The slow, steady criminalization of dissent under Trump. DKOS May 20, 2017

[mhw]

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/1664236



The slow, steady criminalization of dissent under Trump
May 20, 2017

SNIP

..last year’s protests against police violence, has spawned a backlash by the Republican Party to restrict and curtail those same rights, especially when corporate interests are being threatened.
This effort, being waged almost surreptitiously by Republicans in state legislatures, received a clear signal of approval last week from the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.




SNIP

The results of this new “policy” were visible almost immediately:


Felony charges brought against more than 200 people on Inauguration Day, police and prosecutors in the District of Columbia are putting activists on notice that legal protections ingrained in the Constitution may not apply to them, according to legal experts.

This new era of law enforcement is affecting policing tactics beyond Washington.
The harsh treatment of protesters in the District since Donald Trump assumed the presidency — with a large number of people who did not engage in violence facing decades in prison for simply taking part in a protest — lets law enforcement officials across the nation know that a tough-on-dissent policy is acceptable, the experts said.

The charges against the inauguration protesters were brought by the District of Columbia’s federal prosecutor, Channing Phillips. What made these charges unique was that they were slapped not only on the people who actually caused property damage (and presented an actual danger), but those rounded up in the vicinity of these same people, a process called “kettling.”

As a result, wholly innocent people who were simply marching in protest ended up facing the same penalties as those who sought to provoke a violent response.
Those penalties extended to a maximum of 10 years in jail and a $25,000 fine.

SNIP

Americans must fight these efforts to curtail and eliminate their right to speak out, protest and peaceably assemble.
These are more than just “rights guaranteed to us under the Constitution,” they are our birthright.

And history shows that when these rights are relinquished, they never come back.
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What takes place while all eyes remain on Trump.
Trump's push for new prisons aren't just for deprtations.

[L. Coyote]

1. With the alt-right creating violence at protests to foment support for restrictions on free speech.

To what extent were the civil disturbances before the election engineered, exacerbatyed, supported, for the purpose of creating racial division to aid Trump?