Capitol Protesters: GUILTY (Video)

MacIver Institute has an enlightening video of Capitol protesters on trial.

It's priceless.

Six Madison protesters were on trial Tuesday for Obstructing/Resisting an officer after a rally at the State Capitol on August 25th. They argued they had a right to be there and that the police never directly ordered them to leave. After a year of protesters getting arrested and receiving citations, this could have been the first time they faced a jury.

Watch the video:



Listen to the protesters.

They are either liars or absolutely clueless.

I don't know whether to be disgusted by them for being such brats or pity them for being such fools.

One protester, Jenna Pope, testified the police didn't tell her to leave. Pope says, "It was just, um, Chief Tubbs asking the general crowd, um, to leave."

What was Pope waiting for? Did she expect Chief Tubbs to say "pretty please"?

Another protester, Alex Oberley said, "I saw it more as a request than an order, and I didn't feel it was a particularly lawful, uh, certainly order or request regardless; um, and I was there to exercise my First Amendment rights and we were there to, uh, petition our government directly as a group as we had done repeatedly in the rotunda in the Capitol since February of last year."

That sounds so ridiculous.

Another protester, Damon Terrell, was asked if he would concede that the officer was doing his job in trying to close the Capitol: "In attempting to close the Capitol, yes. In removing protesters forcibly, no."

When the prosecutor asked Terrell how the officer would have closed and secured the Capitol if 13 protesters would have remained inside, Terrell replied, "Wait until we got bored and left. I'm a busy man. As I stated, I have multiple jobs and I go to school. I would have left."

That's so lame it's amusing.

The poor babies claimed the police did not have the right to remove them from the Capitol building.

Protester CJ Terrell said, "I felt like we were in an appropriate forum to address our government, and it is my understanding that the Constitution doesn't close at 6:00 PM."

It's hard not to laugh.

Pope's explanation for why she had the right to stay in the Capitol after the building was closed and everyone was told to leave:

"In my opinion, we were conducting official people's business. Um, it is our First Amendment right to do so. Um, and like we've said, it's a rule that the building closes and obviously Chief Tubbs has mentioned that he has been flexible, um, in that specific rule. Um, so I guess I was hoping that, um, he would be flexible again, um, and allow us to continue doing our business."

MacIver Institute has done some great work on the "flexibility" of Chief Tubbs. More here.

Protester Jeremy Ryan claimed his group of 13 was targeted for arrest, even though everyone else, except media and law enforcement, had left the building. Ryan said the arrests were "arbitrary," but then claimed "it had more to do with who we were than, uh, with what was going on." He went on to admit that it was true that his 13 comrades were the only protesters left.

The jury found them all guilty. All were fined $200 plus court fees.

That price is nothing compared to this video. They are completely unreasonable. They are dolts. Their testimony will live on the Internet indefinitely, a life sentence.

Justice is served.