Saturday, June 11, 2016

BLM ACTIVIST JASMINE RICHARDS: THE FIRST BLACK AMERICAN CONVICTED OF LYNCHING


...BUT AS A RESULT OF RAISING THE VISIBILITY OF HER CASE, RICHARDS WON A PARTIAL VICTORY


The police, prosecutors, and most of the judges are getting bolder and more creative in trying to break Black Lives Matter Activists.

This was a political arrest and conviction. The judge should have tossed this case out. She probably should have found away to lay a perjury charge on the prosecutor and the cops too, so she could put them in jail for a few days.

Jasmine was trying to stop police from arresting a protester.

Note: If she had been violent in that moment, the cops would have shot her or arrested her for assaulting a police officer. Clearly, that didn't happen.

Instead, local law enforcement jumped into the way-way-way back machine and found a 1933 California law that was supposed to address white men yanking a black person out of police custody in order to lynch that black person.

Prosecutors and police said the law applied because Jasmine was trying to remove the other person from police officer's custody.

Talk about reaching!

Think of the creativity it took to charge Jasmine Richards with "Felony Lynching."



Now think of the lack of creativity in charging Brock Turner. Prosecutors could have charged Turner with straight assault for each bruise, kidnapping (moving that woman behind a dumpster), and then rape. They didn't. The judge even ignored the minimum sentencing recommendation (How many years was it? Can't remember. He got 6 months, probably out in 3)  

Once again, we know who counts in this country: White Men and only white men.

And, you know what else? I found out the other day that Brock Turner isn't the rich white boy a lot of people assumed he was. This rapist is just an ordinary white boy. White with penis, will travel, is all it took for his life to be everything and the woman he raped to be nothing.  


Richards is not the first modern protester to be charged with lynching. Maile Hampton, a 20-year-old black woman, was arrested for "lynching" during a rally against police brutality in Sacramento in April 2015. Occupy Oakland activists Tiffany Tran and Alex Brown were charged in 2011, and Los Angeles Occupy activist Sergio Ballesteros was charged in 2012 for lynching while intervening in an arrest at the local Artwalk.
But in other cases, the charges were later dropped. Richards is the first African American convicted of "lynching" in the United States.
~Vox.com


http://www.democracynow.org/2016/6/2/black_lives_matter_activist_convicted_of



OUR PROTEST WORKED
It's 2016
AND
ON LINE ACTIVISM MATTERS
Jasmine was in danger of going to jail for 4 years.

She shouldn't have gone to jail at all, but as a result of protest and the visibility of her case her sentence was reduced to 90 days minus time served, which resulted in her walking free that day. She also has to serve out her probationary period.

Your signatures on that ColorOfChange.org protest mattered. Don't forget that YOU matter.

"Richards is the founder of the Pasadena chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and is beloved in her community. As of Tuesday morning, nearly 80,000 people had signed aColorOfChange.org petition calling on Judge Elaine Lu to free Richards.

Only 44 of the hundreds who had gathered for the hearing were able to squeeze into the painfully small courtroom. One of the last to be let in, I was determined to catch a glimpse of Richards. I have interviewed her twice, both times before the incident at the heart of the trial. Richards organizes in my own neighborhood of northwest Pasadena. The petite, young organizer appeared in handcuffs, vulnerable but also awed by the support she saw.

Of the entirely non-black jury that unanimously convicted her last week, one juror wrote to the judge with a change of heart, asking Lu to impose “the minimum possible sentence for Ms. Richards,” saying, “I feel sick for upholding a law in which I do not believe.”  

Read More: 

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/06/10/partial-victory-black-lives-matter-activist-jasmine-richards

No comments:

Post a Comment