The felony criminal mischief charges are more serious because they carry a gang enhancement. Prosecutors said on Wednesday that was justified because the protesters worked together to cause thousands of dollars in damage, but watchdogs called the use of the 1990s-era law troubling, especially in the context of criminal justice reform and minority communities.
Once again, I fucking hate the way people even slightly outside this shit will talk about it. “Troubling”??????????? This is not ‘troubling’, this is appalling!
Casual reminder that “gang affiliation” charges are a remnant of various slave code era laws against people congregating.
It’s used for everything from railroading protesters (see above) to punting kids into prisons when they’d otherwise get a fine or possibly a low level misdemeanor.
It’s a naked intimidation tactic and it goes hand in hand with Trump and the DOJ identifying ‘ANTIFA’ as a terrorist org.
Hey, I live here. The county DA pressing these charges (a Democrat, btw) is the same one whose office was painted red in protest of his refusal to press charges against the officers who killed Bernardo Palacios in May. It’s bluntly retaliatory and lots of local groups have spoken out against it, but if you’d like to help I’d encourage you to donate to the SLC Protest Bail Fund (link) or the ACLU of Utah. If you’re a Salt Lake County resident/voter, please also consider calling the DA’s office and demanding that the charges be dropped or reduced.