Hundreds Face Conspiracy Charges For Actions Of A Few Inauguration Day Protests..70 years in prison
This is a freaky scary clampdown on us. Hundreds Face Conspiracy Charges For Actions Of A Few During Inauguration Day Protests
When Texas photojournalist Alexei Wood goes to court in Washington, D.C., on November 15, he’ll be one of the first people to face charges stemming from protests around the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Wood and five others are being charged for their alleged involvement in what prosecutors are describing as a riot on the morning of January 20, hours before Trump was sworn in at on the Capitol steps. All nine defendants face up to 70 years in prison.
The case’s outcome could set a precedent that would affect all of the over 200 remaining defendants awaiting trial for the “J20? protests who face the same strict maximum sentence.
“The government doesn’t like this kind of activity in its city,” said Wood’s lawyer, Brett Cohen.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia did not respond to requests for comment, but information gleaned from the April 27 indictment indicates the sort of tactics the government will use against the defendants, who will be tried in staggered groups of around eight beginning November 15.
By charging everyone together with conspiracy counts, the government seems intent on making an example of the J20 protesters. “They’re prosecuting us as a group,” Wood said.
The government may attempt to force members of the same defense into a situation in which their aims conflict with one another. “Defendants have to be careful, regardless of how they feel about particular parts of the indictments, that the prosecution’s case not hurt their fellow co-defendants,” said Sam Menefee-Libey, spokesperson for the Dead City Legal Posse, a support network for J20 arrestees that provides housing, court support, and other services to assist in their navigation of the capital’s judicial system.
The conflation of the protesters as a whole with the alleged violent acts of a few in the crowd is worrying to Menefee-Libby. It would be a “radical departure” from a basic understanding of the law, Menefee-Libby said, if the government prosecutes people solely for their proximity to criminality. “Individuals can only be held responsible for their own behavior,” said Menefee-Libby, describing a fundamental tenet of the U.S. justice system.
That the government’s case does not differentiate between actors and bystanders could be an indication of future clampdowns on protest. “Even if we take the government at their word, that members of the protest had unlawful goals,” said attorney Shana Knizhnik, of the American Civil Liberties Union’s D.C. chapter, “it’s undeniable they also had lawful goals.”
https://theintercept.com/2017/10/25/trump-inauguration-protest-j20-trial/
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