Madalena McNeil is accused of buying red paint for a protest. Under aggressive new criminal charges, it could mean she spends the rest of her life in prison.
McNeil, 28, was charged Tuesday among four people for their alleged actions at a July Salt Lake City, Utah, is protesting the district attorney’s decision that a young man’s fatal police measurements were fair. Protesters allegedly spray-painted red paint on the DA’s office, smashed windows and hung signs to demand justice for the murdered man.
But instead of only charging the Protestants with vandalism or even rioting, the same DA used a charge enhancement to claim that they were operating as a gang. Among the new prosecutors, the protesters see life in prison. It is the latest in a pattern of harsh measures that have spotted potential fines by treating Protestants like a criminal conspiracy.
“I’m not scared because I think I did something wrong because I know I did not do it,” McNeil told The Daily Beast. ‘But it would be very foolish to look at the potential for life in prison and not be afraid. When I heard that [the charges] I realized that I had become an enemy in the eyes of the state for exercising what is meant to be a protected right. “
McNeil and a crowd that she estimated contained 40 to 50 people outside 9 of the DA’s office on July 9 to protest the lack of prosecutors against a few officers who shot 22-year-old Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal and murdered. Palacios-Carbajal was charged in May with threatening with a gun. He fled when officers arrived on the scene, and officers went hunting. He stumbled to the ground three times, the third time he turned his shotgun on officers, who shot him 34 times.
DA Sim Gill found the officers to be fair in the shooting, but the case has sparked local controversy, with the Palacios-Carbajal family announcing plans to prosecute the city.
McNeil and fellow protesters were joined in the riot with police when they arrived at the DA’s office, she said. Footage she filmed of the event shows police-line protesters charging with their riot shields. McNeil, who shared photos she said were bruises from the incident, accused Salt Lake City Police of brutality in the incident. Salt Lake City Police declined to comment.
A criminal complaint accuses McNeil of positioning herself to shake one of the shield’s officials, and of buying the red paint that Protestants all splashed outside the DA’s office. She and six other Protestants face criminal misconduct and rioting, usually on a second-degree crime, the Salt Lake Tribune report. (McNeil declined to comment on the details of the case.)
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But Gill, the DA who was primarily the focus of protesters’ ire, improved the latter with the help of a provision intended for bans. Under the new enhancements, which apply to “crimes committed in consultation with two or more persons or in relation to a criminal street band”, Protestants could face life in prison, if convicted.
Legal experts in Utah said it was an unusual – perhaps even unusual – move in the state.
“From what I’ve seen, what the prosecutors have come across on the line over the last few years, this is something unique and unusual for Utah,” Jason Groth, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, told The Daily Beast.
Groth said Gill did not use the band-aid as originally intended when the state passed it in 1990.
“The stated goal of that improvement was to get the heart and core of street ties so that social workers can work with the rest of the youth involved,” he said. “And so, regardless of what you think about that original purpose, it is far from the claimed facts in this case.”
In an interview, Gill said he did not agree and that he considered the charging measure to be a “group” improvement not specific to bands, and that it could be used in any situation where two or more people perform in concert.
“Unfortunately, the state legislature called it, as a ‘ban’ improvement,” he told The Daily Beast. “I call it a ‘group augmentation’, because that’s much more indicating that, in fact, if you’re performing in a concert of two or more people, that’s a gang augmentation crime.”
Asked if the two officers who shot and killed Palacios-Carbajal had been eligible for a bond enhancement, he had pressed the prosecutors, Gill replied for the sake of argument, there is a hypothetical as d there are policemen performing in a person’s concert and the elements are there, would I charge them with a group upgrade? Yes, absolutely, if applicable. ”
Groth and McNeil also questioned Gill’s potential conflict of interest, which calls for improvements in order against protesters protesting against him.
Gill told The Daily Beast that the apparent double dip was due to staff shortages, but that other prosecutors would handle the case in advance. Even so, his fingerprints have already changed the case, Groth claimed.
‘I think what’s problematic, especially if the case is handed over to another official, that is before it even comes to that prosecutor’s office, [the sentencing enhancements] are already in the frame, ”said Groth. “And so the discretion to reload, or to not use enhancement out of port, is removed.”
Gill said the independent prosecutors could in fact remove the improvement.
The case is one of several recent incidents in which law enforcement has taken maximum action against Protestants.
In 2017, prosecutors filed charges against anti-Trump activists who demonstrated and caused all business damage during the presidential inauguration. Although individual allegations against the more than 120 suspects were often inadequate, the state accused the group of a broad ‘conspiracy to row’, claiming that, based on activities such as dressing in black and marching together, they were collectively responsible for damage. to property. The prosecutors spent a maximum of 60 years in prison. (Except in a few cases where suspects made early plea bargains, suspects were either found not guilty or their prosecutors dismissed after it was revealed that the prosecution case was largely based on doctored footage from the judge video group Project Veritas .)
More recently, conservative lawmakers have proposed rape of labels (albeit a tenuous label, saying one critic could be misapplied to protected speech and assembly) as terrorism. After protests over racial justice erupted nationwide this spring, a Michigan lawmaker introduced a bill that would classify assailants as domestic terrorists, calling the existing 10-year insurgency “a blow to the wrist.”
During protests in Portland, Oregon, federal officials sought to characterize incidents of vandalism as extremist violence, with Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf publishing a long list of “anarchist extremist” incidents, most of which involved graffiti. A recent report on Homeland Security, leaks to The nation, the department announced plans to bind the American anti-fascist movement (which is not an organized group) to the Kurdish YPG fighting force. That move could theoretically enable feds to classify American Protestants as foreign linked and otherwise enable illegal surveillance against them.
The result is a restriction on potential protests.
“Something to keep in mind is that if the district attorney associates Protestants with gang members and uses that as an excuse to achieve the harshest possible sentence (in this case, the harshest possible sentence is a life sentence),” Groth said, “it’s a disturbing use of attorney’s discretion and really has a cool effect on acquittal and protest activities. “
In Salt Lake City, Gill’s improvements have already drawn attention from elected officials, including the city’s mayor, who called them too much of an indication.
“I think the potential punishment for some Protestants is exaggerated,” said Mayor Erin Mendenhall tweeted Wednesday. “While I believe there should be consequences for breaking the law, the potential to spend life in prison for buying paint is too heavy.”
Even Gill told the AP, “I do not think anyone will go to jail for this.”
If that’s the case, McNeil says, why add all the improvements?
McNeil, who is white, also said she and fellow Protestants further objected to tire improvements because of their more frequent use against men of color. The prospect of life in prison is enough to make some suspects consider plea deals, even if they are not guilty, she said, and accepting a reduced sentence could still mean time penalties, loss of jobs and housing, and financial setbacks . She and fellow suspects pleaded guilty to $ 50,000 bail to get out of jail (as much as the damage allegedly caused to the DA’s office), and McNeil was asked to resign from her post. arrest, they argued.
‘There are all these benefits and these connotations about being a thug and being a bond and coming together to commit crimes. For me, the message is: ‘Do not think you can be together. “If you’re with someone doing something during a protest, you’re in trouble, ” McNeil said.
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