Black Lives Matter Protesters Are Facing Felony Charges a Year After Uprisings

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

What is the price of dish soap? For Lanell, a 46-year-old Chicagoan, the price could be three to seven years in prison and a completely shattered life and future. Prosecutors say he took dish soap from a Chicago convenience store without paying during the uprisings after George Floyd’s murder by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. For this and nothing more, Lanell was charged with “burglary” and “looting.”

For the past 14 months, Lanell has been forced to choose between 24-hour confinement in a shelter, while wearing a court-ordered electronic shackle and being prohibited from leaving, or getting sent to jail in the cages of Cook County’s Department of Corrections until his case goes to trial. Lanell is one of thousands arrested during summer 2020's calls for an end to police violence and oppression; in Chicago, he is one of over 160 individuals still facing felony charges and, collectively, hundreds of years in prison.

During court hearings, these people — people I and other public defenders in Chicago and its suburbs are now fighting for — are reduced by prosecutors and judges to words like “looter,” “rioter,” “the mob,” and “criminal,” racially coded terms that politicians have long used to inexplicitly refer to Black and brown people.

Outside of court, a familiar pattern then emerges: Police and prosecutors share their version of events with the media; then the media, often pre-programmed for quick clicks and sensationalism, prints black-and-white stories devoid of context, sometimes using the same racialized, dehumanizing language that delegitimizes protesters and purposefully distracts from their message; the public then equates protest with violence and calls for racial justice with “criminality.”

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/black-lives-matter-protesters-felony-charges

[jimfields33]

1. Look, quite frankly, I'd rather only those taking all those sneakers and

Those taking all those tvs from Walmart. The rest should pay the amount stolen and be done.

[SoCalDavidS]

2. Too Bad They Didn't Just Storm The Capitol & Steal Nancy Pelosi's Laptop

There's nothing worse than stealing dish soap. Trying to overthrow the Government is so insignificant.

[rownesheck]

6. Or,

he should have just been white and shot someone in the street.

[Bettie]

7. If only they had the foresight to be white and

toting guns while terrorizing members of congress!

But, while the insurrectionists will get softball sentences, these people will probably end up in prison for long periods of time.

Two systems of justice. One for white people, one for not-white people.

[cinematicdiversions]

3. Looters is not a code word if someone is actually looting

At least own your crime as pathetic as it was.

[happy feet]

4. Were their any looters Jan 6? And so charged?

Just asking

[cinematicdiversions]

5. No sedition and treason seem appropriate charges

With proper constitution mandated sentences.

[NowISeetheLight]

8. What should we call them then?

Seven years is too much for a bar of soap when capital rioters get 60 days. But I don’t believe in giving them a pass and calling them “protesters” when they break into a business and steal. Trump called the insurrectionists “protesters” when they obviously were rioters and criminals. A protest goes “violent” when windows are smashed, businesses burned, and people are stealing and injuring others. There are plenty of examples of peaceful protests that didn’t go violent.