Less than 24 hours after my post on the rise of independent Black media, Don Lemon is arrested.

In a brazen display of federal government overreach--less than 24 hours after I posted a blog on the rise of independent Black media--Pam Bondi, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) chief and Trump lackey, arrested independent journalist Don Lemon for violating federal law by covering an anti ICE protest in Minnesota at Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday, January 18.

In October, according to KARE 11 News,  David Easterwood, one of the church’s pastors and the focus of the protests, stated, “I am the acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations (ERO) in St. Paul,” as he stood alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who spoke about ICE activity in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

DOJ also arrested Emmy-award winner Georgia Fort, independent journalist, and founder of BLCK Press & Center for Broadcast Journalism, Trahern Crews (cofounder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota), Jamael Lundy, Democratic candidate for the MN Senate. (Interestingly, none of the news accounts that I read mentioned their activist or political affiliations.)

Take notice podcasters, news commentators, bloggers, YouTubers, social media influencers as well as other independent journalists. At stake are our freedoms of speech and of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment.

With Republican majorities in both Congress and the Senate, the chances of them curbing the administration’s ongoing attacks on a free press appear minimal.

It is unsurprising that the journalists arrested by the DOJ are Black—along with two of the three St. Paul protesters taken into custody, Nekiva Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen—given the administration’s pattern of disparaging Black female journalists (see Jan. 29 blog), Black elected officials, and Black immigrants.

Now is the moment for the citizenry—especially Black Americans—to step up where Congress will not: to support, defend, and uphold the Constitution through all lawful means available.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law School and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, explained that the Constitution, “… is created by “We the People.” It is the people who are sovereign. This makes clear that the United States is to be a democracy, not a monarchy or a theocracy or a totalitarian government ….”

 Photo: Courtesy of Kindel Media (pexels.com)