December 14, 2015 activist Cornell Lewis was arrested by police at a rally. The words below are Debra Cohen's point of view as fellow Freedom Fighter. The protest was in front of a stadium under construction in downtown Hartford.
Two important points about this event NOT captured by WFSB: (1) the protest was initiated by the Minority Contractors Council for having received NO "piece of the pie" from a major HARTFORD "development" project, but supported by MMCT and (2) while it was indeed wonderful to have ONE courageous member of City Council put his body on the shut-down line, in fact the first arrest was the most telling about Hartford City Police tactics. Even as seen (but not narrated) in the WFSB clip below, Cornell Lewis was the first person arrested - taken by surprise even as he was conveying the warning the cops had asked him to that the protestors were to move or risk arrest. NOTE THAT CORNELL HIMSELF had moved from the gate area and was NOT trespassing nor planning to subject himself to arrest. Rather than carry out their plan to arrest those who did not move from the gate area, Hartford cops were heard to say, "Arrest Cornell first" - and they did so. Not one of the protesters still trespassing had yet been arrested. Thus was Cornell clearly targetted and arrested while peacefully exercising his first amendment rights, complying with police directives and keeping the crowd informed - and then kept in jail from 10 am to 8 pm.
posted also on Facebook.
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