A woman in Washington State was sentenced to prison for setting five police vehicles on fire during the protests in Seattle in 2020.
26-year-old Margaret Aislinn Channon, from Tacoma, was caught on video using fire and aerosol cans to set five Seattle police vehicles on fire during a May 30 protest – following the death of George Floyd.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour admonished Channon, saying her actions did “tremendous damage to Black Lives Matter in Seattle.”
“The right to protest, gather, and call out injustices is one of the dearest and most important rights we enjoy in the United States,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said. “Indeed, our democracy depends on both exercising and protecting these rights. But Ms. Channon’s conduct was itself an attack on democracy. She used the cover of lawful protests to carry out dangerous and destructive acts, risking the safety of everyone around her and undermining the important messages voiced by others.”
Prosecutors also alleged that video footage captured Channon entering various stores and stealing clothing.
She admitted to smashing the window at the Verizon Store and destroying the electronic cash register at a sandwich shop, according to the release.
“Black Lives Matter is an organization with leadership that does not condone illegal activity,” Channon wrote to the court. “I apologize to the many workers and activists – who have given decades of their lives to building a countermeasure to police violence — that did not want to see fire in June of 2020.”
