Life in prison for red paint splashed all over this prosecutor's office?
Well, yeah. A bit much.
US protesters charged as 'gang' face life sentence
The paint splashing occurred during a 9 July protest against racism.
According to Utah's criminal code, the "gang enhancements" felonies Mr Gill filed are applied to "offences committed in concert with two or more person or in relation to a criminal street gang".
In effect, prosecutors are "calling participants in a protest gang members," a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union told AP.
Mr Gill, a Democrat who says he declined to charge other Black Lives Matters protesters for curfew violations, downplayed the potential serious life sentence such charges carry.
He did not think "anyone is going to be going to prison on this," he said.
Plea deals are said to be often used in cases such as these to avoid a full sentence.
"There's some people who want to engage in protest, but they want to be absolved of any behaviour," Mr Gill said.
"This is not about protest. This is about people who are engaging in criminal conduct."
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