Mass Arrests of the Innocent

During recent protests in Washington against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, police deliberately used mass arrests to round up protesters who had committed no crime, writes law professor Jonathan Turley. "All the students were arrested while trying to comply with the law," he writes. "The D.C. and National Park Service police had used the same technique in each instance: Surround the crowd. Tell its members to disperse or face arrest. And then, as people try to disperse, block their escape with rows of officers in riot gear and arrest them. ... It is hardly difficult to make the D.C. streets as orderly as Beijing's if police can arrest large numbers of people without cause. However, this technique is both distinctly unconstitutional and un-American."