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Non_sum_dignus
Guest
Well, I didn’t see any use of force issues there. I really couldn’t tell if they were on dedicated property over which the school could legally exercise control. Obviously, the cops on the ground thought that they had an actionable trespass or something. Equally obvious was that they really would have preferred not to make any arrests.
I noticed that there were stripes on the scene later in the tape, indicating that the first guys there did the smart thing: calling in the supervisors to take on the greater share of liability.
As a cop, I have frequently been in similar situations, where people want to espouse one political cause or another on public property or private premises generally open to the public, like shopping malls. What I have learned from these incidents is that no one really knows how to handle them.
Now, I tend to lean toward the side of my oath to the Constitution. I’m really cautious about the risk of abridging someone’s right to free speech or association, and I’d prefer not to have my life and career crash down around me in a 1983 federal lawsuit.
From the video, I honestly have no idea whether or not that looked like a good arrest. The police certainly didn’t rush in like stormtroopers, and I got the general impression that they were looking up the chain for some guidance on what to do. There’s no telling how politics enters into it, of course. I suspect that pro-lifers outside a school would be more likely to face arrest than, say, PETA members, but I can’t prove that.
I noticed that there were stripes on the scene later in the tape, indicating that the first guys there did the smart thing: calling in the supervisors to take on the greater share of liability.
As a cop, I have frequently been in similar situations, where people want to espouse one political cause or another on public property or private premises generally open to the public, like shopping malls. What I have learned from these incidents is that no one really knows how to handle them.
Now, I tend to lean toward the side of my oath to the Constitution. I’m really cautious about the risk of abridging someone’s right to free speech or association, and I’d prefer not to have my life and career crash down around me in a 1983 federal lawsuit.
From the video, I honestly have no idea whether or not that looked like a good arrest. The police certainly didn’t rush in like stormtroopers, and I got the general impression that they were looking up the chain for some guidance on what to do. There’s no telling how politics enters into it, of course. I suspect that pro-lifers outside a school would be more likely to face arrest than, say, PETA members, but I can’t prove that.