Then Mrs. Carter raised her voice from across the street. "He offered me three times what my house was worth last week. I told him I wasn't selling. The next day a man came to inspect my property for violations that don't exist."
Others began speaking. Mrs. Martinez said her brother had been detained in his own yard after refusing to answer questions about vacant houses. Mr. Washington described a series of traffic stops following his refusal of a purchase offer. Sarah Thompson held up a folded notice concerning a parking citation that had appeared on her door the same morning a Vision Heights representative called. The stories overlapped, imperfect and angry, but they formed a picture that was no longer Angela's alone.
Holt stepped nearer, close enough that Angela could hear him without the microphones. "You think you've figured something out," he said. "You think that makes you untouchable."
"No," Angela replied. "I think it makes this something more than a fugitive search."
He turned away and ordered Griggs to arrest her for obstruction. Griggs pulled Angela's hands behind her back, fastened the cuffs too tightly, and forced her toward the nearest patrol car. She asked whether she was under arrest and what she was being charged with, then repeated that she was not resisting; no one answered beyond an angry instruction to keep walking. The longer Holt refused to identify a specific suspect, the harder it became for the officers nearest the porch to hide their uncertainty.
Angela was shoved against the cruiser and then down to the pavement when an officer claimed she had pulled away. Her knees struck first, followed by her shoulder, and she felt the rough surface scrape her cheek. Griggs pressed a knee against her back while telling the crowd she had resisted arrest, although the recordings would later show her cuffed hands and the sequence of his movements. For one painful moment, the old instincts she used to rely on urged her to move in ways that might get him off her. She stayed still instead, focusing on breathing and repeating clearly that she could not move her cuffed arms.
"She's not resisting!" Mrs. Carter shouted. "She's not doing anything!"
Someone else yelled for an ambulance. Holt ordered Angela lifted and placed in the cruiser, while other officers tried to clear the sidewalk of witnesses. Angela's telephone had fallen several feet away, the line with Marcus still active, and she heard his voice coming from it as Griggs pushed her into the back seat. Marcus was asking whether anyone could hear him and requesting an officer's name.
Holt walked toward the phone. He looked at its illuminated screen, then at the watching neighbors, and brought his boot down on it hard enough to break the display. The sharp crack carried across the street, and several people caught the movement on video. Holt made no attempt to pretend it was an accident. Instead, he looked toward the patrol car and ordered Griggs to take his prisoner to the station.