Credit: Youtube.
The Charlotte Observer reports that Sen. Dan Bishop, a Charlotte Republican, has proposed a new measure that would make it a crime to “threaten, intimidate, or retaliate against a present or former North Carolina official in the course of, or on account of, the performance of his or her duties.”
The measure came in response to a video in which several protesters followed Ex-Gov. McCrory down a street in Washington, D.C. while chanting things like “Shame!” and “Anti-gay bigot!”
“If Gov. McCrory were a former official of the District of Columbia, this incident might have been a crime punishable by five years in prison,” Bishop in an official statement. “So should it be in North Carolina. This is dangerous. Jim Hunt, Bev Purdue and other governors never faced riotous mobs in their post-service, private lives, without personal security.”
Chanting “Shame!” and “Anti-gay bigot” are not dangerous. They might be embarrassing, yes. And a shameful bigot like McCrory certainly would have his little ears burning, but it’s still not dangerous. Five years in prison? Unfuckingbelievable. Is there any redeeming feature to self righteous rethuglicans? Just one? Because I never see one. People are fighting for basic human rights and the rethug answer? Prison! If there are any repubs who think they are chock full of redeeming features, you’re staying awfully quiet.
At no point in the video did any protester physically touch McCrory or make any threat against the former governor.
And since issuing threats to public officials is already a crime, the scope of Bishop’s bill would likely depend on how it defines “harassment” and “retaliation” against current or former government officials.
And there’s the heart of it. In the new Fascist States of America, you should not have the right to criticise. So much for those vaunted frozen peaches.* Full story here. *Free Speech / Freeze Peach / Frozen Peaches.
And in Louisiana, all that matters are blue lives, the rest of us can just go to hell or prison, whichever comes first:
Following suit with the Trump administration’s law enforcement platform, police in Acadiana, Louisiana have used the state’s new “Blue Lives Matter” law. Louisiana is the first state to enact such a law, which aims to protect the conduct of police officers by slamming people who resist arrest with hate crime charges.
“We don’t need the general public being murdered for no reason and we don’t need officers being murdered for no reason. We all need to just work together,” said the St. Martinville Police Chief, Calder Hebert in defense of the new law. “Resisting an officer or battery of a police officer was just that charge, simply. But now, Governor Edwards, in the legislation, made it a hate crime now.”
CBS News correspondent David Begnaud clarified on Twitter that the police chief’s language was inaccurate, according to Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards’ communications director. However, the Blue Lives Matter provision has already been used to charge someone with a hate crime.
If the response to protesters at Donald Trump’s inauguration is any indication of what’s to come from police, any Blue Lives Matter law that seeks to slap felony hate crime charges on people for resisting arrest is just another component of a serious crackdown on dissent.
Based on Louisiana’s Blue Lives Matter law, anyone who resists arrest or uses physical force against an officer can now be charged with a felony hate crime, a serious offense that will only further criminalize those most affected by abusive policing. Hate crimes are punishable by ten years to life in prison.
Again, the only answer: prison. And that’s for lawful dissent. Dark days. Full story here.
How long until one of the fuckheads decides to introduce a bill that would make it illegal to call out their actual policies when running against them, do you think? Oh sure you can campaign against me and I can say anything I want about you but you’re not allowed to point out anything bad I’ve done in any way because that’s criticism of a government official which is of course the meaniebaddest and besides you’re threatening my job, which is just like a threat, so toe the line, political opponent, or it’s jail for you..
Ahem.
I do find it interesting that merely being confronted with opinions of one’s actual behavior in public is threatening and retaliation and abuse, but when the tea party showed up at town halls armed to the teeth and screaming, that was just the totally lawful free expression of two, two, two amendments in one and not meant to be remotely threatening, no, siree.
How the fuck do you possibly rationalize resisting arrest as a hate crime? It’d be one thing if we’re talking about someone like the Dallas shooter who specifically targeted them, but this is saying any use of force against an officer is considered a hate crime. Aren’t republicans the ones who sneer about hate crime laws being special rights that tack on extra time just because the victim is black/gay/etc., no matter how clearly its explained to them that that southpark episode is bullshit and you can only be charged with a hate crime if its proved you specifically target that group? And yet the GOP has done exactly that for cops. They’re being given special protections that tack on extra time for assaulting them even if the assault had nothing to do with them being a cop.
Of course i’m overthinking this though. We know in reality some drunken white ‘real american’ can smash out a cops teeth while being wrestled down and get a slap on the wrist, but the black person or anti-Trump protester who waits half a millisecond too long to obey an order barked at them will get charged as resisting arrest and comitting a hate crim
In case anyone hasn’t seen it yet:
Blue Lies Matter
I thought after Pat McWhiney got voted out and left in disgrace that he would tuck his tail and hide the rest of his miserable life. As far as the rest of the asshole republicans in this state (NC), fuck them all. I will probably be dead and long gone before the damage of the next few years is rectified.
In this age of the whiny-baby-manchild, I am not surprised.
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Keep the boycott of the state going. Make sure that these assholes know that it’s happening, too. They need to get the message that decent people aren’t going to prop up a state full of regressive thugs.
samihawkins
Considering anything short of immediate and absolute obedience can be classified as ‘resisting arrest’ (and anyway they just have to yell it loudly), it’s pretty much free rein (or free reign, more appropriate) for the police to do as they wish.
That is one scary, scary law, and it will not end well.
Trust me on this:
If you have never listened to the song ‘THE VISITORS’ by ABBA do so.
Forget the ABBA stigma and listen to the lyrics. It feels like where we are headed ( by ‘we’ I mean Australia too -- we always ape the USA)
‘Now they’ve come to take me…’
‘Come to break me…’
You can forget the rest of the album -- it is the only song like this.