Things start gettting a bit rough at Democracy Spring

On the 15th of April, the Democracy Spring protests included the DC Statehood issue and the count for civil disobedience arrests rose to nearly 1,000 for the week. In a few cases police have been getting out of line. On April 15, one of the last protesters to be arrested was tackled and pinned to the ground after dancing a bit just before arrest. Also, there is a report that at least ten spurious charges of "assaulting a police officer" were filed by police, only to be immediatly dismissed in court. Usually police file that charge when they are the ones using violence e.g hitting a cop on the club with your head can draw an ASPO charge.

Any further violations of people's rights by US Capitol Police could get very expensive. Over 1,000 more people are expected to be risking arrest on Monday, April 18, if police expose themselves to civil liabilty with that many people the resulting monetary judgements could be staggering, far eclipsing any post and forfeits paid over the arrests. In the blataty illegal IMF 2000 mass arrest, police got $50 post and forfeits from many arrestees, only to have to pay back over 300 times as much to each arrestee and more to the Partnership for Civil Justice. This was without blantant assaults on protesters or spurious attempts to file more serious charges, all of which would have further increased the payout.

RT'syoutube video including rough arrest for dancing in the street