Arizona Senate Republicans Pass Bill Expanding Racketeering Laws to Include Forms of Protesting
Photo by Jonathan Gibby/Getty
Florida gets a lot of publicity for being America’s zaniest state, but my vote goes to the one who thought that Joe Arpaio was a suitable choice for Sherriff of America’s fourth largest county for the last 24 years. Arpaio was ousted in this last election, but his authoritarian spirit clearly still lives on in the Republicans populating their state Senate.
In a vote split down party lines (17-13), the Arizona Senate passed a bill which expands laws aimed at organized crime syndicates to include “rioting.” Now you may say “but rioting is clearly bad, so why wouldn’t we want to prosecute those who riot?” First off, c’mon man…rioting is already illegal, and there are punishments in place for those who destroy property and incite violence. It’s not like you can set a car on fire and just walk away without any consequences. This isn’t Gotham. Secondly, according to this bill, “rioting” doesn’t solely mean perpetuating anarchy. Per the Arizona Capitol Times:
There’s something else: By including rioting in racketeering laws, it actually permits police to arrest those who are planning events.
Welcome to the era of pre-crime. Senator John Kavanaugh, R- Fountain Hills, told the paper:
“You now have a situation where you have full-time, almost professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder. A lot of them are ideologues, some of them are anarchists, but this stuff is all planned. I should certainly hope that our law enforcement people have some undercover people there.’’
Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake (yes, that’s really the area she represents, and this is my new favorite thing), said:
“I have been heartsick with what’s been going on in our country, what young people are being encouraged to do.”
Got that young Arizonans? Protesting when you feel strongly about something now makes you part of an organized crime syndicate (provided the House passes it and the governor signs the bill), and your actions are making the Republican Snowflakes of the world “heartsick.” To be fair, the idea that protesters are not genuine is a talking point not just confined to the right—as Barack Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said this in 2009 in response to a question by Jake Tapper as to whether some of the Tea Party protests against the Affordable Care Act were “manufactured:”
I think some of it is yes. In fact I think you’ve had groups today—the Conservatives for Patients’ Rights—that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger.
I never understood this criticism. How can you plan a legitimate protest without some central form of organization? When Tapper asked Gibbs how their organizing is any different from a liberal group doing the same, Gibbs responded:
I think what you’ve seen is they have—they’ve bragged about manufacturing to some degree that anger—I think you’ve got somebody who’s very involved, a leader of that group that’s very involved in the status quo. A CEO that used to run a healthcare company that was fined by the federal government—1.7 billion dollars for fraud—I think that’s a lot of what you need to know about the motives of that group.