More than 200 pro­test­ers at Trump’s inau­gu­ra­tion were arrest­ed and charged with riot­ing. The gov­ern­ment didn’t argue that the defen­dants had them­selves dam­aged prop­er­ty, but rather that their pres­ence made them complicit.

It’s really important for able-bodied people who have the capacity to do so to resist in a physical and noticeable way.

On Dec. 21, 2017, the first six ​“J20” defen­dants were cleared of all charges. And on Thurs­day anoth­er 129 defen­dants had their charges dis­missed. As for the remain­ing 59 peo­ple charged, they could face decades of prison time.

In These Times spoke with one of the remain­ing 59 defen­dants, Olivia Alsip, who faces tri­al in the com­ing months.

How do you feel about the acquit­tals in Decem­ber 2017, and dis­missal of charges in January?

This is a huge vic­to­ry. I’m super excit­ed that a lot of won­der­ful peo­ple can hope­ful­ly put this behind them and move on with their lives. But of course, none of us are free until we all are. We also rec­og­nize that this is anoth­er tac­tic by the gov­ern­ment to restruc­ture the nar­ra­tive after their spec­tac­u­lar fail­ure with the first tri­al. They’re try­ing to sal­vage their image by argu­ing that they’re now focus­ing on the worst of the worst. But that doesn’t seem to be true. The charges filed against myself and sev­er­al oth­ers don’t actu­al­ly allege we did any­thing crim­i­nal. A lot of us still fac­ing charges are those who have been vocal in media or those in labor orga­ni­za­tions like Indus­tri­al Work­ers of the World.

What brought you to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., the day of the inauguration?

Large­ly, I want­ed to send a mes­sage to the admin­is­tra­tion and to the peo­ple embold­ened by it that we’re still here. Not every­one can take to the streets and resist in such a bold way, giv­en the col­or of their skin or their immi­gra­tion sta­tus or class sta­tus. It’s real­ly impor­tant for able-bod­ied peo­ple who have the capac­i­ty to do so to resist in a phys­i­cal and notice­able way. Maybe because of your race or class or gen­der you have the lux­u­ry to not be affect­ed [by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion] direct­ly. But peo­ple are dying, they’re suf­fer­ing and they’re hurt­ing. They’re being oppressed and it’s wrong.

What has been the over­all feel­ing among the defen­dants through­out this ordeal?

I think we feel as good as we can about it. We have a very con­ser­v­a­tive judge who’s not been too friend­ly to us. They do any­thing to remind you that it’s their world and you’re sup­posed to fit into it.

How can peo­ple show sol­i­dar­i­ty with this movement?

We need help secur­ing hous­ing, get­ting the word out and fundrais­ing. What­ev­er you have an affin­i­ty for. We have yard signs if you’re in D.C. Even if you’re not an activist, you need to care about this case. The strug­gle against Trump, big­otry and fas­cism is so broad that every­one can get involved no mat­ter your capac­i­ty or abil­i­ty. How many peo­ple have died in Puer­to Rico while Trump was throw­ing out paper towels?

And as we’re wait­ing for ver­dicts, it’s impor­tant to note that a con­vic­tion does not equal guilt or wrong­do­ing, which you can see in the charges. They’re try­ing to say, ​“If you were there, you were part of it and you’re respon­si­ble for every­thing else that hap­pened there.” The jus­tice sys­tem it not meant to bring about jus­tice, it’s meant to bring about judgment.

How has the case changed your life?

I’ve nev­er had pan­ic attacks before, but oh boy, have I had them now! As awful as this year has been, I have a bunch of new friends and com­rades. We’ve been get­ting a lot more sup­port from broad­er move­ments: Black Lives Mat­ter DC, a cou­ple unions, and now, the Women’s March, which is real­ly great because ini­tial­ly they did not show any solidarity.

And we, in turn, try and show sol­i­dar­i­ty to oth­ers who are fac­ing polit­i­cal repres­sion, like the water pro­tec­tors arrest­ed at Stand­ing Rock, the Jason Stock­ley ver­dict pro­test­ers arrest­ed in St. Louis, and the Dream­ers arrest­ed in a con­gres­sion­al sit-in in Decem­ber 2017.

If we can come back from state repres­sion with more strength in our bonds, more trust and under­stand­ing of dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ties, that’s real­ly mar­velous. And maybe it will make them stop repress­ing us so hard.

Ha, that would be nice.

Dare to dream!

This in an expand­ed and updat­ed ver­sion of an inter­view that appeared in print.