What Are ‘Symbolic Arrests’ and Why Is the Berkeley PD Offering Them to Protesters?By William Hicks
3:51 pm, April 18, 2017
In the wake of the latest protests-turned riots in Berkeley, a screenshot has been making the rounds on Twitter that shows the Berkeley Police Department offers something called “symbolic arrests.”
Some people are up in arms because they assume this means fake arrests and that it suggests an overly cosy relationship between the protesters and the cops in Berkeley.
But it turns out that symbolic arrests are, for all intents and purposes, real arrests, and it’s not that uncommon for police departments to offer them. Here’s how they work:
Essentially protesters can call up the police department while planning an event and schedule a time and place to get arrested. The police swoop in and arrest the volunteer martyrs, ending the protest in an entertaining spectacle for all.
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So basically it’s a real arrest, with real consequences. In effect, it streamlines the protesting process. Instead of waiting for police to break up the crowd with batons and pepper sprays, all this fuss can be pre-arranged.
1.) Berserkeley is not unique in this cozy arrangement, just the most public in offering it.
2.) At this point, I've not heard that Prog thugs in the recent riots had made this arrangement.
3.) Those thus arrested do face possible prosecution.
That said, this coziness makes PDs actors in the protesters' street theater, not just law enforcers. Further, officers know the unseen context in which they are operating, so the coziness can extend wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ayyyy beyond events where such agreements have been made. Jurisdictions will vary, but does anybody really believe the Alameda County DA's office fully prosecutes Lib/Prog thugs when they are part of one of these cozy arrangements?
What other cities - not just in CA, though I could probably name 5-10 obvious suspects - offer this sort of cozy arrangement less openly than does Berserkeley?
