Honolulu Police Department Chief Susan Ballard said she thought thousands of protesters were at Kapiolani Park on Saturday afternoon — dispatching dozens of officers to a peaceful Aloha Freedom Coalition event where 400-500 gathered at a rally in protest of COVID-19 health restrictions.

According to Ballard, approximately 40 officers were at the park during the event, where two arrests were made and HPD’s actions have come under scrutiny.

Videos posted online show peaceful protesters calling for calm as officers descended. Many became agitated by what appeared to be an unwarranted police presence that escalated to the arrests. In one of the videos, a handful of officers is seen forcing a woman facedown on her knees before she is taken into custody.

“The initial information was that there was like 4,500 people, and it was clarified that there was 400 to 500 people there,” Ballard said Monday in a scheduled 10-minute video interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “There was also actually another rally-type of thing that was going to happen later that afternoon, so our crime-reduction folks were on standby as well.”

The protesters were gathered at Kapiolani Park from 1 to 4 p.m. to represent Hawaii during an international “worldwide rally for freedom” opposing COVID-19- related health restrictions.

Kapiolani Park’s protest featured speakers, a comedy performance and hula dancers.

Gary Cordery, director of the coalition, said it included children and was entirely peaceful — a description Ballard also used.

There was no threat of violence, which Cordery said made the large police presence confusing.

“I talked to the police to let them know what we’re doing. In fact, to be more clear, they called me two days before and said, ‘We hear about your rally coming up. We wanted to check in. We know you guys, you always do peaceful stuff. We just want to make sure we’re touching bases,’” he said.

Cordery added that it was not just patrol officers who were at the park, noting that there were a few officers in “riot gear.” Ballard said Waikiki officers and crime reduction unit officers from three districts were present. CRU officers are part of HPD’s rapid deployment force, which responds to protests.

Cordery said he also saw a police paddy wagon nearby.

Videos posted online show police away from the protesters telling them via megaphone to stay 6 feet apart and wear face masks, in accordance with federal COVID-19 guidelines. Shortly after, while a speaker was addressing participants, police began walking through the crowd and could be seen issuing citations.

Most of the protesters in the videos were not wearing masks, and Ballard said one of the two arrests was of a man who refused to wear one. An officer was going to cite him, but then “he decided at that point that he wasn’t going to give any information.”

“The officers warned him that if he didn’t want to give them the information that he was going to be arrested, and they didn’t really want to arrest him,” she said.

Ballard’s description contrasts with a video that documented the two arrests. A handful of officers can be seen surrounding a man who was with a young child, although both were wearing face masks. The man was standing still for two minutes, with his hand in his pocket, before being taken away in handcuffs and separated from the child.

Meanwhile, the crowd had become increasingly frustrated with the police, over a dozen of whom had already formed a circle around a woman who was on the ground screaming as officers were arresting her. A separate video shows police struggling over a U.S. flag the woman was holding before a handful of officers forced her onto her knees, leaned over with her head pushed into the ground.

She can be seen confronting officers near the man who was being walked away in handcuffs.

Ballard described the second arrest as “obstructing government operations … because the person started grabbing the arm of the gentleman who was going to be arrested and was interfering with the arrest.”

Two citations were also issued, Ballard said, although she did not know for what.

Cordery said HPD’s more aggressive actions took place toward the end of the event, when half the crowd had already left. Even more confusing, he said, was that after the two arrests the police also left.

“They dragged these two off and it was like mission accomplished. They all backed off, and they knew the event was over,” he said. “By that time it was 3:50 (p.m.) — the last speaker was up there.”

The officers Cordery talked to after the arrests said they didn’t know why the arrests were made and that they didn’t want to be there, but that they were just “following the higher-ups.”

Despite some speakers at the event pushing conspiracies about the coronavirus, including one speaker who said, “COVID-19 is not a deadly disease; it’s a business plan,” Cordery emphasized that the coalition is not opposed to COVID-19 vaccines or related guidance to stop its spread, but rather the government mandates it believes is violating individual freedoms.

When asked whether she thought Saturday’s police presence was justified, Ballard said, “At the Police Department we tend to hope for the best, but we plan for the worst. Because if things broke out … and you don’t have the staffing needed, then officers are going to get injured. The community is going to get injured. I’d rather have enough people to handle, and if we don’t … then everybody just leaves and they move on.”