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Black Lives Matter Activist Convicted Of Felony ‘Lynching’

By Anya Felix
Published on: 11:58 PST, Jun 2, 2016

Black Lives Matter’s Pasadena activist Jasmine Richards is facing six months to four years in prison because of her confrontation with the police during a Black Lives Matter protest last August. She has been convicted of California Penal Code 405 that was formally known, until recently, as felony “lynching.”

According to the California Penal Code 405a,

“The taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer is a lynching.”

In this shocking twist of events, Richards, an African-American female, is being convicted of a crime that was historically applied to instances “when a white lynch mob takes a black person out of the custody of the police for the purpose of extrajudicially hanging them,” as reported by Democracy Now!

Black Lives Matter’s Jasmine Richards is, in fact, the first African-American to ever have been tried on these charges of Attempting to Unlawfully Remove a Suspect from Police Officers.

Richards was first arrested on August 29, 2015, after she and other Black Lives Matter protesters attempted to intercede in the arrest of a girl who had allegedly not paid for her meal at a restaurant.

Black Lives Matter supporters stood with an emotional Jasmine Richards as she was convicted of a crime with a historically weighted name.

Another BLM organizer Melina Abdullah told Democracy Now! that this conviction was not only “ironic” but also “disgusting”,

“Her conviction is not only about punishing Jasmine Richards, but also is the lynching,” Abdullah said. “So it’s really disgusting and ironic that she’s charged and convicted with felony lynching, when the real lynching that’s carried out is done in the same way it was carried out in the late 19th, early 20th century, where it’s supposed to punish those who dare to rise up against a system.”

According to Abdullah, the real lynching here is the punishing of those like Jasmine Richards who are politically active and rising up “against the system.”

Richards’ lawyer Nana Gyamfi also commented on the political nature of the “lynching” charges upon this BLM activist.

“This was a political prosecution, not a criminal prosecution,” she told Pasadena News Now.

Of this Black Lives Matter case, another attorney added that the very name of this charge, “lynching,” ingrains this case with the history of the civil rights, and sends a dire message to all BLM supporters.

“The selection of that charge, ‘lynching,’ sends a chilling message to those who support civil rights, to stay out of Pasadena,” attorney Caree Harper told Pasadena News Now.

The 28-year-old Black Lives Matter activist Richards seemed to fully understand the political nature of her arrest, and — even as she was being escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs — chanted to her supporters, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom!”

Her supporters responded, “It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other!”

Jasmine Richards, as the Black Lives Matter organizer of Pasadena, seems to be channeling Black revolutionary activist Assata Shakur; as Pasadena News Now reports, Richards quoted Shakur, just before she was locked away in the holding cells next to the courtroom.

She shouted, “We have nothing to lose but our chains!” her words echoing in the narrow hallway.

The Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter has seized upon Richards’ case, and has even started a #FreeJasmine hashtag.

[Photo by Scott Olson/ Getty Images]

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