GA fascism -- Arrested for knocking on a door in the Georgia Capitol

 From: Public Citizen <robert@citizen.org>

To: Mark Giese <m.mk@...>

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2021 16:06:44 -0400

Subject: facing up to 5 years in prison

 

This is happening in America right now:

A representative in the state legislature — a Black woman named Park Cannon — was arrested in the Georgia Capitol last week and has been charged with two felonies. She is facing up to five years in prison.

Her supposed “crime”?

Knocking on a door in the Georgia Capitol.

Why did knocking on a door get this Black woman manhandled, shackled, and dragged into the street by white state troopers, then charged with multiple felonies that could land her in prison for years?

Because behind that door, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was signing into law a flagrantly anti-democratic and racist voter suppression bill that was rammed through the state legislature by flailing Republicans who have given up on trying to win elections on the merits of any actual policy positions and have instead chosen to cling to power by opposing the very concept of democracy itself.

Rep. Cannon was calmly knocking on the door Kemp was hiding behind so she could — as an elected representative of the people of Georgia — at least witness his disgraceful signing of the bill.

Ridiculously, the white trooper who arrested Rep. Cannon says he was worried about a January 6-type riot.

Tell law enforcement and prosecutors in Georgia:

Drop all charges against State Rep. Park Cannon. Arresting her in the first place, much less prosecuting her, for knocking on a door in the Capitol — where she is an elected representative — so she could witness Governor Brian Kemp’s signing of Georgia’s new anti-democratic, racist voter suppression laws is a disgrace.

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-- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen