Arrest of Citizen Journalist for resisting arrest leaves questions of Police Intimidation by Toby Nixon

Wednesday Aug 12th, 2015 5:41 PM

During Freedom Sleepers Event, 8-11-2015 around midnight. Citizen Journalist Arrested for Resisting Arrest.

A student named Israel-David was arrested last night while filming a documentary outside Santa Cruz City Hall during the Freedom Sleepers Event for Resisting Arrest.



Which left questions of Police Intimidation. As a Witness I saw officers complain about the light for the Camera being too bright, grabbing at the camera, following both Israel and his Wife (also a documentary filmmaker). As if searching for a reason to stop the filming during the police interaction with the protesters.



Activists at the scene including myself, saw this arrest as intimidation an inhibition to the protest by the Santa Cruz Police Department which is known for harassment both of the homeless and of citizen journalists.



Apparently while Israel was filming an officer asked him for his I.D. Israel reached to his backpack moving toward his car and was arrested on the spot for "Failure to Provide I.D." However was finally charged with purportedly Resisting Arrest or Obstructing Justice a Penal Code 148.



Which leads us to believe that the act of filming is the complaint of the Police and may be because the police are obstructed from using illegal techniques or unethical acts to disperse the crowd sleeping in front of City Hall.