Mango Lemon Hater

Don Lemon was arrested for doing his job

I am a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, and I also sit on its board of directors. Today, our president, Marc Murphy, wrote a statement for the organization in defense of journalist Don Lemon, who was arrested by the Trump regime for doing his job.

Don Lemon followed a protest into a church in Minneapolis, where the minister is an officer in ICE. Lemon had received a tip about the protest beforehand, so he went to the location to cover it. Donald Trump's Department of Justice figures that since Lemon knew beforehand of the protest, he must be a part of it. This displays either a total lack of understanding of how journalists often work or that the Trump administration is just out to get Don Lemon.

This is the same kind of thinking among Republicans who claim that since the Steele Dossier included interviews with Russians, Hillary Clinton must have colluded with Russians.

Lemon and others, including Georgia Fort, another independent journalist, were charged with a conspiracy to deprive the congregants of the church of their rights and to interfere with religious freedom in a house of worship.

The federal magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence refused to charge Lemon, Fort, and a few others. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the chief judge in Federal District Court in Minneapolis to issue the warrants, but was again denied. So the DOJ put together a grand jury because the easiest way to get an indictment is through a grand jury, since the defense isn't allowed to make its case.

This is similar to when attorneys were quitting the DOJ over the investigations of James Comey and Letitia James, because the cases were bullshit. Just as with those cases, the case against Lemon and Fort is bullshit, too.

Lemon was released tonight, but the DOJ argued for him to only be allowed to travel to his home in New York City and to Minneapolis, where the incident occurred. They were denied again. He was arrested in Los Angeles, where he was to cover the Grammys.

“I have spent my entire career covering the news,” Mr. Lemon told reporters outside the federal building after he was released. “I will not stop now. There is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.”

He added, “I look forward to my day in court.”

This is a personal attack ordered by Donald Trump. If you believe that Don Lemon was with the protesters because he was informed of their plans beforehand, then you'll be able to believe that the DOJ is not independent since the White House issued a tweet cheering this prosecution on.

I have worked with an organization called Cartoonist Rights, which helps cartoonists around the world who are persecuted for their work. I used to attend an auction where the sale of my donated cartoons went to aid persecuted cartoonists around the world. Never would I have believed that some of the journalists needing assistance in this world from a tyrannical government's prosecution would be located in the United States.

Going after journalists because governmental figures don't like what they say, and Don Lemon has said a lot that Donald Trump does not like, is the move of an authoritarian state. This is a dictatorship in action. Fortunately, for us, the dictatorship hasn't shut down every avenue to freedom, like the courts….yet.

Of course, Fox News spent a good chunk of its day telling us that Don Lemon is not a journalist. But how are the talking heads at Fox News supposed to know what a journalist is? Watching Laura Ingram claim that Don Lemon is a political activist and not a journalist made me scream at my TV, “But you speak at political rallies, you stupid bimbo!” I watched Jesse Watters make the same argument…from inside Donald Trump's ass.

Political cartoonists are journalists, or at least they are supposed to be. Maybe the right-wing ones, not so much. I'm very glad that the AAEC is standing with our fellow journalists being persecuted by the Trump regime. We need to stand together because before you know it, they will come after us. When you kill the Free Press, you kill democracy.

This is my organization statement.

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