In front of the Jefferson Memorial of all places. So much for our constitution.





I hope this is fake, but judging from the body slam to throat hold it seems to be real.

Its real.

lol too funny. Funny that anyone is shocked by this. This is how police are generally - the "career" attracts a certain sort of person, same with the military, so it's no wonder there are abuses constantly. America is clearly the worst in the West though, for the same reason there's more gun crime on a per gun basis than anywhere else in the West. It is a police state, the guy's right.

America - Land of the free.

Edit: Ah...although this is RT tv, who do like to provoke the US Authorities..., i.e. why is an RT television "presenter" involved in a demonstration that is the news?

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So I wonder if this dance party on Saturday will be known as the Dancing Revolution. "You can dance if you want to, but leave your rights behind..."

yeah, suppressing dancing is pretty ridiculous, specially since Jefferson defended 1st amendment rights to death

make a move and plead the 5th, coz you can't plead the 1st....

freudian slip?

haha i wrote fifth, but then decided to delete it... s LOL FAIL

Remind me to go bungee jumping off of Nelson's Column. What's the harm? Just having a little fun. I bet a lot of people want to.

it's not clearly the worst in the west. everybody else just hears about it the most since we dislike cops in general and any abuse of power on their part blows up into a big story disseminated by a media that is the farthest reaching on the planet.

I think the issue is that it's at the Jefferson Memorial. It is something of a sacred place for many Americans. Er, I mean, oh, f-it, I mean AMERICANS.

While some may request that folks keep things light during their funeral and to remember them via happy songs and dance, for many others, a memorial service or edifice are times and places to be solemn.

Probably wouldn't have been (as much of) an issue (if any at all) dancing in front of it, dancing inside the building though? I can see the problem.

For ya'll getting on the US and the police in the US, I wonder what you think would happen at memorial monuments in the UK? Say, perhaps, this one, the Battle of Britain London Monument. Maybe that one is too provocative for you as there are still people living who were directly affected by the people and events memorialized by that monument.

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Why? The constitution guarantees freedom of expression. That does not mean you are free to express whatever you what wherever and whenever you want. Those arrested are free to dance in commemoration of Jefferson, just not in the Jefferson memorial. So, so harm to the constitution.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think it was really necessary to body-slam the protestors. I do feel kind of sorry for the park police having to do that at all. The park rules are absolutely clear that the inside the Jefferson memorial is an area designated for solemn commemorative purposes only. Along come a bunch of people who think they should be able to do anything anywhere and the poor park police get sent out to deal with it, instead of dealing with a lot of much worse stuff that happens on the Mall.

Sorry, but I really can't help to play devil's advocate to knee-jerk reactions that claim all police are evil, there are no constitutional rights in the US etc.

you'll get this from the brits here who have nothing positive to say about anybody.

I have only experienced spontaneity in the US in quite special moments, one of them was Disney, so I don't really get some guy causing a riot at a place of piety, calling for dignified behavior. If he did it in church, they would walk him out, if he did it during a conference, museum, they would...Might not be exactly the best analogies, but honestly, any burial/memorial places I have been to, had similar requirements. Nothing to do about US, no? Just immature, if you ask me, attention seeking. The cops could have been softer, sure.

i cud'nt believe this happened in US for dancing.
social media is a great tool for advocacy and for encouraging broad participation in causes, including the worldwide fight against corruption.

Ok I've done some reading and I've changed my mind, in this instance I'm with the cops. It's a sensitive area and no place for dancing etc.

Adam vs the man has a ton of this vids..

but a good majority of the time, the vids are are taken out of context, and the people really instigate the police to a state where they have lost the power.

Not that they should go arresting and body slamming everyone, but it is has happened in the US (and Canada) as soon as the general public see that the police have lost dominance, riots and looting break out.

It looked pretty organized, yeah. What a hero.

This would be funny if it weren't true.

On a related and totally discriminatory note, did you know that the biggest hurdle in the (french speaking) swiss police admission examination is a ... dictation?

Yes, the exam was sooo difficult that Geneva decided to remove it from the tests a future policeman should pass to gain the right to defend the citizens.

I know my spelling sucks (in more than one language) but somehow I would feel slightly better knowing that the law and order are being kept by literate people.

Well, what do I know anyways? I am just a poor third-worlder.


p.s. To be fair, I find the police in Switzerland infinitely nicer than in the US. Here, I dare to talk to them while in the US I always had the impression they wanted to bite something. I wonder how hard the dictation test is over there.