Park Cannon: Lawmaker won’t be prosecuted after ‘disturbing’ arrest for knocking on Georgia governor’s door
State Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta, is placed into the back of a Georgia State Capitol patrol car after being arrested by Georgia State Troopers at the Georgia State Capitol Building in Atlanta, Thursday, March 25, 2021.
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Georgia lawmaker Park Cannon will not be prosecuted after her ‘disturbing’ arrest for knocking on the governor’s door in a voting rights protest.
The Black state representative was arrested and dragged off the state capitol grounds while protesting the signing of a sweeping Republican-backed overhaul of state elections.
A district attorney in Atlanta has now announced that she will not pursue charges against Ms Cannon for the incident that saw her handcuffed and taken away by police.
“After reviewing all of the evidence, I have decided to close this matter,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a statement.
“It will not be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictment, and it is now closed.”
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Ms Cannon, a Democrat from Atlanta, was arrested on 25 March after knocking on the door to Governor Brian Kemp’s office as he was speaking on live television about the voting bill he had just signed into law.
“While some of Representative Cannon’s colleagues and the police officers involved may have found her behaviour annoying, such sentiment does not justify a presentment to a grand jury of the allegations in the arrest warrants or any other felony charges.”
Police charged her with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly and she was released from jail later in the day.
Democrats and voting rights groups have condemned the passage of the bill as they say the law will disproportionately disenfranchise voters of colour.
The new law includes identification requirements for absentee ballots, limits the use of drop boxes and criminalises giving voters in line water or food.
It has been harshly criticized by Joe Biden and resulted in a string of lawsuits from civil rights groups.
Major businesses in the state have also added their voices to the widespread criticism of the law, introduced by Republicans after Mr Biden’s win in November and the loss of two US Senate seats in January.
The legislation is one of a wave of GOP-backed election bills introduced in states around the country after former President Donald Trump stoked false fraud claims regarding the 2020 election.
Following the election in November, Mr Trump refused to accept his loss by about 12,000 votes in Georgia, long a Republican stronghold.
