Woman who torched Seattle police cars during George Floyd riots in 2020 sentenced to 5 years in federal prison

A woman who pleaded guilty to setting fire to five Seattle police cars during George Floyd rioting in 2020 was sentenced to five years in federal prison Tuesday, the Seattle Times reported.

What are the details?

Margaret Aislinn Channon was arrested June 11, 2020, after federal agents and Seattle police identified her from video showing an individual with distinctive clothing and unique tattoos on her hands setting fire to the vehicles, the paper said.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour told the 26-year-old during sentencing that her actions resulted in “tremendous damage to Black Lives Matter in Seattle," the Times noted.

Channon also broke into downtown businesses and stole clothing and other items, the paper said, adding that court documents indicated she admitted smashing the window at a Verizon store and entering a sandwich shop and destroying the electronic cash register.

“The right to protest, gather, and call out injustices is one of the dearest and most important rights we enjoy in the United States,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown noted, according to the Times. “Indeed, our democracy depends on both exercising and protecting these rights. But Ms. Channon’s conduct was itself an attack on democracy.”

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Brown added that Channon “used the cover of lawful protests to carry out dangerous and destructive acts, risking the safety of everyone around her and undermining the important messages voiced by others," the paper said.

Federal prosecutors added that Channon endangered the lives of hundreds of protesters when she used a lighter and an aerosol can to create a blowtorch to set a vehicle ablaze, the Times said, citing sentencing documents.

“Hundreds of people were standing in the vicinity of the police cars that Channon burned, some only a few feet away,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg wrote, according to the paper. “All of them were in harm’s way if one of the vehicles had exploded.”

Channon has agreed to pay restitution for the burned vehicles as part of a plea agreement, the Times said.

The following is a news report that aired following Channon's arrest in 2020:

Federal agents arrest Tacoma woman accused of setting Seattle police cars on fire during recent protyoutu.be

(H/T: Hot Air)