Police brutalize protesters in Charleston amid crackdown on immigrants

Charleston, SC– On January 29, police violently dispersed protesters at Marion Square who were standing against Trump’s escalating war on immigrants. The demonstration, which began at 6 p.m., drew 200 to 250 people. Within 30 minutes, Charleston police declared the gathering illegal under the “First Amendment Demonstration Ordinance,” a law restricting protests.

By 9 p.m., officers forced protesters to leave. As they did, the police brutalized and arrested seven people. Video footage shows Karime De La Concha and her sister, Valeria Bernal, being detained while simply trying to walk to their car. De La Concha, who is 5’1” and 110 pounds, was thrown to the ground. She states. “They picked me up and slammed me headfirst onto the pavement. I blacked out.” De La Concha continued, “When I came to, I was disoriented and in pain. Later, I learned I had a concussion.”

The arrested protesters, now known as the Charleston 7, were charged with disobeying a lawful order and taken to Al Cannon Detention Center. The community is demanding that these bogus charges against all seven be dropped.

Charleston has a well-documented history of infringing on the community’s right to assemble. At an emergency meeting that allowed no public comment, the city’s First Amendment Demonstration Ordinance was passed in 2021. It came as a response to protests over the police murder of Jamal Sutherland, a Black man with schizophrenia who was tased to death by jail staff. The law has since been used to suppress free speech and jail activists.

Lucca Acosta Navas, one of the Charleston 7, faced especially cruel treatment. Diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, he was placed in solitary confinement for 15 hours under the pretense of a mental health evaluation.

Navas stated, “The injustice I faced that night, the arrest, the solitary confinement, and what followed, isn’t just about me. It’s about a system that’s determined to break us.” He continued, “This was an attempt to label me, to undermine my activism, to make me seem unstable, as though standing up for justice and calling out the corruption of our systems somehow makes me dangerous.”

Al Cannon Detention Center has seen 14 deaths since 2021, including D’Angelo Brown, who was denied psychiatric medication he was prescribed for his mental illness and subjected to long periods of solitary confinement. Routinely left exposed to urine and feces, Brown’s mental and physical health deteriorated rapidly until he developed an infection and died on December 29, 2022. Solitary confinement in Al Cannon can be a death sentence, especially for those struggling with mental health. Activists fear Navas could have been next.

Two days after the arrest of the Charleston 7, ICE raided a home in Goose Creek – with U.S. Representative Nancy Mace riding along. She boasted on social media that Trump’s policies were “putting America first.” The very same day, a disturbing viral video showed Sean Michael-Emmrich Johnson harassing a Latino truck driver. “You’re going back to Mexico,” he taunted before stealing the man’s keys and impersonating a police officer. He was later arrested for kidnapping and assault. While ICE raids and mass deportations surged under the Obama and Biden administrations, Trump’s war on the undocumented has emboldened white racist vigilantism.

Activists say these events are part of a deeper pattern. Charleston was built on the massacre and displacement of indigenous peoples like the Etiwan, Kiawah and Sewee, and the enslavement of Africans. Descendants of both groups face some of the worst disparities in the country related to housing, income, health, education, policing and more. Gentrification threatens oppressed nationality neighborhoods, and now Latino residents – both documented and undocumented – face rising fear and repression.

This climate is what prompted the Charleston 7 and fellow demonstrators to take to the streets. Dulce Lopez, an activist at the January 29 protest, said “Charleston has thrived because of immigrants, yet harmful policies continue to target and criminalize our neighbors. A city that prides itself on Southern hospitality should be a champion for all who call it home, not a place where fear and division take hold.”

Karime De La Concha refuses to back down. “This fight is deeply personal to me. I never got to meet my father because he was deported when I was born. I grew up knowing what it feels like to have your family ripped away from you, to feel powerless against a system that doesn’t care. That’s why I was out there – to stand up for families like mine.”

Lucca Acosta Navas remains defiant: “They want us to stay silent, to let the injustice slide, to let them keep doing what they’re doing without anyone daring to stand up. But I won’t back down. No matter what they throw at me, no matter what they try to label me or how they try to break me, my spirit is stronger than their tactics. This fight is bigger than one protest.”

Justice for the Charleston 7: Drop the charges!

Stop the deportations!

Legalization for all and end Trump’s war against the undocumented!

#CharlestonSC #SC #ImmigrantRights #InJusticeSystem #Trump

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/police-brutalize-protesters-in-charleston-amid-crackdown-on-immigrants?pk_campaign=rss-feed