Law would double fine for highway protesters
A new law proposed by a Southern California Assembly member would double the fines protesters who block highway traffic face.
Assembly Member Kate Sanchez, a Republican who represents parts of Orange and Riverside counties, introduced the legislation after recent protests calling for a cease-fire in Gaza snarled traffic on major highways in both the Bay Area and in Southern California.
In San Francisco, nearly 80 people have been charged with unlawful public assembly and other misdemeanors for blocking traffic on the Bay Bridge for hours during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November. While protesters have called on District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to drop the charges, she has said that free speech cannot compromise public safety.
On Wednesday, when Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly stopped traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge, Sanchez shared on social media photos of the protest taken by a KQED reporter and announced that she would “double penalties for protestors blocking traffic” with her new bill.
“Aren’t you sick of seeing this?” she wrote. “When they shut down highways they’re preventing fire trucks from responding to emergencies, people getting to work, and parents picking up their kids at school.”
If passed, the legislation would add a provision to the state law that requires drivers to give the right-of-way to emergency vehicles prohibiting drivers and pedestrians from willfully obstructing a highway, including during a protest, in a way that prevents emergency vehicles from passing.
While the fine for not giving the right-of-way to an emergency vehicle is currently between $100 and $250 for a first offense, the new bill would make the penalty for willfully obstructing a highway between $200 and $500 for a first offense.
The bill, AB2742 was introduced Thursday and was co-sponsored by nine other California Republicans. It has not yet been assigned to a committee hearing, and likely faces steep odds in the Democratically-controlled state Legislature.