Ringleaders of anti-ICE attack on church arrested.

 

Nekima Levy Armstrong, the alleged ringleader. New York Post. 

The ringleaders of an anti-ICE attack on a church in Minnesota have been arrested. New York Post. Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and Willem Kelly were arrested for their role in the incident, which went viral. Don Lemon, who claimed to be covering the incident but appeared to be involved, was not charged. Armstrong and Allen are considered to be the ringleaders of the mob that disrupted a church service. Kelly was a particularly abrasive and aggressive rioter and dared the government to arrest him. All three people have been charged for conspiracy against rights, part of the Klu Klux Klan act. 

My Comment:

The perceived lack of action when it comes to arrests has been a major criticism of the Trump administration's 2nd term. There have been many cases like this where people were acting horribly but never faced any charges. These three arrests will go a ways to quiet some of those voices and nobody on the right is going to be upset that these three people are being charged. 

There is anger that a magistrate would not sign off on charging Don Lemon. Lemon, a former CNN reporter, was deeply involved in this case and is using the 1st amendment as a defense saying he was simply reporting the incident, not participating in it. How true that is would be something for a jury to decide, he was with these protesters as they were planning the incident.

I am conflicted myself. I don't buy Lemon's argument that he was just reporting the news. It seems likely he went beyond that and in a perfect world he would face charges and would go to prison. But I also don't know if charging him is the smart thing to do. A conviction is pretty unlikely, even if they somehow find a favorable jury. And the media will go absolutely nuts trying to defend one of their own. I'd love to see Lemon in prison for this, but I just don't see it happening. 

The other three? They should be convicted easily. They don't really have a defense under the law as it is written. Both the FACE act and the KKK act prevent this kind of behavior. And they all made some pretty damning statements on social media that really void any defenses they might have. Armstrong and Allen freely admitted to planning this while Kelly not only recorded himself harassing people, he then dared the government to arrest or kill him. 

These are really open and shut cases and the only way they don't get convicted is if an activist or a group of activists get on the jury. This is a real concern and I fear that jury nullification in cases like this, where the evidence is rock solid, could happen because people just hate Donald Trump that much. That's assuming it ever goes to trial, a plea deal is possible of course, but the chance of nullification in these cases would be unacceptably high. 

Regardless, I am happy that these people are being charged. Disrupting church services is not something I would ever support, and I would say that even if it was a right wing protester at a Mosque. You can protest whatever you want but by disrupting church while people are worshiping is a crime and is not acceptable, no matter the cause or the religion. 

As for the anti-ICE protesters, it does seem to be sputtering out a bit. The weather absolutely has a major role in this, Minnesota is supposed to be in a deep freeze this weekend. I don't care how angry you are, it is zero fun to be outside when the temperature doesn't even rise above -10 degrees, not even accounting for wind chill. The weather, along with these arrests, will have a literally chilling effect on these protests and people might finally move on to other things.