Red state city piles on charges for grandma arrested for crude costume at Trump protest

An Alabama city is plowing ahead with prosecuting a 62-year-old grandmother who was thrown to the ground and arrested at an anti-Trump rally last fall for wearing an inflatable costume shaped like a male reproductive organ.

Renea Gamble was arrested Oct. 18 at a No Kings rally in Fairhope, Alabama, after a police officer threw her to the ground for refusing to remove the costume, which she bought at a Spirit Halloween store. Body camera footage showed Gamble repeatedly asking, "Am I being detained?" before Cpl. Andrew Babb grabbed her from behind and wrestled her onto her back.

Rather than dropping the case, the city attorney hit Gamble with additional charges of disturbing the peace and giving a false name to law enforcement, The Intercept reported. Her trial is now set for April 15.

"One would have thought at some point somebody would have decided to dismiss the case," said her attorney, David Gespass, a veteran civil rights lawyer who called the prosecution "absurd."

He was aghast by the city's response to back her arrest before the facts came out, according to the report.

No witness testimony or recording shows Gamble breaking any laws. Police initially responded to the scene over traffic complaints — not anything Gamble had done.

Videos of her arrest went viral, aired on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," and a local radio station named her costume Alabamian of the Year.

For her part, Gamble showed up to the next rally dressed as an eggplant.