Occupy Protests and Cops

Since this blog is a place for my contemplations and ramblings, I thought it was a perfect place for this.

I've been thinking a lot about Occupy Wall Street and Occupy D.C. I even visited their websites and looked at news posts about what they've been doing, what celebrities have been showing up and who has been arrested. A lot of people have been commenting about how the police are just arresting people for no reason and taking away their first amendment rights to free speech. So here's the question:

Is it a violation of the First Amendment to be arrested while you are protesting?

My Answer: It depends.

So I ask another question, In each case what are they getting arrested for?

• Author Naomi Wolf - http://preview.tinyurl.com/3gqwk77
• Police was ordering the protesters to stay off the streets and to stop blocking the side walks
• Wolf told the police the protestors didn't need a permit for the megaphone and they were not blocking the sidewalk.
• Police told Naomi Wolf to leave. She stayed.

Without knowing what she was arrested for, there's really no way to answer whether or not it was right for the police to arrest her. But from the video I can see that the police officer gave her a direct order to leave the premises. As far as I am aware, it is unlawful to disobey a direct order from the police. It is not free speech to disobey a police officer. And to be honest, he did give her fair warning that she was going to be arrested for disobeying him, which he didn't have to do. So I would have to say, specifically for disobeying the police officer Naomi Wolf was arrested legally and rightfully.