Alex Reid

The United States Park Police made a terrible mistake when they broke up a flashmob of 20 people who had converged upon the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington over the weekend to celebrate the 265th birthday of the principle author of the Declaration of Independence because they underestimated who they were dealing with; Libertarians.

Brooke Oberwetter was among those who were dancing to their own individual iPods – so not to bother other people – who challenged the police officers who were trying to kick out the flashmobbers and for that, she was arrested and detained without notice of her crime. The other participants, Oberwetter’s friends, were quick to distribute the video and photos of her arrest via the Internet.

From the Arstechnica article on the incident:

Sgt. Robert Lachance, a spokesman for the United States Park Police, explains that this charge includes the failure to obey a lawful order by a park officer, and quoted from the arrest report, which referred to “one subject” who “did not comply with multiple requests to leave the area.” As for the dance party itself, Lachance notes that federal regulations designate certain areas that are “meant to be tranquil and quiet,” including the inner chamber of the Jefferson Memorial. That precludes making too much noise—signs at the Memorial enjoin quiet—or any behavior that “has a propensity to draw a crowd of onlookers.”

The dancers contend that they were making no more noise than a similar number of ordinary tourists might, and that there were only five or six “onlookers” around to be drawn. But even if they were in the wrong, I wondered, wasn’t it odd to arrest someone just as the event was essentially over? That was up to the judgment of the arresting officer, says Lachance. Since he “can’t determine from the video what the situation was,” Lachance cautions against second-guessing the officer’s decision on the basis of the partial portrait there.

Perhaps more remarkable than the severe reaction to an intransigent dancer is how quickly her friends settled on a division of labor after the arrest. Five or six would travel to the station to await her release; the rest pulled out their cell phones and began sending Twitters, e-mails, and photographs to friends at home. Dozens of blogs soon linked accounts of the arrest, and one outraged reader in Wisconsin has even posted a call on Craigslist for others to repeat the dance party next weekend in protest. If charges are not dismissed before a scheduled April 29 court date—since the incident occurred on federal property, the case will be handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office—the video and photos of the arrest are likely to figure in Oberwetter’s defense.