In the battle to keep America’s Democracy healthier than it is sick, today was a VICTORY!!!!
From WaPo:
Following a nearly four-week trial, a D.C. Superior Court jury delivered not guilty verdicts Thursday on multiple charges of rioting and destruction of property.
The defendants, who include a nurse for cancer patients, a freelance photographer and a college student, joined throngs of protesters who took to the streets on Jan. 20 to protest President Trump’s election. Prosecutors said the six were among a group that cut a violent swath through 16 bocks of the city, smashing windows of businesses, tossing newspaper boxes into the street and damaging a limousine. Authorities tallied the damages at more than $100,000.
The Trump Department of Justice had forgone even the semblance that this was about anything more than an attack on our freedom to assemble and to protest our dissent.
An important note to add, brought to my attention by a community member, is that while this news is fantastic—for democracy—we should remember that almost 200 people were charged with felonies for their activism on January 20. So while these six individuals have received the correct and just decision in this case, there are still around 198 citizens fighting for their civil rights to be upheld by the courts.