March 25, 2021

Georgia State Rep. Arrested While Protesting a Restrictive Voting Law, Video Shows

Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP

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A sitting Democratic state representative from Georgia was detained by state troopers shortly after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a restrictive voting rights bill into law, according to local news reports and videos circulating on social media.

Video shows police handcuffing state Rep. Park Cannon after she knocked on the door of the chamber where Kemp was signing a law that restricts access to the polls and makes it easier to overturn lawful elections. Cannon was one of several people protesting outside the governor’s chamber.

Georgia State Patrol’s public information director wrote in an email that officers arrested Cannon after warning her three times to stop knocking on the door to the governor’s ceremonial office. She was transported to Fulton County Jail and charged with obstruction of law enforcement and preventing or disrupting General Assembly sessions or other meetings of members.

 

As my my colleague Ari Berman reported, the bill is “a major power grab” passed “on a party-line vote.” Stacey Abrams called the measure a part of a push to restrict voting that is “Jim Crow 2.0.”

This article has been updated to include a statement from the Georgia State Patrol’s public information director.

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