Shutting Down Dissent, Curtailing Democracy

A wave of bills aimed at curtailing protests and demonstrations has started to make its way through state legislatures across the country. A Washington Post analysis found at least 18 states where Republican legislators have either proposed legislation that targets certain protest tactics, sought to increase penalties for illegal protests under existing law, or publicly discussed pursuing such measures. The proposed measures come amid a revival of disruptive protests [eg, Black Lives Matter & Standing Rock, Women's March on Washington and associated anti-Trump protests].

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The Arizona Senate approved one such bill in a party-line 17-13 vote last Wednesday. Senate Bill 1142 makes two key changes to state criminal laws: First, it expands the definition of rioting to include “damage to the property of another person.” Second, it adds rioting to the list of offenses that could fall under racketeering.

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[T]he bill’s racketeering provisions could be used by police to investigate protest organizers ahead of time. On Monday, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House said he wouldn’t hear the measure, effectively killing the bill.

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In North Dakota, the state House considered a bill that would shift the liability burden from drivers who unintentionally hit protesters with their cars to the protesters themselves.

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While the bill eventually failed on a 50-41 vote, legislators are mulling similar bills elsewhere. Tennessee lawmakers introduced their own civil-liability bill in February. After a group of protesters blocked traffic on Interstate 94 in St. Paul, Minnesota, last year to protest the death of Philando Castile, state legislators drafted a bill in January that could send future demonstrators to jail for a year for obstructing highways. Iowa’s Senate File 111 would make blocking highways a felony offense with a possible five-year prison sentence.

In Washington, a version of the highway-protest bills came in response to environmentalist-led demonstrations that had targeted the oil industry.State Senator Doug Ericksen introduced Senate Bill 5009, also titled the Preventing Economic Disruption Act.

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North Dakota’s civil-liability bill and a Virginia measure that would have ramped up criminal penalties for being at an illegal protest, have already gone down to defeat after facing public opposition. And some of the bills that pass could still face tough scrutiny in the courts. But the proposals as a whole point to a more enduring dynamic: As mass protests return to the political zeitgeist, so too will efforts to clamp down on them.

  The Atlantic

A jury on Wednesday convicted three Code Pink activists on charges related to a protest at the confirmation hearing of Jeff Sessions for attorney general — including a Virginia woman who said all she did was break out in laughter.

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[T]wo other activists in the group she was with [...] who were dressed as Ku Klux Klan members with white hoods and robes and stood up before the Jan. 10 hearing started.

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All three had pleaded not guilty, rejected a plea deal and demanded the trial.

  NYT

As pepper spray burns sank in [during the Trump inauguration protests], some reporters were allowed to walk away without arrest. Others joined legal observers for a night behind bars and were charged with felony rioting, which carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison.

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Some activists have signed a statement refusing to plead guilty to any charge, which defendants view as a heavy-handed bid to frighten them into guilty pleas, without evidence of individual wrongdoing.

"The superseding indictment is an unprecedented effort to explicitly charge people with acts they did not commit, that were committed by others, based solely on proximity and assumed shared political views. That basis for prosecution stands in direct violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression, assembly and association," says Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice.

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Professional photographer Alexei Wood, who live-streamed footage of the Jan. 20 march and its aftermath to Facebook, resigned himself to arrest.

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Wood [...] faces a statutory maximum of more than 70 years in prison after he and 211 others were indicted on additional rioting and destruction of property charges by a grand jury Thursday.

“I was there to document and that's exactly what I did,” Wood tells U.S. News. “I'm pissed that [the] prosecution is using my footage as discovery but hasn't given me journalistic credit.”

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Wood's live-stream, still available on Facebook, offers one of the most comprehensive documentary accounts of the mayhem moments before Trump took office.

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Wood does not participate in protest chants, but at a few points he says “woohoo” as acts of vandalism are committed. It’s unclear if Wood was expressing approval or nervous merriment at an action-packed shot. In possible support of the latter explanation, he also says “woohoo!” as police fire concussion grenades.

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Wood’s video shows that he did not spray-paint private property or smash windows, and he did not seek to break through a police line, staying at a distance for the shot. Still, he and 211 others covered by last week’s superseding indictment are hit with five felony property destruction and three rioting charges each.

Each destruction of property charge carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

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“This is the f--king Seattle ‘99 that I missed. … I’m f--king blissed out,” he says as marchers retreat from police.

  US News

Not if they nail you for it.

..but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.