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So, I live in the city unfortunate enough to be hosting the RNC, and the police and FBI's brutal intimidation tactics have been well documented by now. I was outraged as a proud resident of this state to see my police force behaving so outrageously. That was intellectual. This is personal.
My brother was just arrested.
Supposedly for "unlawful assembly" - in reality, he was walking back to his car after being turned away from a sold-out union-sponsored public concert.
He is 17 and he is being charged with a gross misdemeanor. He was arrested at 5:30 and he didn't have access to his phone call to let us know. We found out because we panicked when he wasn't home by 9 - his curfew on a school night since tomorrow is the first day of school. After frantically calling his cell over and over to no response we were left to wrack our brains to find some other way to track him down in a large city as we imagined him dead or disappeared forever. Finally, at 11 - fully 5 and a half hours after my *minor* brother had been arrested, a policeman answered the cell they had confiscated from him.
Outrage does not begin to cover it. He is not political. He is not involved in any organization. Even if he were, that is no excuse.
He was a kid walking to his car in broad daylight, and he has now been unlawfully detained for the last 5 and a half hours. He may not be released tonight. My god, he must be scared.
My brother was just arrested.
Supposedly for "unlawful assembly" - in reality, he was walking back to his car after being turned away from a sold-out union-sponsored public concert.
He is 17 and he is being charged with a gross misdemeanor. He was arrested at 5:30 and he didn't have access to his phone call to let us know. We found out because we panicked when he wasn't home by 9 - his curfew on a school night since tomorrow is the first day of school. After frantically calling his cell over and over to no response we were left to wrack our brains to find some other way to track him down in a large city as we imagined him dead or disappeared forever. Finally, at 11 - fully 5 and a half hours after my *minor* brother had been arrested, a policeman answered the cell they had confiscated from him.
Outrage does not begin to cover it. He is not political. He is not involved in any organization. Even if he were, that is no excuse.
He was a kid walking to his car in broad daylight, and he has now been unlawfully detained for the last 5 and a half hours. He may not be released tonight. My god, he must be scared.
