Dare to Struggle Announces Mass Meeting, Saying Activists Were “Arrested for Speaking Out Against Police”

The activist group, Dare to Struggle, has announced a mass meeting event after, it alleges, three of its activists were arrested by New Britain Police, two just before a protest the group was organizing. The group is alleging that the activists were, “arrested for speaking out against police brutality and mistreatment of homeless people.”

The group has said online that, “Three Dare to Struggle CT members were arrested to stop us from protesting a ‘National Night Out’ copaganda cookout.” In a statement, the group said that two activists were arrested, “within an hour of the start time of the ‘National Night Out’ event sponsored by the NBPD, which we had posted plans to protest.”

The group alleges, “Notably, the warrants thrown together on the 5th were tied to an unrelated incident from several days prior. We exposed these arrests for what they were: blatant and outrageous attempts to silence activists for speaking out against police brutality and the mistreatment of the homeless. In doing so, we made it clear that those attempts to silence us were futile and that we will continue to protest and expose this political repression and the cruelty of NBPD.”

In a written statement, Dare to Struggle said that,

One of the arrested activists spoke about how they “responded to a knock at the door where 2 plainclothes NBPD officers said that they had a warrant out for my arrest, I said I need to go get my phone to record this interaction, but before I can even turn around Officer Soucie yanked me by the arm out of my house and handcuffed me on my stoop. I said I wanted to see a warrant and he said we don’t carry warrants around in case we lose them.” The activist had to go on their word that they were cops, and not two random men there to kidnap her.

In the same statement, the group said that,

The second activist said that “For a whole hour … at least 3 cop cars, 2 unmarked, surveilled me, staking out my house, waiting for me to leave … over a breach of peace charge citing an event 5 days prior. They treated me like I had a warrant for manslaughter, when really it’s NBPD who have been repeatedly murdering, harassing, and brutalizing people.”

Comment was requested from New Britain Police Chief Matthew Marino.

The mass meeting is planned for Sunday, August 17th, starting at 1:00pm at the Band Shell in Walnut Hill park.

Editor’s note: The cover photo is from the Dare to Struggle press statement.