zlacker

>>epista+(OP)
I feel like some upfront setting of expectations would really, really be helpful here. If you're planning to arrest people after curfew, explain that in clear terms: "Our curfew is at 8pm, so we will start asking groups to disperse at 7:30. At 8pm, no large assemblies will be permitted, and police will begin arresting people in large groups at that time. We understand some people will engage in civil disobedience, and if they are cooperative with the police, they will be arrested peacefully. If any protesters start taking action that endangers police (e.g. throwing bricks or running at police unexpectedly), they will be met with force and arrested. Because it can be difficult for police to determine the perpetrator of violence, additional crowd control tactics such as tear gas may be used, so we strongly encourage you to self-police and prevent any violence towards police. After 8pm there will be a 30 minute grace period for those who are not gathered in groups but are in the process of heading home. At 8:30pm, anyone who remains on the street will be detained."

I think it would really help both in terms of outcomes as well as the perception of police if they gave this kind of clear description of what's going to happen. As it stands now, the curfews aren't enforced with any kind of regularity, so they just cause confusion.

>>awille+t8
Here's what's actually happening: the cops say there's a curfew and they're arresting everyone at 8. Except then they kettle everyone at 7:30 so you can't leave. They then arrest you at 8 for breaking curfew.

>>xxpor+M9
Yep, I've been seeing that in NY, and it baffles me. The cynical part of me thinks they want to arrest people, but that just seems too stupid at this point. The city leadership has to know that doing this is only causing the protests to continue. Maybe cynicism is the right approach, but people usually act in their own self interest, and it's very much in the self interest of the politicians running the city to not have police out there beating people and to get crowds to disperse peacefully.

Just baffling and terrible.

>>awille+za
> The cynical part of me thinks they want to arrest people

That is what they are doing. The theory is that once they put someone through being arrested, that person will not continue coming to protests the following days.

I’m am certainly not agreeing with the tactic, but that is why they are doing it.

>>momoko+xb
Sure, but it seems pretty obvious that videos of these arrests/beatings are driving other people to protest.

They say to never attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity, but I just really don't know which way to go on this one.

>>awille+6c
The police don't care about driving more people to protest, and they actually benefit from increased mayhem. The police care about demonstrating their power to show they are in charge over the public. This totalitarian philosophy has been present the whole time, but thinly veiled and mostly ignorable for most people. Now it's on display out in the open versus peaceful groups exercising their first amendment rights.