Standing Rocks Next Stand - Republican lawmakers introduce bills to curb protesting in 18 states
Last week the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples wrapped up her official visit to the United States, where she met with tribal communities and leaders across the country, including at Standing Rock. She found that the current US regulatory regime has failed to properly consult with tribal governments on energy projects, not only at Standing Rock but elsewhere. She also highlighted “the criminalization of indigenous peoples asserting their right to protest.”
It’s worth noting that the same afternoon officers cleared the camp, North Dakota governor Doug Burman signed into law three bills that will seriously impact future protests: they expanded criminal trespass laws, scaled up criminal penalties for rioting, and criminalized wearing masks and hoods while violating the law (though nearly everyone covers their faces and heads outdoors during the long and frigid Dakota winter). Republican lawmakers have introduced bills supposedly aimed at curbing violence or protecting public safety during protests in at least sixteen other states, making it clear that threats to the rights of one group can quickly spread to others. The bills are at best a solution in search of a problem, and at worst a very pointed attempt to curb and punish public protest.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/09/standing-rocks-next-stand
Republican lawmakers introduce bills to curb protesting in at least 18 states
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From Virginia to Washington state, legislators have introduced bills that would increase punishments for blocking highways, ban the use of masks during protests, indemnify drivers who strike protesters with their cars and, in at least once case, seize the assets of people involved in protests that later turn violent. The proposals come after a string of mass protest movements in the past few years, covering everything from police shootings of unarmed black men to the Dakota Access Pipeline to the inauguration of Trump.
Some are introducing bills because they say they're necessary to counter the actions of “paid” or “professional” protesters who set out to intimidate or disrupt, a common accusation that experts agree is largely overstated. “You now have a situation where you have full-time, quasi-professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder,” said Republican state senator John Kavanagh of Arizona in support of a measure there that would bring racketeering charges against some protesters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/24/republican-lawmakers-introduce-bills-to-curb-protesting-in-at-least-17-states/?utm_term=.f7dcfedb1595
These articles are a little old put need to be not forgotten, Trump calls them paid protesters so they could be arrested with property confiscated at will, 1984 on steroids!
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I'll still protest. I have so little assets I will have to OWE them.
