And protesting the wrong side...

Did you forget the ???

At what point should we be alarmed? They would have done better to just ignore her. But there is a lot of info missing here. Why was there such a strong police presence in the first place?

she said she would leave as soon as they told her what was going on and why she had to leave. The message was....Don't ask questions when you see too many cops around or....

Yeah, at least she is not killed for playing a banjo and asking a few questions from the "men" sworn to serve and protect.

They serve and protect the wealthy only.

If this was a famous (wealthy) entertainer, this would have been a totally different scene.

Anyone who does this for a "living" IS a coward with no conscience.
The brownshirts actually broke the law and spat on our constitution, yet she will face "justice" and be charged (convicted too) with many fabricated charges.
If you resist thugs harming you...resisting arrest....
Many, many people are successfully prosecuted on the stand alone charge of resisting arrest. That is WHY they are arrested and prosecuted....resisting.

Let the revolution begin or "you cannot resist" will not only apply to the "Borgs."
She sure is LUCKY to live in amerika...

Stop and frisk, its all about the corporate takeover of our civil rights. We must feed the machine, the corporate owned prisons and we must not scare the filthy rich, its just not the ameriKan thing to do.

The "our poor are better off" argument fails on many levels.

Hmmm???

I heard more than one person calling the cops "faggots"

I'll admit I don't know what happened here, but the crowd was not helping, or representing.

I don't like that term being used, but painting the Crowd with your Myopic view, because of a couple of assholes, is being a bit persnickety, don't you think?

Don't be an asshole too.

So tell me, when is using the term "faggot" as an insult acceptable?

..but I will not force my values on someone else, just because I don't like what they say.

but you had no problem calling me persnickety, AND an asshole (even though I didn't "force" my values on anyone)

What we really need in this country is a leader like Martin Luther King Jr or Mahatma Gandhi. Someone who could funnel this anti fascist energy into something more productive. The hardest part would be keeping those leaders alive because the fascists really like their power and control.

Land of the Free! That concept has left the building!

in this "greatest country in the world". bunch of testosterone-driven punks with badges (and, did I hear someone say "forest service", not even actual cops??) SEVEN men to arrest ONE woman, a musician. And the one bastard keeps saying, "don't resist" when three of them have her bent over a bench, arms pressing against her neck.

I want to weep for what is happening to this country.

Published on Sep 1, 2013

Iraq war veteran Emily Yates was arrested on Friday after a dispute with police about where she could stand while playing her banjo during a protest against U.S. military action in Syria. Video uploaded to Live Leak shows Yates asking Federal Parks Police why she could not stand in a shaded area of Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

After several minutes of discussion, two officers bent Yates over a park bench and handcuffed her. "We live in a police state," she shouts! "We live in a f*cking police state! They're damaging my body and my personal property! I went to war for this country! Stop manhandling me! Stop! Stop! Help! Help!"

By the time Yates is dragged from the park, at least eight officers are participating in the arrest.

A web page claiming to be the "Emily Yates Defense Fund" insisted that the activist "was not engaged in any illegal activity and was not told why she was being attacked."

"While she was busy playing a song, park rangers accosted her. When she demanded an explanation for their aggression, they pinned her onto a park bench and dragged her off to an undisclosed location," according to the website. "We are not being told where she is being held and she has not been allowed any communication with the outside world."

Watch this video from Live Leak, broadcast Aug. 31, 2013.

Seriously, it was way over the top! Aren't these guys supposed to be like Smokie the Bear......

Seemed to me she was the one kicking and resisting. The cops seemed to be quite calm and asking her to "stop kicking". Hell, one even carried her banjo that she refused to remove the strap from so it didn't drag the ground...

I'm all for calling out injustice and brutality by police officers, but this here isn't something worth calling out.

for asking for clarity about where to play her banjo? you would think they have more pressing issues to deal with.

When she turned around, they cuffed her. She fought back. So they became a little more forceful. She wasn't a small, defenseless woman, she's a former soldier and had some decent muscle mass in those arms.

I've never (in my adult life) been arrested. However, one day (about 10 or so years ago) I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dropping a friend off to her house to get a change of clothes (her car was broken down, and she walked to my house after work in the pouring rain, so she was soaked to the bone). When we arrived, we opened the door and were greeted with guns drawn. Knowing I was doing NOTHING wrong, I calmly got on my knees and let them cuff me. I calmly asked what was going on (it turned out her roommate was selling drugs, and he was getting busted), and remained polite, yet let them know I was well within my rights. I was uncuffed rather quickly and was cleared to leave (I did wait around a little longer for them to clear her so I could get her out of that bad situation).

The point is, do not argue with police. And if they go to cuff you, do NOT fight back. A cool and calm head will always prevail. If you're asked to move, move. Ask questions if you like, but do it POLITELY. Had she had a cool head about her, this all would have been avoided, IMHO.

you know some folks get scared and start paddling faster whenever they hear banjo music!

"On Saturday, August 31, pro marijuana organizations gathered on People’s Plaza at Independence NHP to hold a public assembly (First Amendment Event) without a permit but providing the park with advance notice of their intention to gather and participate in civil disobedience, as they had in previous events.

