Sep 21 2010
LA City Attorney Targets Civil Disobedience Activism
Thirty-Three Los Angeles immigration activists who engaged in acts of civil disobedience will be arraigned on various misdemeanor charges tomorrow and Wednesday. The activists took part in at least one of three separate protests in May and July. Members of the group Todos Somos Arizona protested SB 1070, Arizona’s draconian immigration legislation, on May 6th and July 29th. On each occasion the activists laid down in the street and blocked traffic for a prolonged period of time. Supporters of the DREAM Act protested outside of the West LA federal building on May 20th by staging a sit-in on Wilshire Blvd. The activists have been charged with the misdemeanors of resisting, delaying, or obstructing an officer, blocking the sidewalk or street, and remaining at an unlawful assembly. The maximum penalty for resisting arrest is 1 year in jail and a $1000 fine. Remaining at an unlawful assembly carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1000 fine. The Todos Somos Arizona Collective and DREAM Act activists will be fighting the charges in solidarity with one another. They say the LA City Attorney’s actions are motivated by politics, and that the city is criminalizing resistance. A petition in support of those being arraigned cited the words of Dr. Martin Luther King who said, “It is our moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
GUEST: Clare Fox, member of Todos Somos Arizona and participant in the July 29th action; Mariella Saba, student and DREAM Act activist, and participant in May 20th protest
On Wednesday September 22nd there will be a rally at 7:30AM and court solidarity at LA Superior Court, 429 Bauchet St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, near Union Station
On Thursday, court solidarity continues starting at 8 am at the same location as above.
To find out more, go to www.facebook.com and search for “Todos Somos Arizona”
2 Responses to “LA City Attorney Targets Civil Disobedience Activism”
Will be there.Thanks for airing the program.
sorry about the long comment but i wrote something about this article for school and thought that I would share it.
The article mentions the counts that prosecutor accused the protesters of, and the charges all seem very reasonable. I think that the government handled the situation well because the author wrote, “The activists have been charged with the misdemeanors of resisting, delaying, or obstructing an officer, blocking the sidewalk or street, and remaining at an unlawful assembly” and this is fair because the protesters sat down in the middle of a busy boulevard. A sit-in inside a building or outside in a grassy area would have been much more reasonable because the protesters disrupted the flow of traffic and endangered themselves and the police officers that had the responsibility to break up the protest. There was another rally planned that was to try to relieve the protesters of the charges. I think that this is a silly idea because the protesters should have gone into the protest prepared for the end result and expected to feel the punishment for their actions. No matter what law they were protesting they broke unrelated laws that they still should be held accountable for. In protests, the only law that should be broken is the very law that has caused the controversy. A petition for support of the protesters quoted Dr. Martin Luther King as saying, “‘It is our moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.’” While this is an excellent quote of King’s it is being used completely out of context because the laws in question that prohibit resisting arrest and blocking streets are not unjust at all. Another error with the protest was the location. The protesters held the protest in Los Angeles, even though the law in question is from Arizona. They are causing problems for the state of California, which had nothing to do with the Arizona law. Civil disobedience is a very useful tool, but only when it is used correctly. The protesters should know what they are getting into and have their protest be safe and relevant.