Felony obstruction

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Voter suppression is riding high.

Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon was arrested on Thursday and charged with felony obstruction as Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp signed a controversial new voting reform bill into law.

Cannon was detained after knocking on Kemp’s door.

Kemp, a Republican, was announcing the signing of the bill over a live stream when he was interrupted by Cannon, a Democrat. Cannon’s arrest was also captured during a live stream, as the lawmaker was joined by others who came to the state Capitol in Atlanta to protest the bill.

This kind of shit is what the Voting Rights Act was meant to stop, but since the Supreme Court kneecapped it we’re going backwards.

Police said Cannon was moved to the Fulton County Jail and charged with obstruction of law enforcement, a felony, and preventing or disrupting General Assembly sessions or meetings of members, a misdemeanor.

A felony.

I wonder if the cops would have arrested her if she were white. I wonder if she would have been charged with a felony if she were white.

White guys.

Point taken.

Comments

7 responses to “Felony obstruction”

  1. maddog1129 Avatar
    maddog1129

    It’s not a “voting reform bill.” It’s a “voter suppression bill.”

  2. Bjarte Foshaug Avatar
    Bjarte Foshaug

    Well, the good news is that democracy in the S.A. (if there was ever anything U about them, that time is long gone) is never going to die. As every horror movie can teach you, you can’t kill what’s already dead.

  3. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    From looking at tweets from lawyers who appear to know what they’re talking about, her arrest stinks for several reasons. Primarily because as a State Rep she is immune from arrest for anything except a felony. The law explicitly says that disrupting the work of the General Assembly is a misdemeanour on the first offence, an aggravated misdemeanour on the second and a felony on the third. The arrest was therefore unlawful and therefore the charge of resisting (the felony charge) is bogus. Interestingly the arresting officer swore to the magistrate judge that she had committed the interference with the Assembly three times. Despite the fact that the county records clearly show only the current arrest.

    Jim Crow is alive and well.

  4. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Found the thread here.

    Here's my major question. A magistrate judge in Fulton County apparently found probable cause to believe that this would be Rep. Cannon's third conviction for disrupting the General Assembly. Is that true?And if not, will there be false statement charges brought? pic.twitter.com/WbwwcPAO5P— Andrew Fleischman (@ASFleischman) March 26, 2021

  5. What a Maroon Avatar
    What a Maroon

    By the way, that painting behind him is Calloway Plantation.

    Sometimes America’s legacy of white supremacy is hiding in plain sight, literally. When Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a hastily passed voter suppression law that many are calling the new, new Jim Crow on Thursday night, surrounded by a half-dozen white men, he did so in front of a painting of a plantation where more than 100 Black people had been enslaved.

    The fitting symbolism is somehow both shocking and unsurprising. In using the antebellum image of the notorious Callaway Plantation — in a region where enslaved Black people seeking freedom were hunted with hounds — in Wilkes County, Ga., as the backdrop for signing a bill that would make it a crime to hand water to a thirsty voter waiting on Georgia’s sometimes hours-long voter lines, the GOP governor was sending a clear message about race and human rights in the American South.

    ….

    Today, the Callaway Plantation is a 56-acre historic site where — as the Explore Georgia website cheerily notes — tourists can get “a glimpse into the by-gone era of working plantations in the agricultural South.” The promotional sites gloss over the fact that by the time of the Civil War, the Callaway Plantation only thrived because of the back-breaking labor of at least 100 enslaved people and perhaps many more who were held in cruel human bondage.

  6. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Arrgghh. Thank you Rob.

    This is so enRAging.

  7. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Someone on Twitter pointed out the plantation painting to me just as you were posting this.

    It’s just STUNNING to me. I can hear all the eyes rolling at that, at how clueless of me it is to be stunned by it, and the eye-rollers are right. But it is.

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