In the first few hours after President Donald Trump was sworn in, two men were arrested. John Boswell is a millionaire arrested for sexually assaulting a maid in his hotel room during the Inauguration. Aaron Cantu was a journalist covering the Inauguration protests.
Boswell will serve no prison time. Cantu faces up to 75 years in prison. The Washington, D.C. jails were full of protesters that were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Those protesters got harsh sentences, while Boswell walked away with a $50 fine. What is wrong with this picture?
He allegedly touched a housekeeper at his hotel without her consent. While she was making his bed, Boswell allegedly massaged her left buttocks without her consent while saying, “This is nice stuff. I like that!”
She said, “Sorry, sir!” before leaving the room in shock. She was shaking and refused to go back into the room. Another housekeeper told the police what had happened.
Police were conducting broad arrests of people, even those not involved in the actual protests. Many people were just cornered in the same area. They had zip ties very tightly wrapped around their wrists. They were held in vans for up to four hours until it was hard to breathe. They were then held in cells without access to bathrooms or water for over seven hours.
Matthew Whitley, an organizer with Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council, which is supporting demonstrators told The Daily Beast:
“The arrests were extremely indiscriminate. It was a mass arrest of anyone the police believed had participated in the day’s anti-fascist, anti-capitalist demonstration. There was very little in terms of targeted arrests.”
Cantu was one of seven journalists hit with felony charges for covering the protests. Most of the journalists had their charges dropped, but Cantu’s was increased. This is just plain insane. Boswell should be getting that prison charge, not Cantu.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot.
