Treatment of arrested M-20 protesters by SFPD

The arrest of myself and approx. 80 other marchers for civil disobedience was absurd but remarkably lacking in injury and harrassment by the police squads. Much of this I believe due to the effectiveness of the protestors arrested in not challenging the police directly and being more interested in emphasizing the ridiculous nature of the entire affair by playing along with the theatrical display of the synchronized stormtroopers and allowing them to feel unthreatened.

We were taken to the detention facility at 8th and something, whatever the address of the main police facility downtown and held outside in the garage/loading area which is covered by metal fencing and heavily inaccessable to escape. The cops corralled us into separate pens made up of metal barricades, one for women and one for men, although in the same space.
We were held in this facility for roughly four hours and then progressively released as paperwork was completed and citations issued.
The police were generally civil throughout the whole affair, with the most arrogant activity coming at the very beginning of the whole process when they cordoned off the final intersected of the march and proceeded to isolate those of us still on the street, progressively encroaching upon our space and forcefully herding us into a smaller and smaller space. After this they seemed to mellow out a smidgeon and soak up their apparent victory over the nefarious protesters.

Treatment in the detention garage was decent with no real aggressiveness by the police, save for an occasional snide remark, quite bratty they were.

In conclusion for our hellacious audacity to disrupt traffic we were all issued citations for blocking traffic, blocking pedestrian traffic, and refusing to remove ourselves to the sidewalk when ordered. "It's easy", one of the cops remarked to me as he was loading me on to the cattle car, "all you have to do is follow orders and do as you're told. It's that simple." Gee, that's all I have to do in life and all will be well, who would've thought?

Some protesters were offered the possibility of staying in jail if they had nowhere to go, they would have had to remain in jail until Tuesday if doing so. I don't know if anybody actually followed up on this, it didn't seem so.

Technically we are all summoned to appear in court over the next few weeks, I was given the date of April 8th and am not sure what dates other folks were given. Certainly an organized legal strategy would do, as I am not from the Bay area I do not know what the court system is like here and how they treat civil disobediece cases, please contact me if you are involved and know what to expect.