[temphn]

Read the full article. The policemen said they would not arrest the kids in the mob who had attacked them, despite multiple eyewitnesses pointing out this mob, ostensibly because of the lack of individual identifiability, but in reality because the policemen were afraid of being demagogued as "racists".

Easier to punish the guy digging up arrowheads.

[crux_]

I read the article. Directly before the excerpt you quoted, as related by the same individual, you have the following quotes:

a) "Most of the kids had left", b) "obviously at that point the people who had attacked you guys had run off"

So how, exactly, were the police to arrest the attackers?