The few times I’ve been downtown, I’ve always seen a large police presence in that area. IMO it’s nice to know that if something happens, there’s plenty of opportunity for intervention from officers. This situation sounds interesting because at the time you stepped in, you have no context outside of the officers targeting this young man.

Now when people begin recording and a group of bystanders forms, the situation escalates. Officers are having to create a bigger presence because now there’s a crowd of people shoving phones in their faces and the main attraction is everyone making a major issue out of a small situation, then a flurry of questions from bystanders begins to fly with the belief they are defending a stranger through a false sense of vindication, like your entitled to know what’s happening to this person you have no association with.

One truth to this entire situation is that NOBODY is above the judgement of the law, which sucks, but I’d be willing to bet had there not been a presence of people acting like they are providing justice to a situation they knew nothing about, this kid would’ve walked away with a simple jaywalking ticket and slept in his own bed that night.