Cops arrest a man for ... singing a song saying he hates cops

As usual, the bullies in blue (or whatever color uniform they're wearing) were keen to display how little patience they have for any sort of dissent concerning their godly, untouchable status amongst us commoners. In this case, a man was simply walking and singing, perhaps a little provocatively, about how he hates the police – and wham bang, wouldn't you now it, he's manhandled, forcibly arrested and treated like a criminal – all for voicing his dissent in a non-disorderly fashion.

And wanna know something that makes the situation even more ironic or sobering? The man's a lawyer, so obviously he fully knows his own rights.

It all started innocently enough, with just a trio of friends walking down the streets:

A lawyer who moments earlier had been complaining to friends about police overreaction in the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., got a taste of the Gates treatment himself after loudly chanting "I hate the police" near a traffic stop in Northwest Washington, D.C.

Pepin Tuma, 33, was walking with two friends along Washington's hip U Street corridor around midnight Saturday, complaining about how Gates had been rousted from his home for not showing a proper amount of deference to a cop. "We'd been talking about it all day," said Tuma. "It seems like police have a tendency to act overly aggressively when they're being pushed around," Tuma recalled saying.

Then the group noticed five or six police cruisers surrounding two cars in an apparent traffic stop on the other side of the street. It seemed to Tuma that was more cops than necessary.

"That's why I hate the police," Tuma said. He told the Huffington Post that in a loud sing-song voice, he then chanted, "I hate the police, I hate the police."

Cue the officer(s) who really didn't appreciate his nondisruptive singing:

One officer reacted strongly to Tuma's song. "Hey! Hey! Who do you think you're talking to?" Tuma recalled the officer shouting as he strode across an intersection to where Tuma was standing. "Who do you think you are to think you can talk to a police officer like that?" the police officer said, according to Luke Platzer, 30, one of Tuma's companions.

Tuma said he responded, "It is not illegal to say I hate the police. It's not illegal to express my opinion walking down the street."

According to Tuma and Platzer, the officer pushed Tuma against an electric utility box, continuing to ask who he thought he was and to say he couldn't talk to police like that.

"I didn't curse," Tuma said. "I asked, am I being arrested? Why am I being arrested?"

Within minutes, the officer had cuffed Tuma. The charge: disorderly conduct -- just like Gates, who was arrested after police responded to a report of a possible break-in at his home and Gates protested their ensuing behavior.

Indeed, this is exactly like that ridiculous Gates scandal. (In case you need refreshing: Henry Louis Gates, a Black Harvard professor, was "caught" breaking into his own home. Cops came to investigate but found he'd done nothing wrong, but Gates then sported a petulant attitude towards them, claiming he was only being investigated for "being a Black man in America". That was stupid, Gates. The result: the oversensitive cop in question arrested Gates. Something he had no right to do as Gates, despite his childish attitude, hadn't committed any crimes.)

One of the problems in this case though, is D.C.'s extremely unhelpful disorderly conduct laws, which basically condone the actions of these cops:

D.C.'s disorderly conduct statute bars citizens from breaching the peace by doing anything "in such a manner as to annoy, disturb, interfere with, obstruct, or be offensive to others" or by shouting or making noise "either outside or inside a building during the nighttime to the annoyance or disturbance of any considerable number of persons."

The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has said that the city's disorderly conduct law is "confusing, overbroad, frequently used by police to harass disfavored individuals" and that it "violates constitutional rights of free speech, assembly and petition."

Tuma spent a few hours in a holding cell before forfeiting (for $35), which is not in itself an admission of guilt (seeing as he's, y'know, not guilty and all). He's filed a formal complaint against the department, citing a false arrest, lack of probable cause, and also supposedly being called a "faggot". Such honorable cops these days. Oh my.

He's also threatening to sue if the settlement isn't to his liking. Personally, I'd say sue the bastards anyway; it's high time someone stood up to these bravado-suckling egomaniacs and let them know they can't boss everyone around just because they dare to show dissent. Not that a single lawsuit would do much, but it could easily set a precedent and encourage others to do the same. I daresay a shitload of lawsuits before long could easily rectify this problem.

People truly need to stop defending the cops' actions as "the guy was asking for it". Whether he was intentionally trying to tick them off, or was merely peacefully protesting against what he viewed as an injustice and miscarriage of law, is irrelevent. The fact is, the cops don't have the fucking right to arrest anyone under the sun who so much as glances at them inappropriately. Unless the individuals actually commit a crime, they are not criminals, and therefore, are not subject to arrest.

But you tell that to these overzealous brutes. Really, their reasoning for arresting the guy is the same as saying a woman who was raped was "asking for it by wearing that sort of clothing ...". It's no better.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)