Several folks have emailed this story to us over the past couple of days. It seems a group of Libertarians in DC went to the Jefferson Memorial on Saturday night to celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s birthday by dancing silently with their iPods (similar to our Mp3 Experiments.) The event was broken up by DC police, and one of the participants was arrested and detained for several hours.
DCist has the story:
In the [first video] you can watch the group as they quietly danced around the memorial (which, to be clear, is open to the public 24 hours a day, according to its web site). A U.S. Park Police officer can then be seen approaching the dancers and telling them to leave.
The second video, posted below, shows the dancers arguing with Park Police officers about why they’re being asked to leave. They say they were quietly dancing with headphones on to celebrate Jefferson’s birthday, and that they weren’t breaking any laws (which, as far as we can tell, they indeed were not). Toward the end of the video, you can see Oberwetter, 28, being handcuffed and taken into custody.
Might want to look into getting a permit next time.
Why would they need a permit to dance in a public place? That kinda sucks.
Having lived near DC for 15 years, I assure that what was seen on camera was not in fact illegal in any sense of the term. Dancing anywhere in a public place isn’t disorderly, or all the crazy people in the city would be in jail.
I didn’t see what she did off camera so this is all speculation. To detain someone for something like that is a bit stupid.
They were being a bit loud, but considering they were doing it at night when there wouldn’t be anyone else there to disturb… this is pretty ridiculous.
Ridiculous, yes. I don’t see how they would have been breaking any laws.
But… was it really worth the fight? Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, it may be now, but did it have to be?
We held a subway dance party in Toronto a few weeks back. We told all the participants beforehand that if any Toronto Transit Commission Employees asked us to stop, to listen to them, because we didn’t want to cause any problems.
Wow… I think next time any flashmobs do anything, they need to make sure they have a lawyer as a participant in the group. That way, there is no question as whether the cops are abusing their power, though I doubt the Rent-a-Cops that patrol these memorials have any knowledge of the law. I’m not saying hire a lawyer, but someone’s gotta have a lawyer friend out there somewhere.
@Blaise Alleyne
Yes, it is a big deal. They did nothing wrong. Even if it is a minor thing, why is it any different from them taking away freedoms that are a big deal? You can’t just let them do that.
Something I learned from the Burning Man organizers and the Black Rock City Rangers: just as we try to make our events so participants can enjoy them, so can we try to make our events so that cops can enjoy them too. Usually it means providing a layer of interface and introduction… e.g. a large, explanatory, inviting, fear-mitigating sign.
Okay the police overeacted and really fighting with themn only escalated the matter, still I believe that in this case the Police were in the wrong…. That being said here comes the devil’s advocate.
This is Washington D.C. the capitol of our country. With the current administration constantly reminding us that the “terrorists” are around every corner, people tend to be a little more uptight these days. This includes the police. Now as we know this “MP3″ like even took place in a city that is likely to be on the top of a terrorist’s hit list. This was also done at night. So a group of people acting strange resisting and defying the police in a city where the perceived threat level is much higher… was a bad equation. In some ways maybe the police believed on some level that suspicious activity like that needed to be stopped for safety reasons? Yeah… I know the argument sucks… but it made more sense in my head.
Sense of entitlement. Assuming that the video depicts exactly what happened they should have just cooperated.
Performing this stunt at a national memorial was not respectful to those who were visiting the site and to those being rememebered by the memorial as well. That’s just me being nitpicky, however, feuding with the officer was ridiculous. It reminded me of online viral videos in which teenagers skaters end up fighting w/ a property owner or officer. The right thing to do would have been to quietly leave upon the officers request – after all – they did seem more loud and annoying than anything else – not entertaining as Improv Everywhere missions are…
@SamMB
They did this late at night so that they wouldn’t disrupt any tourists. The Memorial, as you can see in the videos, is pretty much empty.
@Max P
Yeah, the do have a sense of entitlement. An entitlement to free assembly in a public place.
I wasn’t there so I can’t say what happened apart from the video evidence, but it doesn’t seem to me that they broke any laws.
This wasn’t the DC Police aka MPD Metropolitan Police Department, this was the US Park Police, possibly the most useless police agency ever.
Aren’t these the same Park Police that “investigated” Vince Foster’s “suicide”?
Want to know what was illegal about this? Failing to comply with the lawful order of a police officer to leave the premises. If you don’t like the order or feel it’s “illegal,” then what you do is note down his name, file a complaint, or file a lawsuit. If you really feel that’s not enough and you simply must protest through civil disobedience, then bloody well accept the consequences instead of bitching around about it. Yes, you fail to comply with an order you will be arrested. What did you think would happen?
You clowns are quite lucky the U.S. Park Police was that patient with you in the first place. Try that stunt in other jurisdictions and you
> Yeah, the do have a sense of entitlement. An entitlement to free assembly in a public place.
Did they have a permit? Since you want to play armchair lawyer, you do know about assembly permits, right? And you understand disorderly conduct?
> I wasn’t there so I can’t say what happened apart from the video evidence, but it doesn’t seem to me that they broke any laws.
Disorderly conduct. That’s a law and it was, arguably, broken (the police only need probable cause).
>Failing to comply with the lawful order of a police officer to leave the premises. If you don’t like the order or feel it’s “illegal,”…Disorderly conduct. That’s a law and it was, arguably, broken (the police only need probable cause).<
If “probable cause” means “whatever I feel like on any given day,” we’re in trouble.
If the order is illegal to begin with, then isn’t all subsequent legally required action (i.e. complying with the lawful order of a police officer) null and void? If a cop asks me to do something illegal, I should just do it because he told me to and then at some later date file a complaint that will certainly be ignored or disregarded? Don’t I have rights too? They weren’t making noise, they weren’t even protesting. As far as I could see, they were a group of friends having a little impromptu celebration.
>Disorderly conduct. That’s a law and it was, arguably, broken (the police only need probable cause).<
If “probable cause” means “whatever I feel like on any given day,” we’re in trouble.
> Did they have a permit? Since you want to play armchair lawyer, you do know about assembly permits, right? And you understand disorderly conduct?
According to the Jefferson Memorial’s own website, you only need a permit there if the group comprised of more than 25 people. This was less than that.
In my opinion “disorderly conduct” is what cops charge you with when they’re not sure what law you’re breaking, but feel like you must be doing something wrong. See: No Pants 2k6.
The whole mission behind this website is to stage events where people do things outside the normal bounds of orderly conduct.
I’m guessing that the officers were Baptists and did not like the whole dancing thing or anything like unto it. So much for separation of church and state…