Journalists — including Vocativ producer Evan Engel, RT journalist Alex Rubinstein and reporter Aaron Cantu, who has written for VICE, The Intercept, Al Jazeera America and other outlets — were taken to jail and charged with felony rioting.They could each be sentenced up to 10 years in prison and a large fine up to $25,000 if convicted.
They were following the DisruptJ20 anti-capitalist march. In total, 217 people were arrested during inauguration day riots.
Bill Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the cases, said in a statement thier arrests: “As in all of our cases, we are always willing to consider additional information that people bring forward. We have no comment on specific individuals.”
The arrested journalists were released as of Saturday night, but cell phones and cameras were taken as evidence. Police did not respond to a request for comment on whether they have warrants to search the electronics.
“Everybody who was arrested had their phone taken and across the board police have not been returning any of the cellphones or cameras,” says attorney Jeffrey Light, who filed the first lawsuit. Jeffrey plans to represent all of arrestees who claim to have had their rights violated and to have not engaged in criminal behavior.
What are your thoughts??? DO YOU SUPPORT POLICE??? Is It Fair??? Please comment below…
DC police directly pepper spray elderly woman, disabled man. #J20 pic.twitter.com/UilWv2FYHb
— Wilson Dizard (@willdizard) January 20, 2017
source:http://www.usnews.com