shows. “They” destroy evidence to reshape reality to fit their ideological message. I would prefer not to.
I’m pretty sure “Roger’s” comment was intended as a joke.
How exactly was “the camera man…more confrontational than he should have been”? I’d argue he wasn’t confrontational enough. It’s a clear, egregious violation of justice and liberty. Just like in the Baltimore cop video, citizens have no reason to be polite to the police if they don’t deserve it.
All vaguely written laws, disorderly conduct, “interfering with an agency function”, acting in a manner unbecoming of a law abiding citizen… should be promptly stricken from the books and the law makers who wrote them should get a week in the stocks.
What, we don’t use stocks anymore? I think this justifies bringing them back. Punishment for legislators that foist such laws on their constituents.
Did somebody forget to use their tags.
Oops that was supposed to read,
Did somebody forget to use their <ironic> tags.
For contrast, watch how the Seattle police (don’t) react to a much more disruptive flash mob in one of the most crowded tourist/commercial markets in downtown Seattle:
http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/03/feathery_guerilla_terrorism_at_pike_plac
The feathers! The feathers!
The U.S. Park Police are public servants trained to defuse situations, not escalate them. They could have asked one of the dancers to explain what was going on. Then, they could have:
1. Left them alone since they weren’t being disruptive.
2. Told the dancers that it was okay to continue, but not to disrupt the other patrons, or they would be asked to leave.
3. Asked the dancers to move to someplace not disruptive to the other patrons. At one point, the cameraman asked, “Could we dance down here? Would that be okay, if we danced down here, instead? What’s that? But could we dance down there? Alright? It’s their call then? Alright sir. Okay.”
4. Told them that they needed a permit to gather/dance at the Memorial. I’m sure a spirited discussion would have followed, especially since the article says that a permit in fact wasn’t required. Regardless, being a cop means being able to show some patience was confronted by argumentative libertarians! I mean, were they afraid someone was going to pull out a concealed copy of Atlas Shrugged?
If you don’t have the skills to peacefully disperse (or ignore) a group of quietly dancing libertarians, you really shouldn’t be a police officer.
JJH2: I’ll guess you are not a football fan