On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” guest host Antonia Hylton stated that it’s “troubling” that the Department of Justice is “targeting citizens, protesters for speaking out” by charging people over an incident involving ICE protests in Spokane where one of the charged individuals said that “civil disobedience is, to me, the only other option” while discussing the incident.
Hylton said, “We turn now to the Trump administration cracking down on ICE protests, with troubling news out of Washington state, where nine Spokane residents have been arrested and indicted for taking part in protests over a month ago. The defendants facing charges of conspiracy to impede or injure officers, plus assault charges for two of them. Those two remain in custody, while others have been released pending further proceedings. In June, hundreds of Spokane residents gathered to protest the detention of two young men who are legal immigrants, police deploying smoke and pepper balls, according to local reporting. The former Spokane City Council President is among those charged, speaking out after the clash.”
She then played video of former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart saying, “How do you deal with a situation where something wrong is happening and you’ve done all the legal things correctly, the law is being broken? And I think, at that point, civil disobedience is, to me, the only other option.”
She added that ICE arrests have spiked.
During the segment, Hylton asked Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), “What do you make of Trump’s DOJ now targeting citizens, protesters for speaking out?”
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