IMF Mass Arrests Improper


Surprise, surprise, surprise. Well, it only took us a year to find out.

IMF Arrests Improper, Police Found (washingtonpost.com)

An internal police investigation into the roundup of protesters and bystanders at a downtown Washington park last September found that all 400 people were wrongfully arrested.

The internal report, released yesterday by order of a federal judge, also said that a federal police official on the scene had earlier warned D.C. police that the mass arrests would be improper.

The report revealed significant contradictions between what top city officials have said publicly about the controversial Sept. 27, 2002, arrests at Pershing Park and what they knew privately about the tightly held investigative findings.

In a confidential memo to Mayor Anthony A. Williams in March, D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey acknowledged that his assistant chief ordered arrests of everyone in the police-cordoned park -- without giving an order for protesters to disperse -- and that police had blocked people who wished to leave.

Apprehending people in the crowd for failing to obey police, Ramsey wrote, was a violation of police procedures requiring that officers see a crime committed before making an arrest and a violation of the department's protest handbook. His memo was included as an addendum to the report.

(snip)
In his memo to the mayor, Ramsey also concluded that no police officers should be disciplined because of the "good faith" errors during "quickly-evolving" events.

But throughout the spring and summer, top mayoral aides have said that they could not release the report because it contained sensitive information relating to police officials who had been disciplined. The report does not contain any information on disciplinary actions.

Two sources close to the investigation said that the mayor overruled the chief's March recommendation and that [Assistant Chief] Newsham was given a minor reprimand. Ramsey and Newsham would not comment yesterday.


The D.C. Police herded 400 people into a park, wouldn't let them leave, then arrested them for not leaving. There are 4 civil rights lawsuits pending, and I'm sure more will be filed.

Right now the only consequence is that the Assistant Chief who gave the order to arrest the people was given a minor reprimand by the mayor. The Chief thought no one should be disciplined.

This is more than a simple mistake of a wrong arrest. This is a strategy that the D.C. police used to suppress the protests, and Chief Ramsey said as much during the protests. "Those people that are apprehended will be missing several protests because they are going to be behind bars," he said at the time.

I hope everyone arrested sues the District of Columbia. What they did was wrong, and either the Assistant Chief who gave the order should be fired, or Chief Ramsey should be fired. It is wrong for protesters to damage property. It is more wrong for the police to falsly arrest people, and it is unconstitutional and unconscionable for the police to arrest a group of innocent people to suppress dissent.

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