Mass arrest

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Mass arrest is when police arrest many people at once, usually during protests or to disrupt crime activity. It’s controversial and can lead to lawsuits. Because officers can’t remember everyone, authorities often plan how to identify those arrested.

History has many examples. In 1929, thousands of farmers were arrested in Japan. After World War II, Norway detained over 120,000 suspected collaborators. In the United States, the May Day protests of 1971 led to more than 12,000 arrests, the largest in U.S. history; in 2004 about 1,700 protesters were arrested at the Republican National Convention in New York; in 2011–2012 the Occupy movement produced hundreds of arrests; and in 2016 roughly 1,200 people were arrested on Capitol Hill during a voting-reform protest.

Indiscriminate mass arrests intended to terrorize people have been called war crimes by international bodies since 1944.