Simultaneous arrest of a large number of people by law enforcement
A
mass arrest
occurs when
police
apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at
protests
. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort to combat
gang activity
.
[1]
This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result.
[2]
In
police science
, it is deemed to be good practice to plan for the identification of those arrested during mass arrests, since it is unlikely that the officers will remember everyone they arrested.
[3]
Historical examples
[
edit
]
The
Japan Farmers' Union
and Japanese labor-farmer groups were hit by mass arrests in the 1920s. On April 16, 1929, several thousand members of the farmers' movement were arrested.
[4]
Following
World War II
, mass arrests (over 120,000) of actual and suspected
Quislings
occurred in
Norway
.
[5]
Totalitarian
regimes have sometimes conducted mass arrests as a prelude to a
purge
of perceived political enemies, sometimes through executions.
On March 10, 2010 a mass crackdown was initiated to thwart a planned peaceful 'million march' to be conducted in a South Indian state capital of Hyderabad demanding formation of a new federal unit, more than 100,000 Telangana people were taken in to custody by a police force controlled by the coastal 'andhra' elites.
[6]
The
2010 G-20 Toronto summit
was witness to the largest mass arrest in
Canadian
history.
[7]
Mass arrests of protesters in the United States
[
edit
]
In December 1964, the
University of California, Berkeley
was disrupted by a mass student
sit-in
in the administration building and by mass arrests of 700 students.
[8]
Beginning on May 3, 1971, three days into the
1971 May Day Protests
- a series of large-scale
civil disobedience
actions in
Washington, D.C.
- massive arrest sweeps begin. In a few days over 12,000 are arrested - the largest mass arrest in U.S. history.
[9]
[10]
Former American President
Jimmy Carter
said in regards to the racial conflicts of the time, "I would be opposed to mass arrest, and I would be opposed to preventive detention. But I think that the abuses in the past have in many cases exacerbated the disharmonies that brought about demonstrations, and I think that arrest or large numbers of people without warrants ... is a contrary to our best systems of justice."
[11]
A famous mass arrest occurred on September 27, 2002, in
Washington, DC
in which several hundred anti-
World Bank
/
International Monetary Fund
protestors, journalists and bystanders were systematically arrested by police
[12]
[13]
and charged with
failure to obey a police order
.
[14]
A
class action
lawsuit against the government ensued.
[15]
Pre-emptive mass arrests
have also sometimes been criticized.
[16]
Over 1,700 protesters were arrested during the
2004 Republican National Convention
in New York City.
[17]
On October 1, 2011, more than 700 protesters with the
Occupy Wall Street
movement were arrested while attempting to march across the bridge on the roadway.
[18]
On January 28, 2012,
more than 400 people were arrested at Oakland
.
During a seven-day span on Capitol Hill, from April 11 through April 18, 2016 police arrested approximately 1,240 people (300 arrests were made on April 18 alone) who were demonstrating for reforms to how Americans vote and campaign in elections.
[19]
War crime
[
edit
]
Indiscriminate mass arrests were designated a
war crime
in 1944 by a commission on war crimes created by the
London International Assembly
. Thar was one of two items added by that Commission to the list of war crimes that had been drawn up by the
Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties
in 1919. Specifically, "indiscriminate mass arrests for the purpose of terrorizing the population" were designated as war crimes by the commission.
[20]
At the Netherlands temporary
court martial
in 1947, several members of the
tokkeitai
in the
Netherlands East Indies
were accused of the war crime of indiscriminate mass arrests. The applicable legislation, used by the court, was the NEI Statute Book Decree #44 of 1946, whose definition of war crimes paralleled the commission's list. Specifically, item #34 of the enumerated list of war crimes under the NEI legislation was "indiscriminate mass arrests for the purpose of terrorising the population, whether described as taking hostages or not". The court understood the definition of such unlawful mass arrests to be as "arrests of groups of persons firstly on the ground of wild rumours and suppositions, and secondly without definite facts and indications being present with regard to each person which would justify his arrest". It added commentary on indiscriminate mass arrests that are for the purpose of terrorizing the populace by stating that they "contained the elements of systematic terrorism for nobody, even the most innocent, was any longer certain of his liberty, and a person once arrested, even if absolutely innocent, could no longer be sure of health and life".
