Solidarity protest for DisruptJ20 defendants condemns new and even more extreme charges

In the final week of April new and even more extreme charges were filed against many of the DisruptJ20 defendants, some now facing 8 felonies carrying a total of 100 years (!) imprisonment. At least one new defendant was charged as well. On May 1, while Mayday protests continued elsewhere in the city, activists converged on DC Superior Court to demand that both the new and the previously existing charges be dropped

Chants at the courthouse protest included "No Limos Matter, " "Free L12," and as helmeted police built up in front of the courthouse they were greeted with "Shame!" and "Fuck MPD!"

During Trump's Inauguration, police responded to windows being smashed by a few protesters by kettling and attempting to mass arrest the entire anticapitalist Bloc. Hundreds charged the police lines as they were being set up and escaped, but 230 plus people didn't make it out. They were charged with "felony riot" carrying a potential ten year prison sentence, and now many defendants and at least one new defendant have had these already extreme charges upgraded to charges that could carry 100 years in prison, more than murder and rape combined would normally get someone.

Then again, Donald Trump is not known to object to rape and US presidents have always been murderers. His US Attorney Jeff Sessions was not confirmed as a judge during the 1980's because a GOP Congress deemed him too much of a racist with his known KKK sympathies. Now he controls the entire US Attorney's office, and the US Attorney's office controls DC prosecutions. Thus, Trump and Sessions may well have played a direct role in the spurious and extreme charges filed against those who dared to stand against them on Jan 20. They are acting in a way that would have been expected from Mussolini or Franco and their prosecutors.