This article contains news, commentary, and biting sarcasm toward officialdom everywhere.
Nine people suspected of being “outside agitators” were arrested for “investigation of disorderly conduct” and thrown in jail by Kenosha police on Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, but they bonded out the same day. They were volunteers planning to feed protesters, a spokesperson for Seattle-based Riot Kitchen said Saturday.
An alert citizen (okay, a hyperalert citizen) called the cops after spotting a 3-vehicle convoy that included a bus. As millions of social media users now know for sure, anyone in a bus has got to be “antifa” setting out to burn down large cities large and small, and farm buildings. Because everyone knows “antifa” travel in buses. No reason they do; they just do. Things don’t have to be explained, only believed.
Kenosha police and U.S. marshals moved in when the “antifa” were seen filling gas cans at a gas station, forced entry to one of the vehicles, asked the occupants to exit the minivan (okay, they said “Get the f— out of the car!!!”, which is sorta like asking), and made the pinch.
“Police said they found helmets, gas masks, fireworks and ‘suspected controlled substances’ in the vehicles,” NBC News reported. Maybe they did find some marijuana residue in a vehicle, the Riot Kitchen spokesperson said. Some people smoke maryjane in Seattle. It’s legal there. (Actually “here,” because I’m in Seattle, although I’m not smoking anything except the air pollution from my neighbor’s backyard BBQ.) That gets you nowhere; remember, this is Kenosha, where openly carried AR-15s are legal (if you’re over 18) and marijuana is not, and a knife within 10 feet of a black man definitely is not.
“Police Chief Daniel Miskinis said Friday that he could speak only generally about the incident, saying the people in the minivan were uncooperative and emphasizing the vehicles’ out-of-state license plates … [and] masks found by officers … [and] protective gear …,” and gas cans. All of which was very, very suspicious.
“The protective gear found in the bus is just that — protection for working in large crowds, masks for COVID protection,” Riot Kitchen said. The gas “was to be used for generators for cooking, camping and food production.” The spokesperson was “surprised” by the fireworks because, “We’ve never had fireworks anywhere.” They’re sold on Native American reservations, though. Any reservations between Seattle and Kenosha? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
Being a lawyer, I’m tempted to have some fun with this. First of all, using “being from out of state” as grounds for arrest is problematical, unless “from” refers to Pakistan, Iran, or Saudi Arabia with no passport. I have reason to believe they also consider people from my hometown, the Soviet of Seattle, as it’s affectionately called by both its denizens and detractors, as being from some type of foreign place. But I’ve never been arrested anywhere for being from Seattle, not yet anyway, although I’ve come close a few times. Mostly in eastern Washington near the WSU campus.
You can’t arrest people for “being antifa,” even if they are “antifa,” because you can only arrest people for what they do, not what they are. At least, that’s what they taught us in law school. Riding in cars and buying gas aren’t crimes, either, except in Kenosha; but even in Kenosha you have to be black to get shot for getting into a car. However, you should always bone up on local laws and customs when traveling to strange places (e.g., having a roach in your carry-on in the airport in Indonesia, however innocent that may seem to you, can get you shot even if you’re white, especially if you’re Australian.)
Shields, protective gear, and masks aren’t illegal. Except in Kenosha, where openly carrying an AR-15 in a riot is legal (if you’re over 18), but having a mask in your car apparently isn’t. I remember when you could get arrested in Wisconsin for possessing margarine, which wasn’t legal in that state, so farmers could sell their butter. You smuggled it in from Illinois, being careful to bypass checkpoints on the main highway (there was only one then) by taking the back roads (just about all roads were back roads then). I’m not sure if they shot those who got caught, because I never got caught. Not for that, anyway.
Moving on, cops can’t arrest people because of what they might do in the future. They can only arrest them for what they’ve done, after they’ve done it. At least, that’s what they taught us in law school. It might be different in Kenosha. Under that rule, they wouldn’t be able to arrest the kid with the AR-15 for killing people until after he killed them, only for carrying the AR-15 in the riot, because he was only 17; but he wasn’t arrested; the cops waved at him, and he waved back. Or maybe it was the other way around. This was after he killed two people. Okay, allegedly killed two people. (I have to put that in here for insurance reasons. Also that accused persons are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law.)
If someone is suspected of being “antifa” by Kenosha cops in the field, there are no rules; laws apply only later in the courts, when the cops are sued by the ACLU lawyers representing the suspected “antifas” for violating their civil rights.
Maybe these cops could nail these people under a city ordinance for feeding people. I’m not sure what Kenosha’s politics are, but usually where you have Republicans feeding people is against the law. Letting out-of-staters carry AR-15s in riots, and arresting visitors for giving sandwiches to the homeless, often go hand in hand.
Photos: (Upper L.) Surveillance telephoto of antifa; (Lower R.) FBI dossier photo of Riot Kitchen’s Antifa Bus
The problem maybe the politicians and folks in charge are unwilling to declare martial law. Under those circumstances these folks can be arrested or turned away. Law enforcement rationally does not want these folks in their town enabling protests and rioting. They should not have arrested them and a civil rights attorney who practices law in the state will gwt a payday and Riot Kitchen and the individual rioters will get damages, and hopefully any charges will be dropped.
It’s absurd to turn away food servers and allow vigilantes to stay, but that’s what the Kenosha police did. If they couldn’t handle the situation, they should have requested the National Guard, and ordered the armed citizens to clear out. They were wrong to let people like Kyle Rittenhouse patrol the streets. You’ll hear more about that in the lawsuits to come. Private militias are untrained, undisciplined, and lack command and control. There is no appropriate role for them in civil disturbances; they are a problem not a solution, and it should be police SOP to order them to leave the riot zone and arrest any who don’t. They have that authority when a riot is declared.