Lagesse writes: "A year ago, I was finalizing plans to leave a chemical engineering Ph.D. program and join the tech sector. But as Inauguration Day approached, I became so disgusted by President-elect Donald Trump's behavior that I felt it would have been negligent to remain a bystander."
Police officers in Washington, D.C., using pepper spray on protesters on Inauguration Day. (photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
How Prosecutors Turn a Protest Into a 'Riot'
18 November 17
year ago, I was finalizing plans to leave a chemical engineering Ph.D. program and join the tech sector. But as Inauguration Day approached, I became so disgusted by President-elect Donald Trump’s behavior that I felt it would have been negligent to remain a bystander. So I traveled from Baltimore to join hundreds of thousands of protesters at counterdemonstrations around Mr. Trump’s swearing-in.
Little did I know that I would be swept up into a legal nightmare that demonstrates how prosecutors intimidate and manipulate defendants into giving up their rights.
Minutes after I got to downtown Washington on Jan. 20, police officers used pepper spray, “sting-ball” grenades and flailing batons to sweep up an entire city block in a mass-arrest tactic known as “kettling.” I was among the more than 230 people confined at 12th and L Streets with no access to food, water or bathrooms for up to eight hours.
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