Occupy Gainesville activists & Bo Diddley's son cited for trespass

Bo Diddley's son Ellas Anthony McDaniel was cited for trespassing in the park named for his father during a Thursday night Occupy Gainesville demonstration for the right to assemble to redress inequality in America. He was handcuffed while standing at the Bill of Rights stone speaker's step monument.

The Gainesville police and protestors coexisted peacefully by contrast with recent events in New York, but police did not allow protestors to sleep in the park after hours on this occasion except on the public sidewalks surrounding it. Protestors stayed overnight in the park with a permit Wednesday night.

Two things I would do differently if doing the interviews right now:

1. Would not have used the word "arrest" in asking the questions but at the time I asked the questions I had been told they were arrested. Later it was clarified that they were "cited for trespassing" rather than arrested, and obviously they weren't in jail but were returned to the park after the temporary handcuffing and removal. However I'm also told by others that detaining a person in handcuffs and citing them is in fact a type of arrest, so I don't feel so bad. You don't have to be sent all the way to jail to be arrested, apparently.

2. I would have gotten the police to comment but at the time I was afraid they might also cite or arrest journalists since I did not know what the police were thinking when they started handcuffing people. I did not want to annoy them. I would have not just left it with Mr. Smith's description of what the police said the police said, since obviously the police wouldn't have likely literally said "the park doesn't abide by the Constitution." The police, I am told, would not have likely spoken to me unless I went to a public information officer, and that wouldn't have been available at night anyway.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Occupy Wall Street
• Occupy Gainesville
• Florida
• Bo Diddley
• Ellas Anthony McDaniel

[mrduane3]

I invited Anthony to the plaza... I knew he would take a stand... just like his Dad would have....