Good and bad things at Saturday's downtown arrests. A couple of good things gleaned from e-mails, comments and observations:
- Mass arrest kits seemed to be in plentiful supply;
- Sheriff buses on scene instead of using CTA buses;
- Holding those who were in violation of their Bail Bond restrictions from last week.
There was still a lot to be desired though:
- Again, why are we waiting until 0100 AM to arrest people? The park closes at what? 1100? One announcement and then arrests. Pretty straightforward, it sends the message we mean business, and establishes precedent for future events like G-8 and NATO.
- Provide the protesters with an out - an "escape route." Once we start arresting people, the people wavering will realize they really don't want to spend a night in jail and they'll leave. This frees up manpower for the dedicated protesters and empties the park anyway. Rahm obviously doesn't want arrests because then he becomes the focal point. We ended up doing 40 fewer arrests this time. Anyone want to bet there's even less next week?
- One working printer in 001? For processing 130 arrests? Of this doesn't say worlds about the state of this Department, we don't know what does. How about either getting us the equipment we need or going to a truly paperless Department as we were promised 20 years ago?
And this last point is just insane. We didn't witness this, but it appeared a few times in the comment sections:
- Wow! What a clusterfuck here at Grant Park. The Gold Stars decided to start arresting protesters at 0100 hrs after warning them at 2300 hrs. Then two Stars Stars were approaching the protesters, one at a time and politely asked them if they were sure that they wanted to go to jail. Then 2 PO's locked them up, escorted them by a Cook County prisoner bus, where they waited in line for 15-20 minutes! It has been 3 hours and they are still making arrest! There were less then 100 people! These bosses are so fucked up, it's ridiculous! This is totally humiliating and shameful, we are in trouble come May with these brainiacs!
Just a thought, but that isn't going to work in May 2012. We don't have nearly enough Deputy Chiefs or Assistant Superintendents or whatever they're called now to ask every single rioter if they wish to be arrested while the protesters are busy burning garbage cans, breaking windows and flipping over cars.