Thursday, April 22, 2021

Republicans Are One Bill Away From Making It Legal to Shoot a Protestor Whose Sign They Don’t Like

 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/gop-anti-protest-bills

 Following the signing of a Florida “anti-riot” law that, among things, grants civil immunity to people who decide to drive their cars into protesters who are blocking a road and makes it a second-degree felony to destroy a plaque, memorial, painting, flag, or other structure commemorating historical people or events, the New York Times reports that GOP lawmakers in dozens of states have introduce anti-protest bills meant to silence people speaking out for justice. Oklahoma and Iowa, for instance, were apparently inspired by what Florida did re: basically encouraging drivers to strike protestors with their cars, and passed similar bills granting legal protections in certain situation for drivers who hit protestors supposedly blocking the street. In Indiana, a Republican proposal would ban anyone convicted of unlawful assembly from holding state employment. A Minnesota bill would bar people convicted of unlawful protesting from receiving unemployment benefits, housing assistance, and even student loans. In Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was killed by the police inside her apartment last year, the State Senate passed a bill that would make it a crime to insult a police officer with “offensive or derisive” words or gestures that could “provoke a violent response.” (In other words, one could be charged for using words that caused a police officer to violently respond to them.) That measure would have required those arrested to be held in jail for a minimum of 48 hours, a rule that does not automatically apply to people arrested in Kentucky on charges of arson, rape, or murder. While the bill died in the statehouse, its lead sponsor, Republican State Senator Danny Carroll, said he would refile it next session.

As the Times notes, these bills are completely unnecessary given the fact that (1) last summer’s protests were overwhelmingly peaceful—96% involved no police damage or police injuries, while a report found that it was police officers or counterprotesters who often instigated violence and (2) laws already exist to punish rioting. Instead, the measures are clearly aimed at scaring people into staying silent.

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