prairieland protesters collectively received 562 years in federal prison
✍️ Petition: NYT, CNN, WaPo Must Cover Prairieland as Silencing Dissent Add Your Name Nine people connected to a July 4th noise demonstration outside a Texas ICE detention center have collectively received 562 years in federal prison — the longest sentences ever handed down to a group of political anarchist defendants in U.S. history. Most received decades-long terms not for violence, but for attending a protest, wearing dark clothing, using an encrypted messaging app, or belonging to a book club. One man received 30 years for moving a box of zines — despite not attending the protest at all. A federal judge said openly at sentencing that he wanted to send a message to anyone with similar ideology. The prosecution called the Emma Goldman Book Club a terrorist front. The government's own expert witness defined antifa membership as believing in anarchism or non-authoritarian socialism. This is not a crime story. It is a political prosecution — and it is part of a deliberate, expandi...
