Pre-school teacher arrested on camera seconds after Venezuela protest interview

A preschool teacher who had just finished speaking on television about Trump and US military action in Venezuela found herself led away in handcuffs moments later.

Jessica Plichta was attending a demonstration in Grand Rapids on Saturday when police moved in just as she wrapped up an interview with ABC’s affiliate WZZM.

The protest followed reports that the US military had detained Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in Caracas earlier that day, reports Daily Beast.

Footage from the broadcast shows two officers approaching Plichta from behind as she ended the interview. They took her away as she calmly told them: “I am not resisting arrest.”

The outlet reported that an officer cited obstructing a roadway and failure to obey a lawful command.

Plichta questioned the timing of the arrest. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as soon as I finished an interview speaking on Venezuela, I was arrested,” she told Zeteo.

Plichta said officers repeatedly asked whether she was Venezuelan, what her connection to the country was and why she had attended the protest. She claimed they also pressed her to identify other demonstrators.