Redskins' Josh Norman helps pay bail for immigration activist detained since May

[demmiblue]

Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman and New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis helped pay the $50,000 bail for 22-year-old college student and farmworker Jose Bello, who was imprisoned at the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield, Calif., for 89 days after reading a poem criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a public meeting in May.

The New York Immigrant Freedom Fund and the National Bail Fund Network also contributed to paying Bello’s ICE-imposed bail, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which had filed a federal lawsuit on Bello’s behalf. ICE arrested Bello, a student at Bakersfield College who makes about $20,000 a year, at his home two days after he recited his poem at a meeting of the Kern County Board of Supervisors. He was released Monday.

“Jose Bello was exercising a fundamental right that we pride ourselves on as Americans,” Norman said in a statement shared by the ACLU. “If he was detained for reciting a peaceful poem then we should really ask ourselves, are our words truly free? This is America right? Where the 1st Amendment is freedom of speech unless I missed the memo somewhere. He was exercising that right.”

Norman and Davis are both members of the Players Coalition, an independent task force of 12 members co-founded by former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin and Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins in 2017 that is dedicated to improving social justice and racial equality. Earlier this offseason, Norman and Davis delivered a U-Haul truck filled with bottled water to Flint, Mich., and visited an immigrant respite center in McAllen, Tex., to witness the crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border firsthand. Norman made an $18,000 donation to the center afterward.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/08/13/redskins-josh-norman-helps-pay-bail-immigration-activist-detained-since-may/?tid=sm_tw

[grantcart]

1. Thanks for posting, hadn't heard about this

[CatWoman]

2. THESE ARE VERY GOOD MEN