While public life in the US seemed to slowly return to normal after the pandemic and Joe Biden’s election, the political upheaval in Shasta county was only just beginning. Since an ultra-conservative majority gained power, it has battled the state over Covid and second amendment policies and attempted to do away with voting machines and replace them with a system based on hand-counting paper ballots. Officials here have promoted misinformation about vaccines and elections, hired an election skeptic to serve as the county’s top voting official and appointed a local hydroponics store owner, who was also a conservative activist, to a county board overseeing mosquito control, rather than an epidemiologist and former public health director.
As the county politicized, so did O’Connell-Nowain and her husband, Benjamin Nowain. They started attending board of supervisor meetings, regularly speaking out in an effort to fight back against what they viewed as the extremism that had taken root in politics, and joined a growing movement of residents frustrated by the direction the county was taking.
I got arrested on terrorism charges for holding a sign that said ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’, in Parliament Square. Our government is pushing to reduce the amount of court cases that are tried by jury because the public generally agree with environment and anti war protestors’s motivations.
The government’s proscription of Palestine Action was deemed an over reach but they are appealing the decision. So I am currently still considered a terrorist by our government. How is it that you can think the UK can look down on any other country in this regard.