No, that's completely incorrect. There's a law that states you cannot trample all over one specific area of land. Nobody was asked to stop assembling. Nobody was told they couldn't peacefully assemble. They were told, "Hey, this spot is off limits...please walk across the street (roads closed for your safety!) to the area that isn't restricted by previously existing laws." Something that the SCOTUS has said is perfectly acceptable. Much like a city can say that the public park closes at 10, so protests must vacate by 10 (but can return upon open the next morning!).
You are correct as far as I can tell.
However, bear in mind that abuses do occur.
The whole, "ots illegal to sit down and hold an umbrella" bit in Washington was going too far.
There's lots of places where structures are forbidden. Even a beach umbrella.
It dickish to forbid in an area with regular heavy rainfall, but they wouldn't allow an EZUp on a sunny day/clear night either. (Assuming they aren't selectively enforcing)
But calling out the wording of the law to ticket people for sitting down while holding an open umbrella is assinine.
And from what I've seen, individual conduct notwithstanding, and subject to revision on further information, I have to give this one to the cops.
If, as it appears, the protesters were instructed to stay off the fresh sod, to prevent costly damage (a legitimate concern if true), then did so anyway, then the cops were doing as instructed and the protesters got arrested.
"Its a fair cop." in keeping with the Monty Python theme.
I've worked a lot of events and actually served as a LE liason for the Rainbow Gatherings.
Crowd control is complex and unpredictable. A little leeway on the side of LE is appropriate. Watching all the videos posted from the demonstrations show all the things I've seen before. Cops being dicks standing right next to cops comporting themselves respectfully. (Note this as you watch videos, polite, respectful cops get better compliance than rude, bullying cops. Check it out for yourself, its real clear in one of the videos I've seen posted here)
And as a liason, LE would provide me with instructions regarding whatever the issue is and it became our responsibility to get everybody to comply. With that event it was usually something like a trail too close to a stream is damaging the bank so a crew would have to deal with it or traffic would have to be re-routed. One year they suited up in riot gear to move on a parking area, but we had enough warning and had so many people standing about awaiting instructions on how to comply that their operation failed miserably, leaving a whole lot of cops standing around in the hot sun in riot gear with no hippies to beat. Which they had clearly been eager to do at the beginning. It was pretty funny, actually.
So lss, while I support the protests i also understand the problems being addressed by LE as well, so I'm sure its going to sound like I'm taking the ant-protesters side.
I'm not, you're sure to see me speak when the cops or their bosses **** up too. I have already.