Police in Minneapolis have kettled upwards of a thousand people on the freeway, and have begun making arrests of trapped protesters. They’ve stated that everyone attending the protest is under arrest for unlawful assembly and public nuisance. https://www.pscp.tv/w/cnIH8jFheVFWdmRWUmdWUXB8MU1ZeE5WbFFsa294dx4w-RIrSvngmUAIHZ79NdwDj0nAIUi1ReAhUTrw-hgA

Protesters tonight were not given dispersal orders before being kettled and mass arrested.

Last night, a much smaller protest march in Minneapolis was also surrounded and mass arrested without warnings or a chance to leave.

Typical police procedure and training for crowd control calls for 3 dispersal orders before declaring an unlawful assembly at a protest. Minneapolis Police and Minnesota State Patrol appear to have departed from this norm lately, both tonight and last night.

We can only estimate the size of the crowd but it’s safe to say that Minnesota State Patrol (presumably also Minneapolis Police and various other agencies) are carrying out over 500 arrests tonight

Protesters told us they were heading towards an exit on the freeway to leave I-94; instead of letting them leave and reopening traffic, police opted to surround them and are continuing to flood massive amounts of officers and vehicles onto the highway.

State Troopers have indicated media may not be arrested but it appears that they are intent on arresting every single protester present. Arrest teams are slowly processing individuals one at a time, this mass arrest will likely drag on for hours.

Several families are here, it appears Minnesota State Patrol will be mass arresting entire families. Parents are expressing concern for the safety of their children, who will likely be separated from them as police continue to process the protest crowd they’ve trapped here.

When officers started to surround the group, protest organizers’ attempts to speak with them was met with silence.

A federal riot police training course used across the US, which we released in 2016, calls for dispersal orders before declaring an unlawful assembly: https://unicornriot.ninja/2016/trumps-fema-train-local-police-field-force-crackdowns-inauguration-nsse-nears/

Our reporter & others heard no such order given tonight - likely a deliberate choice by MSP/MPD command.

Full PDF of 'Mobile Field Force' (translation: riot police) manual issued by FEMA Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP): https://www.unicornriot.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/9-14-16-email-attachment-Crowd-Control.pdf

Dispersal orders became a national policing norm after class action lawsuits over illegal mass arrests at protests in the early 2000s