Registered nurse fights collective punishment of Trump inauguration protesters

[turbinetree]

Britt Lawson, a registered nurse from Pittsburgh, traveled to Washington in January to serve as a volunteer medic for a weekend of protest activities against president-elect Donald Trump.

Lawson ended up spending most of the weekend incarcerated by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). She and more than 200 other people, including journalists and legal observers, were indiscriminately rounded up by police on inauguration day and thrown into jail.

“I went to D.C. to use the skills I’ve learned as a nurse in order to support and care for folks standing up against what I view as a system of violence and oppression that will be made worse under a Trump administration,” Lawson said in an interview.

In an unprecedented move, U.S. federal prosecutors turned what would have been a normal legal response to a protest — presenting charges to a court against specific protesters who engage in vandalism or violence — into a broader attack on dissent. They charged Lawson and her fellow arrestees — who have become known as the “J20” resistance — with several felonies that could send them to prison for more than 60 years.

https://thinkprogress.org/j20-defendants-face-trial/

[marybourg]

1. Bad on the prosecutors, but she's still - at the very worst -

going to get a trial, where the charges against her will have to be proven. We don't have collective punishment in this country.

[Achilleaze]

2. Here's your republican kristofascist control state evolving

They are using Police State tactics to destroy American democracy.

[Gothmog]

3. This is from the same AG who thinks that it is a crime to laugh at him

I hope that these protesters win their cases

[LiberalFighter]

4. The police are the ones that should be prosecuted.

[rockfordfile]

5. I agree on this topic