Arrested While Protesting

Georgia State Rep. Arrested While Protesting Restrictive Voting Law, Video Shows

ABIGAIL WEINBERG

A sitting Democratic state representative from Georgia was detained by state troopers shortly after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a restrictive voting rights bill into law, according to local news reports and videos circulating on social media.

Video shows police handcuffing state Rep. Park Cannon after she knocked on the door of the chamber where Kemp was signing a law that restricts access to the polls and makes it easier to overturn lawful elections. Cannon was one of several people protesting outside the governor’s chamber.

It’s unclear what, if anything, Cannon has been charged with. A Georgia Capitol Police representative reached by phone was unaware of the details of the arrest, and the state’s Public Information Office did not respond to a request for comment before the time of publication.

As my my colleague Ari Berman reported, the bill is “a major power grab” passed “on a party-line vote.” Stacey Abrams called the measure a part of a push to restrict voting that is “Jim Crow 2.0.”