Legislature’s heavy-handed way to handle protests
Some at the Arizona Capitol charged with representing the people are of late wanting to lord over them instead. Most glaring is a series of pieces of legislation that would eviscerate the process and power voters have to shape laws via ballot initiatives.
And then there is Senate Bill 1142, an excessively punitive proposal taking swipes at demonstrations and the people and groups that organize them.
That bill is posed in the guise of public safety, allowing authorities to more severely punish anyone associated with a “riot,” defined as two or more people using force or violence — or simply threatening force or violence — in a way that disturbs the peace.
This, despite laws already on the books against rioting. And a Class 5 felony, at that — no mere slap on the hand.
Never mind SB 1142 is a solution in search of a problem. Its bigger danger — and perhaps the actual intent — is to suck oxygen from opposition movements that take to the streets.
The absurdity of the legislation lies in tacking riots onto Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statutes, which were originally designed to prosecute criminal enterprises the likes of the Mafia and drug cartels.
Those statues allow the government to seize property and assets of suspects, in part to prevent the use of them for bond — allowing indicted individuals to abscond — and on the supposition that the assets were the result of illegal gains. They also open the door for civil prosecution, which requires a lower burden of proof.
State lawmakers see nothing wrong with putting grass-roots groups and activists on par with organized crime? Overshoot much?
Under SB 1142, anyone involved in a protest or demonstration is liable for the actions of everyone else. That is, getting your house or car seized for marching in a protest that results in someone busting a window or shoving a counterprotester is a real, if extreme, possibility.
The legislation passed the Senate, 1713, on a party-line vote. That partisanship divide is less remarkable than the Republican support itself, given conservatives’ general aversion of government intrusion and overreach.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, and backers the likes of Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, and Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, can’t cite a need, other than to point to violence at political protests in other parts of the country.
It’s revealing that Kavanagh talks of targeting “paid agitators” who coordinate or encourage violence at rallies. That has been an embellished, often false, narrative perpetuated by the right.
It played out in a protest last year at a campaign rally in Fountain Hills for then-candidate Donald Trump. A group of protesters blocked a major thoroughfare leading into the town. Among them was Jacinta Gonzalez, an activist who chained herself to a van that was stalling traffic.
Some conservative critics painted Gonzalez as an agent provocateur paid by billionaire and liberal-causes benefactor George Soros. Gonzalez was the recipient in 2011 of a Soros Justice Fellowship, given out to people who advance social-justice reforms, but her role in the Fountain Hills protest was with Mijente, an organization that teaches and helps Latinos to organize.
In fact, if recent history is any indication, the individuals and groups most imperiled by SB 1142 are those pushing Democratic reforms. Like Mijente; or Puente Arizona, which spearheaded rallies on the minimum-wage Prop. 206 and immigrant rights; or the Rev. Jarrett Maupin, the Phoenix activist who staged protests over police shootings and other perceived law-enforcement injustices.
It’s probably no stretch to infer the legislation is yet another slap against liberal movements.
After all, the protest of Trump in Fountain Hills led to passed legislation (sponsored by Kavanagh) that increased penalties for obstructing a roadway to keep someone from getting to a government meeting or political event.
A popular refrain from the far right since November has been: “We won the election. Get over it.” A lampoon of sore winners, including those in the Legislature, could be similarly made, if they weren’t so ill-humored.