Just because in the US we slap the catch-all "Disturbing the peace" charge on folks doesn't mean it's much better than the Chinese.

Disturbing the peace comes from the Anglo-Saxon common law breach of the (King’s) peace[1]. Certainly, it’s a very broad law that I have seen overused and abused by British police (as another disturbing example of police acting badly) but you’ll need a more specific complaint for it or its application to be used in the same breath as the behaviour of China’s government towards its citizens.

People arrested for disturbing the peace in the US won’t disappear or end up in a re-education camp where their organs may be harvested.[2] Hong Kongers are certainly fighting for the right to remain under common law, there’s a clear difference in theory and practice.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_(law)

[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-china-rights-idUS...

This. While it's sad that we wait till we can pin these activities on the other party, it's good to see us finally acknowledging the problem. I almost hope Trump wins the next election because if Biden does we'll all go back to ignoring these kinds of problems.

I think if trump wins the next election is unlikely we will have any more meaningful elections.

If they'd committed whatever crime 'disturbing the peace' is then they would be charged with that, not released. The fact they were released without charge is evidence enough that they shouldn't have been arrested in the first place.

I don't think people are trying to stick it to Trump. People have been angry about police brutality and police killing black civilians for a long time. The LA riots were 30 years ago, and things haven't really changed that much since then - there are still cases of the police killing people with far too much regularity. This is a political issue, but it's one that crosses party boundaries. People are only really angry about Trump because he's in office at the moment; if it was a different president they'd be angry at him.

The guy you're replying to states flat out that (he believes) the police are correct, and the Portland DA is refusing to press charges for political reasons unrelated to whether any crime actually took place.

In effect, he's arguing that rioting has been decriminalised in Portland without any popular vote and without any explicit decision ever having been made. If that's true it's unsurprising the police keep arresting people and they keep being released. The issue there wouldn't be the police. If Portland wants riots to be legal when the rioters support leftist causes, they should explicitly adjust the local laws to allow it.

That said, the link they provide states the guy was released "on own recognizance" which basically means he promised to turn up in court at a future date, albeit with no bail money paid. So it doesn't say charges were dropped.