Felony “lynching” charge dropped to misdemeanor for Sacramento activist

The dismissal of felony “lynching” charges against a member of the local Black Lives Matter group capped a busy week for Sacramento activists protesting violence in various forms.

Maile Hampton was initially charged with attempting to remove an individual from lawful police custody during a January 18 protest of a pro-law-enforcement rally at the Capitol. She was arrested at her home in February.

While the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office on Friday downgraded the semantically-charged felony to a misdemeanor count of resisting or impeding arrest, Hampton isn't out of the woods yet. The 20-year-old faces a maximum $1,000 fine and up to one year in county jail if convicted of the lesser charge. (The penalty for lynching is up to four years in prison.) Hampton's next court date is May 21.

She could have company, as 16 anti-drone protesters were taken into custody April 28, during one of the almost-monthly demonstrations at Beale Air Force Base. The group, including members of the Sacramento chapter of Veterans for Peace and Code Pink, stopped traffic and attempted to deliver a letter to Col. Douglas J. Lee asking him to stop drone killings, according to Cres Vellucci, who monitors demonstrations as a legal observer.

Vellucci, who also belongs to the National Lawyers Guild, which coordinated legal representation for Hampton, decried the use of drone attacks in the Middle East. He said the American public is “told by the government that using drone warfare is a very specific form of killing people … but that's not the case at all.”

Some of the overlapping organizers planned separate protests of Representatives Ami Bera and Doris Matsui on Tuesday in Sacramento. A self-described coalition of labor, veteran and environmental interests were to target Bera's Sacramento district office over his support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while local members of the Black Lives Matter movement expected to protest Matsui during a visit to a private home. In a release, organizers said they were doing this because the Sacramento Democrat hadn't spoken out against the police killings of people of color.