Capital Region, NY (News10) – There have been a number of protests across the Capital Region — including at this location here right off Wolf Road — as people express frustration with ICE. In light of this, local experts weighed in on what you can and can’t do to protest safely and remain in your rights.
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“Protest needs to be peaceful, to be effective once it becomes disorganized and disorderly, is totally lost its cause,” said Former Troy Police Captain John Cooney. Having worked his share of protests in the past, he said the same laws that apply in everyday life, like stopping at crosswalks and not blocking road traffic, apply while protesting.
“It may sound trivial to say protesters need to wait for the walk sign, but they do because if they don’t, they start to obstruct,” he said. “Obstruction is taking their right to protest, to what we have to look at as illegal activity and encroachment upon our duties. And we’ll act accordingly.”
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Cooney said in most cases, that means just an inquiry or a command to leave the area to step back on the sidewalk. But you don’t want to cross the line between protesting and obstructing police from doing their jobs. If you do, you can be detained for questioning, and if there’s probable cause — you can be arrested.
“That’s going to happen if you make yourself stand out, if you do something that brings the attention of law enforcement to you, they will act upon that,” Cooney explained. “If they have information that leads them to believe they need to detain you for further investigation, you need to accept that premise. You won’t be beat. You won’t be thrown in a jail cell. You’ll be walked away and talked to, and the investigation will go in that direction.”…