Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s guest for the State of the Union address was removed from the chamber during President Trump’s speech and later arrested.
“My guest, Aliya Rahman, stood up silently in the gallery during the president’s speech for a short period of time, part of which other guests were also standing. For that, she was forcibly removed, despite warning officers about her injured shoulders and ultimately charged with ‘Unlawful Conduct,’" Omar said in a statement.
Rahman, a Bangladeshi American, was dragged out of her vehicle by federal agents in Minneapolis last month on the way to a medical appointment. Rahman testified at a Congressional forum that she was dragged through the street and suffered severe injuries to her shoulders, leaving her unable to lift her arms normally.
Omar claims Rahman was treated aggressively again last night.
“Reports indicate she was aggressively handled until someone intervened to secure medical attention. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital for treatment and later booked at the United States Capitol Police headquarters,” Omar said. "The heavy-handed response to a peaceful guest sends a chilling message about the state of our democracy. I am calling for a full explanation of why this arrest occurred.”
I see. My initial reaction was “aren’t there psych holds for situations where people are unstable/ a danger to themself or others, but haven’t committed any crimes yet?”
But the first example sounds like some sort of incitement to panic, which some states have laws about (like shouting “fire!” in a movie theater). So I’m surprised it was just a disorderly conduct.
The second example depends a lot on context which I obviously don’t have so I can’t really make a judgement, but depending on how far things escalated and what sort of history they had, it sounds like it could be either a case for a psychiatric hold, a protective order, or some type of domestic violence or credible threat charge. But depending on the degree of escalation I could see “disorderly conduct” over psychiatric hold. I’m not the judge though and I don’t know the details of the case, nor am I a lawyer, so take it with a grain of salt
I have no idea if “Fire!” in a crowded theater is covered by a different statute or not in my state without looking it up, but yes, Disorderly Conduct would be what I would use in that scenario too. Getting too specific with a statute can result in the defendant getting off on a technicality. You make the arrest for F.S.S. 69.420 “Fire In A Crowded Theater” and then in trial a year later it turns out “crowded” per case law is 100+ people, but the theater only had 99 that day.
Involuntary psychiatric holds tend to ruin people’s lives much more than a simple non-violent misdemeanor arrest, not to mention you have to demonstrate there is an imminent risk of harm and they appear mentally ill.
Imminent Risk of Harm - Kinda? I’d call it probable risk of harm in the next few hours or days.
Mental Illness - Certainly not, they were just angry at each other.