Do you remember the kitchen scene from the 1993 version of Jurassic Park when the kids were hiding from the Raptors? Remember how much your heart was pounding, wishing that those Raptors would just go away?
That is exactly how we feel under this new administration in America.
Republican legislators latest move is to introduce a number of proposals to criminalize and discourage peaceful protest, specifically as a reaction of high-profile highway closures and other “disruptions” from demonstrations led by Black Lives Matter activists and, most recently, the Dakota Access Pipeline. Republicans expect an influx of protest movements during the Trump era, starting off with the Women’s March on Sunday. A march that brought in more numbers than the presidential inauguration, no matter what the media tries to tell us.
The five states on the chopping block are North Dakota, Minnesota, Washington, Michigan, and Iowa.
-In North Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill just last week that would allow motorists to run over and kill any protester blocking major roadways as long as you do so “accidentally.”
-In Minnesota, a bill was introduced by Republicans seeking to enforce strict fines and seek a full year of jail time for protesters.
-In Washington, a plan to reclassify as a felony civil disobedience protests that are deemed “economic terrorism” was brought to the light.
-In Michigan, last month, lawmakers introduced an ‘anti-picketing law’ that would increase penalties against protesters and make it easier for businesses to sue individuals for said actions.
-In Iowa, a Republican lawmaker has pledged for legislation to crack down on highway protests moving forward.
Photo: Giphy
Let’s make one thing clear, every single one of these proposed laws is not only disturbing, but they are violations of the First Amendment, something that we are all entitled to as American citizens. Lee Rowland, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, views these bills as “deeply troubling.” He goes on to say, “A law that would allow the state to charge a protester $10,000 for stepping in the wrong place, or encourage a driver to get away with manslaughter because the victim was protesting, is about one thing: chilling protest.”
Jordan S. Kushner, a Minneapolis civil rights attorney who has represented a few Black Lives Matter protesters, said this bill is “most alarming” because of its dramatic penalty and how they’re targeting a certain type of nonviolent protests. “The statute is very heavily abused by police to charge people with crimes in response to minor resistance to police based on good faith disagreements with what they are doing,” Kushner told The Intercept. “It is frequently used in response to people who verbally challenge or try to observe/record police at protests.”
On the bright side of things, Washington state is controlled by Democrats in both the house and the state legislature, so there’s a slim chance that the plan will advance. However, Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota are all Republican-dominated legislatures.
“I think that the motivations for the Republican legislators proposing bills to penalize protests are to cater to the general public hostility towards Black Lives Matter in the overwhelmingly white suburban and rural districts they represent,” said Kushner in an email to The Intercept. “The goal is to criminalize protesting to a greater degree and thereby discourage public dissent.”
This is a hot ass mess and unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come.
I will say that it’s interesting that millions turned out for the Women’s March this past Sunday, and not one arrest was recorded. I was glad to read these reports but I can’t lie, I had to wonder why not? Is it because authority doesn’t fear the power of women coming together for a greater cause, or is it because the majority of the crowd didn’t look like the same people that show out for BLM or Dakota pipeline protest? Guess we’ll see soon enough.
Photo: Giphy
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