Michigan’s El-Sayed Said He Did ‘Time’ After His Arrest at a Minimum Wage Protest. He Got a Ticket, Records Show.

El-Sayed, running for Senate in Michigan, has used the story in an attempt to court labor union support

The left-wing candidate in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Abdul El-Sayed, told a labor union audience last month that he put his “body on the line” and did “time” after being arrested at a minimum wage protest in 2018. Police records show that he was briefly detained in a police van and promptly released with a misdemeanor ticket—and the charges were dropped a few months later.

“I put my body on the line and took an arrest,” El-Sayed said at a United Auto Workers (UAW) conference in February. “And I didn’t take the politician’s arrest, where they, like, turn around and drop you off. No, I took the whole arrest. Did my time.”

But police records show El-Sayed didn’t serve any jail time for the October 2, 2018, incident, in which he helped protesters block a traffic lane in front of a Detroit McDonald’s.

According to the police report, El-Sayed and a handful of other protesters had set up a “table and chairs” in the middle of a traffic lane. They were “advised several times to move out of the street by police officers but refused to do so,” and were “arrested without incident for disorderly conduct.” They were taken in a police van to the Detroit Detention Center, where they were “issued [citations] and released.” The report notes that the subjects were “not finger printed.”

El-Sayed was ordered by a judge to pay a $200 fine, and the charges were dropped a few months later, according to court records.

El-Sayed did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident took place two months after El-Sayed lost his Democratic primary campaign for the governor’s race by more than 20 points. The politician joined the October 2, 2018, Service Employees International Union “Fight for $15” rally for a $15 minimum wage outside a McDonald’s, part of a series of protests around the country that had led to high-publicity arrests for “civil disobedience.”

The UAW forum marked just one of the several dramatic accounts of the eight-year-old episode El-Sayed has given on the trail. He posted a campaign video in January about the arrest, in which his former campaign lawyer said the incident was proof he would “make a great President.”

“Here’s Abdul El-Sayed on my screen, in handcuffs, getting loaded into the paddy wagon,” said the attorney Gordana Misovski. “And I just sort of stopped, my jaw fell to the floor, and I thought, ‘Oh, God, why are you there? What are you doing?’”

Misovski said she told El-Sayed she could make the misdemeanor charges “go away” and get him a “better deal than the other protesters.” He declined in “solidarity” with the “people,” said Misovski.

“He spoke for the people that day,” said Misovski.

El-Sayed also sent out a fundraising email about the incident last month with the subject line, “I got arrested.”

“I didn’t go looking to cause trouble, and I certainly didn’t expect to end up loaded into a police car that day,” he said in the email. “I was there because people were fighting for dignity, and it mattered to stand with them.”

He added that “when my lawyer asked whether I wanted to try to get my own charge dismissed, my answer was simple: It’s everybody or nobody.”

The email, and his reference to a “politician’s arrest,” appear to be a swipe at fellow progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), who also drew publicity for getting arrested at the same 2018 protest. Tlaib left the scene in a black police SUV—instead of on the police bus with other arrestees—and wasn’t charged.

News footage from the day shows El-Sayed smiling, joking with a police officer, and giving interviews as he was led onto a police bus with a small group of union activists who had refused officers’ requests to stop blocking the traffic lane.

The arrest didn’t appear to impact El-Sayed’s other plans for the day. A few hours later, he gave a lecture to students at Oakland University, according to WXYZ-TV Detroit. A reporter from the station asked him point-blank “if this was a publicity stunt.”

“I had no intention of being arrested,” said El-Sayed. “I was there to be with the people.”

WDIV-TV Detroit reported that the protesters appeared to seek out the arrests, saying “it was fairly obvious this is the ending they wanted.”