Democracy Now #3

Nadia Leon

Soc122

Democracy now #3

March 03: One story that was on this episode of Democracy now was one that involved youth and college students coming from various universities and states traveled to Georgetown University, then marched to the white house where they practiced civil disobedience to demonstrate to Obama that they are not happy and will not go along with his associating and supporting Keystone XL pipeline. One of their demonstrations included a block tarp being placed on the cement and multiple students lying down assimilating a “human oil spill.” Some of the students locked themselves to the White house’s fence and they were put under arrest. Obama is said to make a decision soon on the approval of the keystone XL pipeline. Another story that is covered is one of a woman named Marissa Alexander. She was arrested and convicted for firing a warning shot toward a wall and her abusive boyfriend. Her sentence originally was 20years in prison but as the case continued she then faced a sentence that would be triple her original. Many have found this case controversial in comparison to the case of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin and he was acquitted. The comparison of these cases are clearly not fair and this has been noticed around the world. Another story was one that covered the “Ag-Gag” law. This was recently passed in Idaho. Idaho being the seventh state to pass this law. This law makes it illegal to film farming facilities without the permission of the owners. The reason such law was created was due to activist groups going undercover to farms and filming the workers. Some of the things that were recorded included cows being beaten, dragged, and even sexually abused by farm workers. Videos such as this can greatly damage the business of these farms and decrease their business so it makes sense for states to pass this law. They would rather keep this type of activity private.