A Frenzied Legislative Crackdown on Civil Rights

I’m seeing a flurry of bills that limit protest:

• Resisting arrest can now be considered a hate crime in Louisiana
• Republicans pass bill to charge demonstrators for police overtime costs
• North Carolina Republican proposes legislation that would ban people from yelling at lawmakers
• A new bill would protect drivers who ‘unintentionally’ hit Dakota Access protesters with their cars
• GOP State senator to propose bill criminalizing “illegal protests”
• Not a new bill, but: Felony Charges for Journalists Arrested at Inauguration Protests Raise Fears for Press Freedom
• EDIT: Just found this article tracking State bills that criminalize peaceful protests; 10 States as of 1/26/17.
• EDIT 2: Arizona Republicans want to empower the police to arrest peaceful protestors
• EDIT 3 4/11/17: The count is up to 16, and representatives from the UN have sent a letter to the US government offering a strong condemnation for proposed legislation

These are all State measures, but I suspect that Republicans are worried about the recent protests and will propose similar legislation, cloaked of course in Newspeak as The National Peace and Harmony Act. (Speaking of Newspeak, “1984”, the #1 Amazon best-seller, is currently out of stock and Penguin is rushing to print more.)

But authorities don’t even need to act legally; they can suppress protest by any means necessary, as happened to Occupy Wall Street encampments around the country. A law school report concluded that “there now is a systematic effort by authorities to suppress protests, even when these are lawful and pose no threat to the public.” Even though such suppression was subsequently found illegal:

• Gov. loses lawsuit for arresting Occupy Columbia protesters;
• Court declares 92 Occupy Chicago arrests unconstitutional;
• NYC Settles With 14 Occupy Protesters for $583K;
• Occupy Boise can restore tent city;

eventual justice counts for nothing years later when the goal is to disband the protests.