Jefferson Memorial Arrests Caught on Video

[tomm2thumbs]

Run time: 04:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PDhjNF9eUQ   Posted on YouTube: May 28, 2011 By YouTube Member: bszoka Views on YouTube: 310533   Posted on DU: May 31, 2011 By DU Member: tomm2thumbs Views on DU: 1863

 

A body slam, throwing around people just videotaping, and more questionable tactics and handling by 'security' at the Jefferson Memorial. I can't report on events leading up to the video, but what I saw during it was not representative of how this country treats free speech, the rights of freedom of expression, press and reasonable thinking.

from the Huffpo:

In 2008, Mary Brooke Oberwetter and a group of friends went to the Jefferson to commemorate the president's 265th birthday by dancing silently, while listening to music on headphones. Park Police ordered the revelers to disperse and arrested them when they did not.

Oberwetter sued on free speech grounds, but the appeals court ruled last week that her conduct was indeed prohibited "because it stands out as a type of performance, creating its own center of attention and distracting from the atmosphere of solemn commemoration" that Park Service regulations are designed to preserve.


link to HuffPo article on this incident:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/30/jefferson-memorial-dancing-arrests_n_868719.html

[sakabatou]

1. According to the law, you can't dance in the memorials

Which is stupid.

[savannah43]

2. WTF?

I am speechless! Literally! So are all of you.

[Prana69]

3. Talk about escalating and provoking a situation!

The response from law enforcement was such an over-reach and way out of proportion to the behaviour of the victims. Exactly what were they doing that was so wrong? It just looked like a bit of harmless fun to me.

I cannot believe what the US has become. When did you become so fearful and insular and.....violent. Actually, there seems to be a strong under-current of violence in so much of what happens in the US today. Or was it ever thus?

As an Australian, your national anthem always struck me as quite ironic, and paradoxical even. "Land of the free"? When?

I really hope you get your country back one day.

P69

[SheilaT]

4. Did this event take place this year or

in 2008?

What is so incredible is that the Park Police continue to behave as they do even though about a dozen people are openly videoing them.

[Irishonly]

10. Both

There were two. I haven't seen any video from 2008. In 2008 one woman was arrested out of a group that were dancing. This video shows what happen on Saturday when a group danced in protest of the court ruling that upheld the woman's arrest. Sorry if this is as clear as mud.

[SheilaT]

17. Thank you. I was kind of thinking there

might have been two events.

What's needed, I think, is a genuine flash mob, with a couple of hundred people who break out in dance.

[Irishonly]

18. I thins so too n/t

[W T F]

5. Under the appeals court ruling, anything that you do there that draws attention is illegal.

So I could be arrested for sneezing, talking, dressing really fancy, etc. Fascisism has come to America.

[livingonearth]

16. Those cops should be arrested for drawing more attention to the situation than needed.

[Grassy Knoll]

6. What Republican nut fuk came up with this law...

Or did they sneak it in the "Bush Is Great" Amendment

[iamthebandfanman]

9. it probably had something to do with performers

in general..
to keep people from trying to make money off tourists was probably the goal...

definitely a weird law lol

[lutherj]

7. "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." -- Emma Goldman.

Apparently these revolutionaries took her words to heart.

[SoDesuKa]

8. Atmosphere of Solemn Commemoration

The appeals court rules that people visiting the Jefferson Memorial should behave like they would in church. "Let us all bow our heads and pray . . . "

I'm disappointed that there's nobody smarter in the Park Police than to get suckered into a no-win situation like this. The cops come off looking like chumps.

Imagine . . . a legally-enforced "atmosphere of solemn commemoration" imposed on people who were silently dancing.

[JJW]

11. They hate us for our freedom

whoops!

[AlbertCat]

12. Hmmmmmmm....

Back in 1980, my roommate in college and his girlfriend went to the USSR on a student exchange thing. They were so excited to be in front of that amazing onion domed St Basils, they waltzed. A soldier with a gun came over yelling "Nyet! Nyet!" and separated them.



See, as I've said before, the GOP didn't hate the USSR. It was envy!

[joanbarnes]

13. What law did they break?

[joanbarnes]

14. Thank you for sharing. The People are watching.

[progressoid]

15. Lotta cameras there!

I wouldn't be surprised if cameras are banned soon too.