arestee speaks

Sometimes I go to protests knowing I'll be arrested and sometimes I decide that I don't want to be arrested. Today was a day that I knew I didn't want to get arrested. Either way, I was walking down 3rd near Market and saw the police. They were everywhere. But I decided that if I stay on the sidewalk I could avoid a confrontation. Before I knew it there were about twelve cops to about eight people. We were locked in. It is an unbelievable event to be arrested on a sidewalk. I know about the dissolution of civil liberties, and I know about the extent to which the state will go to in order to crush dissent--especially during a war-- but I never in my life thought I could get arrested on a sidewalk. We were never ordered to disperse, and never read our rights. This is an unprecedented violation...But we will not cower! They are doing our work for us now--building the resistance through their brutal tactics.