Black Activist Charged With Lynching

Maile Hampton, a 20 year-old activist in Sacramento, Ca., was charged with “lynching” for pulling a fellow activist away from a police officer.

Hampton was charged under an archaic 1933 California law that was created to prevent people from forcibly taking others from police custody in order to dole out vigilante justice.

Clearly the law was written to prevent people, most often black and Latino, from being murdered. But police are now using it to target anti-police violence activists.

“Based on how law enforcement has interacted with us and tried to get information, we know that they know that we are very intersectional in our activism and we are two young educated people of color,” Hampton told Alternet.

Hampton faces four years if convicted. The irony of a black woman being charged with lynching while protesting police violence is lost on no one.

Photo: Maile Hampton/Answer Sacramento Facebook