Arrests and Evictions over "safety concerns".

Quote:
We had to take the issue seriously because of the way we had been threatened by the sergeant at the Seventh Precinct, who warned us before our release that if “I returned to my friends, the protesters,” a second arrest would be treated far more seriously: our information would be fed into a federal database, to follow us forever. I recall speaking to him through the cell bars: “But officer, if I checked the law this time in order to obey it and still got arrested, how do I avoid getting arrested again?” He acknowledged that I had not disobeyed the law but pointed out that if police cite “safety concerns,” they can arrest anyone anywhere, no matter what the law says. Of course, nothing we had done — walking peacefully on a sidewalk in single file, not blocking traffic — had posed a safety threat.

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