I was arrested yesterday and held for over twelve hours before they
released me without charge. Here's what's been happening, and some
suggestions.

They are taking polaroid pictures of people as they are arrested, with
a sign that indicates what you have been arrested for, and your case
number or some such. Sometimes they have asked for your name at that
point, for others not. You are then herded onto a bus, taken to Pier
27, or to 850 Bryant. At the pier, where I was, you are herded into a
pen where they then try to match up your photo with you. They would
either yell out a name, if they had one, or show people pictures and
ask them to say `that's me' or `I know them, let me get them.' If they
do not have your name, your photo is ALL they have to match YOU with
what you are being held for, the police file, etc. This is what
happened to me: they lost my picture and didn't deal with me until
they were trying to get everybody out of the pens, when they released
me with a slip saying that I had only been detained, not arrested.

I hope this is clear. Here is my suggestion, which might work,
assuming they continue to process people in this manner, a suggestion
of how the system might be clogged enough to render it useless. First,
don't indentify yourself when they photograph you. This forces them to
match your face to your photograph. Second, after you are taken to a
pen, do not assist the police in locating you or anybody in the
pen. Turn away from the sides, and get the others in the pen to
do likewise. Force the police to pull people out one by one.

The purpose of this is to keep them from moving quickly. The system
that they are using is inefficient enough as it is. It would probably
be made useless if the arrrested would not aid the police, either by
identifying others or self-identifying. The police will most likely
be forced to pull out each person, and then match them with a
photo. This means that for each person, they will have to search
through hundreds of photographs to find them. Additionally, if
arrestees don't say `yes, that's me,' they will have even more trouble
matching person to photo. (That is, one could be non-committal: is this
you? I don't know, could be. Hard to tell.)

Of course, if those arrested refuse to give their names entirely this
would probably help, but even if they identify themselves in the end,
by not actively aiding the police in the processing of arrestees, it
will take a great deal longer.

It is my hypothesis that on Thursday, they slowed down arresting when
it became clear that they couldn't process all those arrested. So
later in the day arrests slacked off. If it is slowed down ever more,
you prevent further arrests. More people on the street means greater
effectiveness.

Of course, this will work best in the mass arrests scenarios which we
saw on Thursday, and will probably not see again. Note also that I am not a lawyer, and can't tell you the legal implications of this. Perhaps people who know a lawyer could consult them.
--X.E. Volia