By Stephen D Foster Jr ·
Republicans
are stooping to a new low when it comes to their disdain for civil disobedience
and the Bill of Rights.
As
anti-Trump protests continue across the nation over a week after the election,
a Republican lawmaker in Washington state is drafting a proposed law that would
label the protesters as “terrorists” and give law enforcement and prosecutors
the ability to charge them with “economic terrorism.”
According
to Fox Q13, the law “would allow felony prosecution of protesters
who block streets, cause property damage, threaten jobs and put public safety
at risk.”
State
Senator Doug Ericksen, who proposed the legislation, insists that he “respects”
the right to protest, “but when it endangers people’s lives and property, it
goes too far.”
“Fear,
intimidation and vandalism are not a legitimate form of political expression,”
he continued. “Those who employ it must be called to account.”
Breaking
the law would be considered a felony and would apply to any protester who is
accused of trying to “intimidate or coerce private citizens or the government
by obstructing economic activity” and “those who fund, organize, sponsor or
otherwise encourage others to commit acts of economic terrorism. Accomplices
may be required to pay restitution up to triple the amount of economic damage.”
“We are not just going after the people who commit these acts of terrorism,” Ericksen said. “We are going after the people who fund them. Wealthy donors should not feel safe in disrupting middle class jobs.”
In
other words, Republicans are literally trying to classify acts of civil
disobedience as “terrorism” in order to ruthlessly put down the mass protests
against their fascist leader.
Of
course, if Hillary Clinton had won the election, Republicans would not being
saying the same thing about right-wing protests, even if those protests
included acts of bloody violence that Trump supporters threatened to use if
Trump had lost.
Somehow, they believe rebellion and armed government coups are
patriotic, but they consider civil disobedience an act of terrorism.
As
Doug Honig of the Washington ACLU explained, if this kind of law had been in
place during the protests against segregation, every black person who sat down
at a “white’s only” lunch counter to protest discrimination would have been
charged with committing terrorism.
“That’s
the kind of excessive approach to peaceful protest that our country and state
do not need,”
 |
| No problem here |
So
this is the latest strategy Republicans are looking to employ to silence people
who disagree with them and it would drastically restrict the right to protest
to the point of elimination.
But
again, this law would not apply to right-wingers who openly protest through
displaying or using firearms in order to scare and intimidate.