On Monday, I participated in a conversation about the efforts by the Trump Administration to label peaceful activists as domestic terrorists at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. The conversation included a number of activists who have experienced repression from the Administration first hand along with civil rights lawyer Ronald L. Kuby and Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, Emile Ayoub.
I learned a lot from the activists who spoke about about how they personally have been threatened and intimidated for their activism, as well as from the entire conversation. Most notable was the advice from Ron Kuby about what he calls the “over criminalization of conduct that would historically be handled locally.”
Here are the top takeaways about what every activist should know before hitting the streets in Trump’s America (based on Kuby’s experience defending those who are being charged for their activism):
- Unless you are a US citizen, don’t get arrested even for peaceful acts of civil disobedience (the personal consequences can be devastating);
- Do not touch the federal agents (physical contact of any sort–including with a sandwich–is being considered an assault and charged as such);
- Do not damage any property (even harming a side-view mirror can lead to charges that involve significant federal time);
- Stay away from houses of worship (the FACE Act is being used to prosecute people federally–including journalist Don Lemon–if they disrupt an event inside a house of worship); and
- Stay peaceful and DO NOT BRING WEAPONS to nonviolent actions.
You can watch the full conversation here:
Dana R Fisher 