It may come as a shock, but if you are a Black woman, you can be prosecuted for #lynching in Liberal California. It actually happened in January in Sacramento. Once one gets past the irony of the charge and the fact that when the legislature passes a bill that removes the charge from the possible choices prosecutors have, Hampton will not be exempt. Hopefully, the jury will look at this case and throw the irony right out.
A note to those who write about California… We’re a very long way from being a Liberal state. While we may show occasional flashes of progressivism, we ain’t there yet!
Protester arrested on Sacramento’s Capitol Mall faces ‘lynching’ charge
RLILLIS@SACBEE.COM
Maile Hampton, 20, was arrested at her home on Monday after Sacramento police said she tried to free a fellow protester from police custody at a Jan. 18 rally. Hampton faces a charge of felony “lynching,” the legal term associated with trying to free a prisoner from police custody. She also faces a charge of resisting arrest and is scheduled to be arraigned in Sacramento Superior Court on March 16, according to court records.
Hampton’s arrest drew more than two dozen protesters to Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. Many of those in attendance held small white signs with the message “FREE MAILE!!”
Black woman’s ‘lynching’ charge: an unsettling tactic to punish activism?
California law was passed in 1933 to prevent mobs from taking people from police custody but case of Maile Hampton and others suggest harsher attitudes toward those who speak up in the wake of Occupy and police brutality protests
Maile Hampton, the African American activist who was arrested for “lynching” after trying to pull a fellow protester away from police during a January rally against law enforcement brutality in Sacramento, has a large black butterfly tattooed across her neck.
It means: “Have faith that I am here to change the world,” said the 20-year-old with a youthful mix of passion and innocence. She got it about a year ago, around the same time she began to be politically active, she said.
That optimism will be tested when Hampton heads into court on 9 April, facing a charge that carries the possibility of four years in prison and a lifetime of being labeled a felon.
Curated from Black woman’s ‘lynching’ charge: an unsettling tactic to punish activism? | US news | The Guardian