On 18 January 2015, socialist Black Lives Matter protester Maile Hampton was arrested in Sacramento, California for "felony lynching", for attempting to prevent a fellow demonstrator being arrested.
The term "lynching" is commonly understood to refer to extrajudicial murders – usually in reference to the thousands of Black people murdered by racist whites. But in California law, the term referred to attempting to break anyone out of police custody.
Widespread outrage at the application of a law supposedly introduced to protect Black people from lynching against a Black person protesting against present-day lynching led to the charge being dropped and the law later being renamed to remove the word "lynching". But the rest of the law remained intact and it continues to be used against Black Lives Matter protesters.
Maile Hampton lynching arrest - WCH | Stories
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