Police threaten illegal arrests after DC Ferguson blocks Chinatown, 395 tunnel

On the 15th of December, DC Ferguson civil rights protesters asssembled in Chinatown for the nightly round of street blockades. This time one of the targets was I-395 and NY Ave. For the second night in a row police attempted to bypass the legally required "3 warning" rule for mass arrests. This time they tried to say that warnings given at the 395 tunnel were still valid in Chinatown and could be counted against the required three warnings.They tried to go straight to the 3ed warning and got out zip ties, something not previously seen at these protests. Finally someone got police chief Lanier on the line, she said three new warnings were required at every intersection so the cops were thwarted in their hoped-for arrests.

Here are some of the Twitter posts about the aggressive police behavior:

"Lady Supercop said "No more warnings! I'm about to start locking everybody up!"

"DC cops really escalating shit with us tonight. Cursing us out and shit."

"Cops acting like fuck boys tonight. Trying hard to intimidate us."

All of this comes as I am receiving reports that police are becoming more aggressive, not less aggressive in the neighborhoods since the protests began.

Police gave two warning here at the 395 tunnel entrance before protesters marched on-photo by Chris Tonan

Here in Chinatown the cops tried to go directly to the 3ed warning and brought out the flexcuffs. They had to back off only because someone got chief Lanier on the line. Photo by Chris Tonan

J E Robinson panorama of the NY Ave/395 shutdown

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