“It is clear to me that the protester was not free to come, stay or go as he pleased. As such, he was in the custody of the officers and was being escorted out.”
We disagree with whether or not the protester was in custody because there is a difference between being escorted or being followed. In any case, his movements were being directed by the deputies, but he was not restrained in any way. In addition, the protester that got hit was not the only one being asked to leave by the deputies, but one of at least 3 in a line being followed up the stairs. From the available footage, he was in the middle of 3. In any event, there was no deputy directly in front of or behind him.
To my knowledge, no audio recordings exist as to what words were being spoken that led to the protester being struck by the old man, but it’s evident from the video that showed while leaving, the protester continued his actions which led to him being asked to leave in the first place.
This incident is not worthy of an all day discussion so I’m going to end my part with this. There is plenty of blame to be had by all parties involved. As a former deputy sheriff and police officer, these are my observations based on the available information.
1. The protester was there behaving in a manner to attract negative attention and reactions from the crowd. He succeeded.
2. The old man shouldn’t have hit him but it’s likely that extenuating circumstances exist i.e. fighting words that elicited an immediate violent response/challenging to a fight, both of which are criminal offenses whether they’re still enforced or not.
3. The deputies did not control the actions of any of the people that were being asked to leave so they are to be held responsible in the sense that they did not have control of the situation and their allowance of the situation is what led to the battery on the protester by the old man.
There’s plenty of blame to go around for everyone involved.
Very true.
So the deputies were supposed to prevent the kid from flipping everyone off?
How? Handcuffs?