Charges have been dropped against Georgia Senator Nikema Williams, who was arrested at her place of work — the Georgia State Capitol — while observing a Count Every Vote rally last November.
“My charges might have been dropped,” says Williams, “but this is far from over. Every American has a right to free speech without fear of punishment. We are considering a civil suit against the Capitol Police to make sure no one has to go through what I did on November 13th.”
Williams, who had been standing alongside two white colleagues in the Rotunda of the Capitol building, was singled out for arrest and was charged with disrupting the General Assembly and obstruction. She was detained at Fulton County Jail for six hours, before being released on a $6,000 bond.
During the arrest Williams was zip-tied by police, and was later asked to submit to a strip search at Fulton County Jail. “It was horrific experience,” Williams told our reporter Zach D. Roberts shortly after her arrest. “They patted me down, like worse than you would get at a TSA pre-check. Then she told me to lift up my dress so they could make sure that I was not carrying something in my vaginal cavity. I am a sitting state senator, that you brought off the Rotunda off the capital and you’re wanting me to take my dress off to strip search me.”
Charges were also dropped against 14 of Williams’ constituents, who were arrested while demanding that uncounted ballots in the gubernatorial election between Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams, and Republican candidate, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp be tallied. In the months before the election, our team of experts had found that Kemp had improperly removed at least 340,134, mostly Democratic voters from the rolls. By systematically cleansing voter rolls, Kemp essentially elected himself governor — his official “winning” margin being less than 55,000 votes.
Writer, editor, photographer, videographer, social media consultant, and tactivist (tactical activist), Nicole Powers uses art and technology to share ideas that make the world a better place.
Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and the book and documentary,
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
His latest film is Vigilante: Georgia's Vote Suppression Hitman
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