LYNN — More than six months after a Black Lives Matter activist was arrested at a protest in Swampscott, supporters are continuing to ask for the charges against him to be dropped.
Ernst Jean-Jacques, also known as Shimmy, was arrested and charged with assault while counter-protesting at a pro-Donald Trump rally in December of 2020. In videos from the incident, an 80-year-old Trump supporter is shown throwing water at Jean-Jacques, and he moves his hand toward her. Police and the woman involved in the incident, Linda Greenberg, say that Jean-Jacques punched her; Jean-Jacques and his supporters maintain that he simply tried to take the water bottle away from her.
Every Monday, supporters of Jean-Jacques rally in front of Lynn District Court from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to ask Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett to drop the charges against the activist.
“They just continue with this lie,” said Heidi Hiland, one of the supporters who joined the rally on Monday. “Meanwhile, (Jean-Jacques) lost his job, he’s still not able to work and he’s hurting.”
Up until this month, the protesters were demonstrating in front of the Swampscott Police Department, but changed the location because the case is now in the hands of the DA. However, the same protesters hold weekly Black Lives Matter rallies on Thursdays in Swampscott, where they often clash with the same pro-Trump group that Jean-Jacques had been protesting on the day of his arrest.
Last week, Hiland and other demonstrators said they were upset to find that the pro-Trump group, led by conservative radio host Dianna Ploss, were handing out racist literature, including pamphlets titled “The Left’s War on Whiteness” and “Black Lives Matter: Marxist Hate Dressed Up as Racial Justice.”
Jean-Jacques’ case is scheduled to go to trial next month. His supporters say they will continue their rallies until he gets justice.
“I don’t know who (Blodgett) is protecting, but it’s definitely not Shimmy,” said supporter Jade Tisdol.
