The video above has been making the rounds all day. It shows Catholic priests and pro-life demonstrators being arrested outside the Pepsi Center in Denver.

The Denver Post describes what happened:

Denver police arrested 13 anti-abortion protesters after they sat down in the street near an entrance to the Pepsi Center grounds early this afternoon.

Randall Terry, national director of Operation Rescue in Washington, DC., led about 30 protesters in prayer at the corner of 14th and Market Streets in lower downtown, then explained to them how the police would react once they sat down in the street. Getting arrested was entirely voluntary, he said, but warned them they would definitely be arrested once police tell them three times to clear the intersection. A group of about 15 heavily armed Aurora police officers watched from across the street.

The protesting group marched across Cherry Creek to Auraria Parkway, which was barricaded as an entrance into the Pepsi Center grounds. As police denied them entrance, about a dozen people sat down on the pavement and began to pray.

“A vote for Obama and Biden is a vote to sustain legalized child killing,” Terry shouted. “The police are enforcing the laws of obstructing traffic yet they won’t enforce the laws against the killing of children.”

Walking around the disturbance were a number of delegates and politicians, including Rep.Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs; and Jared Polis, who just won the primary for Udall’s seat; shaking hands with well wishers but not commenting about the arrests.

As Terry spoke, a Denver police lieutenant warned the group three times to get off the street or face arrest. After the third warning, officers brought in a large prisoner bus and began handcuffing those still sitting in the street. Terry was arrested, along with the Rev. Norman Weslin, an elderly Catholic priest who founded the Lambs of Christ.

Those arrested were processed at the scene, then loaded on the bus.

Roman Catholic priest Fr. Jeremy Paulin, who is assigned to the Holy Ghost parish in downtown Denver, watched from the sidewalk while holding up an anti-abortion sign.

“I chose to come and pray as a witness to the sanctity of life,” he said. “But I choose not to be arrested because of other responsibilities I have in my parish.”

Fr. Tom Carzon, also of Holy Ghost Church, said he also was concerned about duties at the parish, adding jokingly, “I don’t have coverage for the weekend.”

On a more serious note, Fr. Carzon said, “This isn’t a political protest. This is a human issue, a civil rights issue.”

The protesters were charged with obstruction of a public street and disobeying a lawful order, both misdemeanors.

A police spokeswoman emphasized to the media that all of those arrested were first asked if they chose to be arrested and individually they all responded yes.

UPDATE: A reader wonders why I’m so surprised that “these damn fools” (his words, not mine) were arrested because, after all, they were breaking the law. I’m not surprised at all and, imho, they got what they deserved. I posted the video and the story to let people put the incident in context and draw their own conclusions.

My conclusion: The cops treated them fairly and decently. But the protesters were gathering where they weren’t allowed to, in the middle of a public street, near a major national event involving a candidate for president. In an age when you can’t carry liquids onto an airplane, and when nuns are being frisked at airline terminal checkpoints, it’s not unreasonable for cops to crack down on anyone who intentionally and deliberately sets out to break the law. Especially when, 48 hours earlier, they’d broken up an assassination plot against the candidate.