Salt Lake City protest stopped after organizer’s arrest

A planned protest Thursday against police violence ended early after an organizer was arrested for allegedly interfering with officers in what police say is a continuing trend.

But a motorist who stopped said he stopped to start filming because he was concerned that officers appeared to be violent during the arrest in downtown Salt Lake City.

“They were kneeling over a man, and I thought in this weather I should stop,” said Laja Field.

Salt Lake City police spokesman Greg Wilking said officers had detained an oncoming driver near Washington Square, and while officers were dealing with the motorist, the protester entered the highway at 500 South.

The protester was yelling and filming officers, creating a “danger” by distracting them from the driver, Wilking said. The man could also have prevented other drivers from being on the road, making the situation a threat to public safety, he said.

Wilking said filming the police is not illegal, but standing on the street and distracting officers from a traffic stop is. He said the man’s alleged behavior was troubling because it was the second time in two days that protesters had hampered the police response. On Wednesday, Wilking said, a small group separated from the protesters and interfered with officers, and later paramedics, who were trying to provide medical assistance to a man.

He added that officers use the necessary force to get suspects to comply. The man arrested Thursday was charged with interfering with an arresting officer, a class B misdemeanor, and was being held on $ 1,360 bail.

Field said that when he got out of his car, he approached the officers and yelled out to ask what they were doing. Officers looked at her as “deer in the headlights,” she said, and left the protester shortly after that.

In a video Field recorded, the man yells that he was only filming the police when they arrested him. “All because I filmed them when they were trying to hurt someone,” says the man in the video as officers put him in a police vehicle.

About 40 people were in Washington Square, around the Salt Lake City City Hall, for a demonstration that organizers suspended after the arrest. Protesters had planned to bang pots and pans to make noise outside City Hall before a short march.

Natalie Blanton, who was at the protest, told The Salt Lake Tribune that the arrest scared protesters, who she said felt the police are trying to attack them, especially the most vocal members.

“They are trying to make a statement,” he said, “and it felt like harassment.”

He said that about 20 minutes after protesters learned that the man had been arrested, police drove back to the plaza with the rear windows of their vehicle lowered a few inches and the arrested man yelled at protesters.

She said the police car left when protesters approached. “And it felt so intentional, hanging it in front of us,” she said. Another protester, Kate Comstock, said she saw and heard the same event.

Wilking said officers passed through the plaza after the man’s arrest because they initially took him to police headquarters and took the route past the park when they took him to jail.

He said the man had asked officers to roll down the window because it was hot, and police agreed on the condition that he not yell at protesters when they passed through the park. And then the man yelled out the window, Wilking said.