[21]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Lee, Trymaine (June 24, 2007),
"Mass Arrest of Brooklyn Youths Spotlights Tactics"
,
The New York Times
- ^
Fenton, Justin (June 23, 2010),
"City poised to approve 'mass arrest' settlement with NAACP, ACLU"
,
The Baltimore Sun
, archived from
the original
on October 10, 2017
- ^
Richard L. Holcomb (Dec 1964),
The Police Role in Racial Conflicts by Juby E. Towler
, vol. 55, The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, p. 540,
JSTOR
1140912
- ^
Seiyei Wakukawa (Feb 13, 1946), "Japanese Tenant Movements",
Far Eastern Survey
,
15
(3): 40?44,
doi
:
10.2307/3022364
,
JSTOR
3022364
- ^
Amry Vandenbosch (Nov 1952),
The Purge of Dutch Quislings; Emergency Justice in the Netherlands. by Henry L. Mason
, vol. 14, The Journal of Politics, pp. 751?752,
JSTOR
2126459
- ^
"Mass arrests before India rally"
.
BBC News
. 2011-03-10
. Retrieved
2017-10-20
.
- ^
Jill Mahoney & Ann Hui (29 June 2010).
"G20-related mass arrests unique in Canadian history"
.
The Globe and Mail
. theglobeandmail.com. Archived from
the original
on 2010-07-28
. Retrieved
2012-04-05
.
- ^
Nathan Glazer (Mar 25, 1967), "Student Protest in the U S",
Economic and Political Weekly
,
2
(12): 601?605,
JSTOR
4357739
- ^
Page 5 "Vietnam Demonstrations: 1971 Year in Review, United Press International Accessed 2009-04-13.
Archived
2009-05-03 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
1971 Year in Review Archived United Press International 2009-05-05
.
- ^
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter, 1977, Book 1: January 20 to June 24, 1977, p. 346
- ^
Rachel Coen (November?December 2002),
Another Day, Another Mass Arrest
, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
- ^
Activists Decry Police Intimidation in Anti-Globalization Protests
, Agence France Presse, October 1, 2002, archived from
the original
on October 7, 2012
, retrieved
July 24,
2010
- ^
Final Report Relative to Complaints of Alleged Misconduct Made at the October 24, 2002, Hearing of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Council of the District of Columbia Concerning the IMF/World Bank Protest
, archived from
the original
on October 6, 2010
- ^
"Barham Settlement"
. Archived from
the original
on 2010-06-18.
- ^
"Leading article: Mass arrests have no place in a democratic country"
,
The Independent
, 14 April 2009
- ^
Jarrett Murphy (September 3, 2004).
"A Raw Deal For RNC Protesters?"
.
CBS News
.
- ^
Baker, Al; Moynihan, Colin; Nir, Sarah Maslin (October 1, 2011).
"Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
2011-12-11
.
- ^
Marcos, Cristina (2016-04-18).
"Capitol Hill arrests in pro-democracy protest hit 1,240"
.
The Hill
. Retrieved
2017-10-20
.
- ^
Lyal S. Sunga
(1992).
Individual responsibility in international law for serious human rights violations
. International studies in human rights. Vol. 21. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 25?26.
ISBN
978-0-7923-1453-0
.
- ^
United Nations War Crimes Commission
(1997). "Trial of Shigeki Motomura and 15 others".
Law reports of trials of war criminals
. Vol. 1?5. Wm S. Hein Publishing. pp. 138?145.
ISBN
978-1-57588-403-5
.