The Georgia State trooper who arrested state Rep. Park Cannon for knocking on Gov. Brian Kemp’s office door as he signed a sweeping new elections law, says he was worried about an insurrection at the Capitol similar to the one Jan. 6.
“The events of January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol were in the back of my mind,” Lt. G.D. Langford wrote in a report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I didn’t want the protestors to attempt to gain entry into a secure part of the Capitol,” Langford wrote. “I believed Cannon’s actions of obstructing law enforcement in front of agitated protestors to constitute a breach of the peace.”
Cannon was arrested for knocking on Gov. Kemp’s door while he signed a massive overhaul of the state’s election laws.
She was placed in handcuffs and dragged out of the Capitol to the Fulton County jail where she was charged with obstruction of law enforcement and disrupting General Assembly sessions, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
Georgia’s new election law imposes voter ID requirements, limits drop boxes, making it illegal to hand out food or water to people standing in line to vote, and gives the Republican-controlled Legislature more control over local elections after Democratic wins in November and January.
Several civil rights and voting rights groups have filed lawsuits challenging the new law seen as a concerted effort to suppress the participation of Black voters and other voters of color by the Republican controlled legislature.
