The Wake County District Attorney’s Office has offered to allow the 900 + Moral Monday arrestees to perform 25 hours of community service in exchange for a dismissal of their charges.
This offer should be rejected. I will be advising all of my Moral Monday clients to take their cases to trial; and if we lose, I will advise them to appeal and take their cases to trial again in Superior Court before a jury. And if we lose in Superior Court, to make a copy of the verdict sheet, frame it, hang it somewhere prominent, and wear the conviction as a badge of honor.
This is what I did with all my Occupy Raleigh clients. And not a single one ended up being convicted. But we made nuisances of ourselves. Isn’t this, after all, what the protests are about? Expressing disapproval of the Government in a manner that draws attention? Why stop with the arrest? Now is the time to drive home the message. Clog up the Courts with these cases. Disrupt government. Keep alive, and in the forefront of minds and media, the issues we find so disgusting that are spewing out of the executive and legislative branches of government by punishing the other branch. Why back down now?
Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a giant of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, has a record of more than 40 arrests on his rap sheet. And he is one of the most loved and respected citizens in our country.
Come on, Moral Monday Protesters: Be the next John Lewis. Stand up and fight!
