Afromation blockades I-83 in Baltimore, 65 kettled in mass arrest

On the 16th of July, activists under the name Afromation blockaded Baltimore's I-83 freeway after marching through the "Artscape" festival. Police used a false report of an ambulance to get protesters to move, then kettled as much of the crowd as they could, arresting 65 people. The "ambulance" turned out to be two police wagons. Some of the arrestees were reported to be bystanders who had followed the march from Artscape out of curiosity to watch and were not protesters at all.

For the Baltimore police to use a false claim of an ambulance to get two police wagons past the traffic the protest created and engage the protesters runs the risk that at some future protest a real ambulance will be denied passage after being mistaken for a repeat of the July 16th police wagon incident.

When the Afromation arrestees were finally released, they reported appalling treatment at the hands of police. One woman reported being held in a police wagon with the HEAT turned on for six hours. Another source reported that some arrestees were in heated wagons as long as 9 hours. On a hot summer day this kind of abuse can be lethal, but then again this would not be the first time Baltimore police killed someone by malicious abuse of a police wagon. Not long after Freddie Grey's neck was broken someone got a photo of a sticker on the inside of one of these wagons reading "enjoy the ride-you know we will." Ten of the arrestees were reported to be under 18, and protesters reported the police simply surrounded and kettled the crowd, thus the bystanders getttng arrested too. This can be used as a deliberate tactic to encourage the general public to flee from protesters but can prove very expensive in later court cases.

The City of Baltimore had better open their wallet wide for this one. While convicting cops of unlawful acts is nearly impossible even when the unlawful act in question is murder, civil cases against the entire government are another matter. Cities from Seattle to Washington DC have paid out millions of dollars in judgements for these kinds of mass arrests. The Partnership for Civil Justice may well get involved in this one, and they have a track record of making cities pay for violating people's coonstitutional rights to protest.

Video of the I-83 blockade originally posted to Twitter by Action.Brotha.Jedi