Robert Small's protest at the Common Core meeting in Baltimore County was to question the state's new education policy ("Forum on Common Core yields a lesson in free speech," Sept. 24). However, the public should now also have a heightened awareness of the trumped up criminal charges our citizens face every day when arrested by police, whether in Baltimore County, Baltimore City or elsewhere.

I watched the video of Mr. Small's arrest on The Baltimore Sun's website and saw that Mr. Small was violently tugged on and pushed by the officer. Yet Mr. Small was somehow charged with assaulting a police officer? This is the same day that Baltimore City's Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez announced that "stop and frisk" will now be called an "investigatory stop."

Maybe what I saw on video was just Mr. Small being "investigated" by police at the Common Core meeting. Just another reason why all police and citizen encounters should be videotaped.

Robert J. Leonard, Timonium