Despite the fact that the group did not have a previously approved permit, the park allowed for peaceful public assembly and free speech but intervened in instances where individuals openly violated federal law.

A small section of the park adjacent to the public assembly was temporarily closed to the public for law enforcement purposes, to provide a secure area for law enforcement officers to process suspects' citations and to tag evidence. An individual, later identified as Ms. Yates, repeatedly refused the directions of law enforcement officers to leave this small area of the park and had to be moved by uniformed Rangers. While being moved, Ms. Yates resisted, kicking and striking the Rangers. Ms. Yates was arrested and has been charged with violations of Title 18 United States Code, Section 111, Assaulting/Impeding/Resisting a Federal Officer; Title 36 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 2.32, Interfering with Agency Functions; and Title 36 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 2.34, Disorderly Conduct.

At her arraignment hearing, probable cause was found for all charges. Ms Yates was released on bond pending her preliminary hearing."

police versions tend to cover for misconduct.

can go fuck yourself. there is nothing in that video that warranted arrest....that the cope did not initiate.

Down right refusing, then resisting. Yup... Nothing wrong with that. People should be able to be complete belligerent fuckwits with no repercussions whatsoever. The woman was clearly in the wrong. Your bias against ALL police officers clouds your ability to see that. She wasn't tazed. Guns weren't drawn. No one fucking even hit her.

I'd love to continue this battle of wits, but you're clearly unarmed...

freedom of assembly trumps assholes like you and the cops.

...so just wave at them now that they cannot respond.

WHERE did you see evidence of resistance? and, how do we know she was kicking? certainly could not see it, and her body movements did not indicate it. EIGHT friggin park police to manhandle a woman who merely asked them why they were accosting her?

You know, i was going to ask what behaviour from the police YOU think deserves being called out, but, based on your support of them in this instance, I really do not want to know the level of brutality it would take.

She's locking her arms to prevent being cuffed, and the guy keeps telling her to stop kicking. Call me when she's being tazed and/or beaten into the ground. All I've seen here is pearl clutching over someone being belligerent and refusing to do what is asked. This is NOT police brutality.

They asked her to move, she became argumentative. That's NOT how you diffuse a situation like this.

"pearl clutching" meme.

I was correct. I have no interest in knowing how YOU define brutality. I am afraid it would make me ill. you should, perhaps, be praying that you are never on the receiving end of it.

by the way, not that it is likely to make any difference, you might want to check out the last sentence in post 30, and then tell me again about her kicking and resisting arrest.

Then kindly, STFU.

happened to her. and, in case it has escaped your notice, a lot has changed with the police in the last ten years. think about how you might have fared in that situation given police behaviour today. so keep harping on how SHE should have behaved, and how it is all HER fault, supposedly resisting arrest, kicking (although there is zero evidence of this).

frankly, I need the laughs today.

I see no guns drawn on her... I see very polite, non-militarized police and a VERY belligerent former soldier who thinks her shit don't stink. By park police, no less. We're no talking about city police here. Park police.

Look at this still:


She's looking all crazy and resisting, the cops are using VERY little force. Seriously, find some real police brutality to get upset about and quit hurting your cause. Not all cops are fuckwits. And this is coming from a 33 year old stoner musician who doesn't really like to see cops around...

all do.

did you see the last sentence in post 22--about how the police are now playing to the cameras, and the "stop resisting", "stop kicking", is strictly for the videos as justification for their disgusting, jackbooted behaviour? sadly, not in the least surprising.

Watch her eyes when she turns around. She's looking to grab onto the bench.

to state what law/property rule a citizen is violating when evicting a citizen from a public area? Telling someone to leave just because "We're law enforcement and we say so" needlessly sets up a conflict scenario and seems to me, disrespectful of the citizens whose cooperation is needed to maintain peace & safety. So many of these videos show law enforcement's lack of people skills/training and/or contempt for the public as significant factors leading to escalation of minor situations into full-blown violence or petty arrests. They should be required to be a part of the solution rather than the problem.

I recently read how the police have learned to "perform" for videos by yelling out stuff like the "stop kicking" here, etc. written by reporter about Houston's PD large number of excessive use of force cases.

resisting. so they were playing for theater--sickening, absolutely sickening.

I saw no movement of her body. When viewing the video, I wondered aloud why that cop kept saying it.

Why does it take so long for the police officers to get her out of the area when she's already cuffed and on the ground? Why wasn't she taken immediately to a squad car to be transported for booking? It's like they are sitting on her for punishment, and it's not part of their job to dole out punishment.

Notice the "protesters" swearing with filthy mouths and acting like ANIMALS. Gee, sure would have made mom proud. They should have arrested a bunch more of them for disorderly conduct. The cops and park rangers asked her time and again to leave the area. They exercised ample patience. She refused, resisted, and made a ridiculous spectacle of herself. THAT was a "violent arrest".

This poster is exercising his or her right to remain hyperbolic.

Good arrest. Good job cops. Very professional. And sorry you had to put up with all that ANIMALISTIC beratement from others in the crowd.

Thank you.

They asked her nicely, multiple times to move along. They even gave her a final warning which she chose to ignore. I have no love for cops but she did this to herself.

TYY

What is with the increase in police brutality over such things?