

DELRAY BEACH, Florida - Around twenty people spontaneously formed a "human shield" to protect a Florida man from police who wanted to arrest him for smoking marijuana.



Last Saturday, at around 7:30 at night, Delray Beach police say they witnessed a man smoking what they smelled was marijuana.



When they moved to arrest him, he allegedly fled into a nearby home where a birthday party was being held.



Delray Beach Police Sgt. Nicole Guerriero said the party-goers "formed this shield" to block police and "started getting aggressive."



"Someone hit [an] officer and pushed him away, they were throwing bottles, they were cursing and screaming at them."



"The next thing they know, there's 70 to 75 people out there. The officers had to use pepper spray to get people back."



During the standoff, references to the police shooting of Eric Garner and Michael Brown were mentioned, and an object was thrown at a police cruiser, shattering it's windshield. Four men were arrested on charges ranging from obstruction to assault on a police officer.



Video showing part of the heated incident was uploaded to YouTube by Cory Provost.



You can watch one of the more heated segments from the confrontation below:







Local columnist Douglas C. Lyons wrote critically of the protesters for "obstructing" police.



"Memo to the residents in that Delray Beach neighborhood where a group of people formed a human shield to keep police officers from a man they wanted to detain: Are you kidding me?" Lyons said.



"Let’s not get this twisted. What began as routine police stop shouldn’t have ended in a 50-plus person melee. This was no Eric-Garner-excessive-force protest. Judging by the police reports, this appears to be a riled-up crowd obstructing the police."



While I agree they were "obstructing," they were obstructing the police from kidnapping their friend for smoking a plant fifty-seven percent of Floridians just voted to legalize.



I see no reason to fault them for it.



The crime here is taking someone's life, liberty, and property away for smoking a plant; not a community banding together to protect themselves.

_

Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.







