Daily Mail:
- Barr spoke out at the Constitution Day celebration at Hillsdale College in Michigan on Wednesday
- ‘Putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest,’ Barr said
- ‘Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,’ the US AG added
- Barr told federal district attorneys in a call last week that a law against plotting to overthrow the government was among charges they could use on protesters
- In order to prove sedition, they would have to prove imminent danger to government officials or agents as part of a conspiracy
US Attorney General Bill Barr compared US coronavirus lockdowns to American slavery on Wednesday night as it was revealed he is encouraging prosecutors to charge police brutality and racial injustice protesters with sedition whenever possible.
Barr spoke out at the Constitution Day celebration at Hillsdale College in Michigan, suggesting the measures put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 were on par with an alternative to being put in prison, but one step down from the restrictions slaves endured.
‘You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,’ Barr told a crowd which applauded in response, CNN reported.
Barr likened the pandemic to life for Black people before slavery was abolished after he was asked to explain ‘constitutional hurdles for forbidding a church from meeting during Covid-19.’
