A teenage activist was arrested at the Iowa Capitol on Thursday during a protest against legislation that would strengthen qualified immunity for law enforcement officers and boost penalties for protest-related offenses.
Josie Mulvihill of Des Moines, 18, has been charged with allegedly assaulting a police officer. The Iowa State Patrol said she was cited and released into parental supervision, according to a report by WOI-DT, an ABC affiliate in Des Moines.
In the criminal complaint against Mulvihill, Iowa State Patrol Trooper Dylan Hernandez claims the teenager asked him and another trooper for their names and badge numbers. Hernandez alleges Mulvihill pushed his arm to get his attention when he and his colleague were headed for another assignment.
Video shared on social media showed a brief encounter between Mulvihill and Hernandez, which ends in the officer forcing the teenager to the ground during her arrest. Hernandez’s claim that Mulvihill grabbed his arm is not shown in the video, but there are moments in the footage in which she is out of the frame.
I just spoke to Ashley Dorelus.
She tells me there was an arrest during what was suppose to be a peaceful protest at the Iowa State Capitol this afternoon.
She sent me this footage: pic.twitter.com/Cf64tMm4nT
— Tisia F. Muzinga (@TisiaMuzinga) April 8, 2021
The Des Moines Black Liberation Movement Collective, made up of local community activists, called Mulvihill’s arrest “illegal and unconstitutional.”
Angelina Ramirez, who co-organized the rally, said Mulvihill’s arrest was the kind of thing protesters were there to rally against.
“We need reform to fix these relations and to fix racism in Iowa, and not instigate policy that increases tensions between the black and brown community and the police department,” Ramirez said, according to the Des Moines Register.
Sgt. Alex Dinkla, a spokesman with the Iowa State Patrol, said investigators are still gathering information about the incident.
Several dozen demonstrators were reported to have attended the “Kill the Racist Bills” protest that began outside before making their way inside the Capitol.
Protesters chanted, “Black lives matter” as they entered the building, as well as, “These racist cops have got to go,” “this is what democracy looks like,” and “kill those bills.”
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The protest also included a nine-minute “die-in” for George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis last May after a police officer knelt on his neck for the same time frame.
The trial for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who put his knee on Floyd’s neck during an arrest, is currently underway. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
