Editorial: Labeling protests as terrorism bill threatens to chill free speech
Its not surprising that the heightened political rhetoric of the presidential campaign and White House transition would spill over into state politics. Disappointing, but not surprising.
Claiming he sought to take a stand against illegal protests and economic terrorism, state Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, announced this week that he planned to introduce legislation during the session beginning in January that would allow felony prosecution of protesters who block transportation and commerce, vandalize property, threaten jobs and put public safety at risk.
His bill would create the new crime of economic terrorism, classifying it as a Class C felony, punishable by a sentence of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both. For comparisons sake, third-degree assault of a child is a Class C felony. The legislation would also go after those who financially sponsor such protests.
Ericksen, who was President-elect Donald Trumps deputy campaign director in the state, said the legislation is related more to protests during the past year that sought to block oil and coal trains than to anti-Trump protests that have followed Trumps election. But recent protests that blocked traffic might easily fall under Ericksens economic terrorism definition.
And that broad and incendiary language is the problem with Ericksens bill.
In an Associated Press report Wednesday, Doug Honig, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, said Ericksens loose terminology appears to be targeting civil disobedience as terrorism.
http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-labeling-protests-as-terrorism-bill-threatens-to-chill-free-speech/