A few days ago, in Oceanside CA, a peaceful march came upon police making an arrest in an unrelated domestic dispute call and struggling to subdue a distraught man. Some of the protestors convinced everyone to take a knee so as to satisfy police they weren’t intending to interfere. This was obviously a very tense situation for the officers, who had to have been concerned that a mob was going to turn a bad situation into a clusterfuck.
Then, one of the marchers — DJ from New Orleans — respectfully approached and began talking the guy down, eventually lying on the street beside him in a bid to convince him to stop resisting arrest.
Afterwards, he rightfully pointed out to the crowd that a black man would likely have fared a lot worse than Angel. But he did not dwell on that, instead pointing out that the more important message was a positive one: That respect and de-escalation works.
More of this, please.
Props to whomever captured this for Onscene TV.
Tuesday, Jun 9, 2020 · 11:55:53 PM +00:00
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subtropolis
I want to pin my reply to a comment, as it expands a bit on what I was trying to get across.
tbf, there were several factors. To begin with, this was a domestic call. The guy they were restraining was hurting himself. Of course, none of us can ignore that he is white, although the previous points are more important to how things went, imo.
When the protestors rolled up, those cops must have all had a deeply uneasy feeling, and for good reason. Without the leadership of DJ and others, this crowd — no matter how well-intentioned — might have interfered to an extent that … well, shit could have gotten real bad, for more than just Angel.
We don’t see, in the video, how DJ first approached the officers. Kudos to all involved that he was allowed to approach. I’ll be the first to admit that cops have good reason to be wary of others interjecting themselves at such moments. Would that more DJs step up (however cautiously, and with the best intentions) and that more officers recognise and accept the offer to help de-escalate.