Officer: Lincoln Memorial Fathers 4 Justice Protester ‘Resisted Arrest from Smaller, Female Officer’
Background: Two Fathers 4 Justice activists breached security and climbed onto the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 17, 2007. Fatherhood activist Bob Norton was present and said:
“Four security guards tackled protester Bob Dickerson to the floor and sat on him. They forced his head into the stone floor. The security people overreacted for sure. I think they tackled him just because he was trying to leave.
“It is F4J’s mission to do peaceful protests but the timing and location probably are not the best for this type of thing in DC with the hair trigger our government shows in using the Patriot Act, etc.”
A video of the protest can be seen here. To learn more, click here.
Steve, one of the security guards who arrested Dickerson, recently sent me his perspective of what occurred. Steve writes:
“I am one of the security guards who helped arrest Mr. Dickerson – I had on a burgundy shirt and a baseball cap (see picture). The problem with many of these comments/opinions are that they are done in hindsight.
“I was there with my children (I was off-duty at the time), and there was no indication that these were peaceful protestors. In this day, I don’t think it would be over-reacting to think that these people dressing in costume and scaling a national monument could have much more dire plans.
“As far as Mr. Dickerson, I witnessed him resisting arrest from a female officer who was much smaller than he, and I rushed to assist (while my children were safely with my girlfriend). I assure you we used minimal force to arrest him. While he did not lash out violently, the video does not show that he vehemently resisted physically. Again, it’s not like these people announced a “peaceful protest.” I believe the response was appropriate.
“P.S. I am also a divorced father.”
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Stumble It!
March 5th, 2008 at 3:06 am
“I don’t think it would be over-reacting to think that these people dressing in costume and scaling a national monument could have much more dire plans.”
What would it be then?
What ’signs’ of a peaceful protest intent should a person expect to see, or that you are ‘trained’ to detect? (Perhaps there should be a Law that secret peaceful protesters should carry a large sign with a friggin’ timetable of actions on it). What other ‘plans’ could people dressing up in costume have, so you think, Steve? Have a think. Take a moment. Did you take a moment during your off duty time to think? No? No thoughts?
These be-costumed protesters, Steve, were they carrying guns? Big round thingos with fizzing wicks and ‘bomb’ written in the side? Did you think their sign was going to have a shocking, rude nasty word on it, like “Hillary”?
I have seen perfectly innocent passers by wrestled to the floor by uniformed thugs, Steve, and those thugs’ excuse was ‘resisting arrest’ too. The smaller, female ones seem quicker than most (size?) to solve the ‘resisting’ issue with a gun too. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. No doubt you would expalin away that too.
Steve. You over-reacted. You gave everyone a good laugh all around the world. Maybe its the way you tell’em.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:51 am
These male cops need to consider that with the sky high divorce rate among cops- they mighty be the among the beneficiaries of the justice these protesters are fighting. At the moment they are like Jewish guards in a concentraion camp.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Why does ‘Steve’ even bother to mention the gender of the first officer? If it was a smaller *male* officer would ‘Steve’ have reacted differently? Resisting arrest is resisting arrest, regardless of the gender of the officer. Just sayin’.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Overreaction? Of course not! Hell, what’s a little MORE injustice and physical abuse piled onto another American male…
How about we combat “Violence against men” for a change?
As for the arresting female officer? She probably had a lot of juices flowing at the time, all giddy and excited to play that most favored of all gender bonding exercises, (as amfortas might say) “Let’s you and him fight” with multiple male officers backing her up with guns…
And the police protocol in this instance seems almost standard for male perps. I have worked out in a gym owned by a cop and frequented by many others (including prison guards) since ‘02 and have become friendly with a few of them.
These guys are intense. Several officers meet twice a week for 60 minute mixed martial-arts (MMA) training/heavy bag workouts and they ALL hit the weights hard.
Most of the officers I have observed (including the MMA team members) seem to be reasonable and fair men but a couple seem to lack the ability to ratchet down the intensity level and adrenaline rush they find at times in their professional lives.
Put simply, these particular cops seem wired too tight all of the time and a few are even a little intimidating. Reading the Sacks story above made me think of these guys: they train and train and train, week after week and after awhile they want to try out some of their “moves” for real, on someone other than each other and outside of their controlled environment in the gym.
“Just give me a reason, punk…”
Thank God these types are by far the minority from what I have observed.