Arizona Goes for Full Protest Suppression.


Women's March on Washington (Photo: Sarah Burris/RawStory).

Women’s March on Washington (Photo: Sarah Burris/RawStory).

The myth of professional protesters continues to be spread by rethugs, and Arizona rethugs have passed legislation which would allow the cops to seize the assets of anyone who attended a protest which turned violent in any way, along with the power to arrest those who planned the protest, although they did not commit any violent acts. The rethugs are extremely unhappy with The Resistance, and are doing everything they can to shut it down. We are all going to have to stiffen our spines and our resolve, and refuse to back down in the face of blatant rights violations.

The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate has passed a bill that would let law enforcement officials seize the assets of people who participate in protests that turn violent — even if those people had nothing to do with any violent incidents.

[…]

The bill would allow police to seize assets of anyone who attended a peaceful protest that happened to turn violent, and it also gives cops the power to arrest people who planned the events, even if they did not personally commit violence.

State Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills), who supported the bill, explained to the Arizona Capital Times that it’s aimed at curtailing the activities of “professional protest” groups whose goal is to start riots and damage private property.

“You now have a situation where you have full-time, almost professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder,” said Kavanagh, a former police officer.

Bald-faced fucking liar. :spits: I’d like to see this flaming asshole address all the violence at Black Lives Matter protests, as the violence was all perpetrated by cops. I’d like to see this asspimple address the overwhelming violence committed by cops against all those at Standing Rock. Fuck you, Kavanagh. People are marching and protesting and protecting because it’s the only recourse we have. It’s not like we can look to our government for help.

Via Raw Story.

Comments

  1. Dunc says

    “You now have a situation where you have full-time, almost professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder,”

    This is entirely true. They’re called “the police”.

  2. obscure1 says

    Former police officer James Kavanagh would certainly know more about “…professional agent-provocateurs” than the average media consumer. Projection much, Officer Kavanagh?

  3. says

    It’s funny how this Constitution of yours works.
    There’s the right to freedom of religion that allows you to keep your children stupid or let them die. There’s the right to free speech that allows you to make rape and death threats and call for genocide. There’s the right to bear arms that must not be effectively regulated no matter how many children die.
    And then there’s the right to peaceably assemble which apparently means nobody must notice your protest or else…

  4. says

    People are marching and protesting and protecting because it’s the only recourse we have

    Here I have to respectfully disagree. It’s the first and preferred recourse that we have. Plan B sucks so bad that nobody in their right mind wants it. And Plan C ought to remain off the table -- in an ideal world -- indefinitely. But there are Plan B and Plan C and if this shit continues there will be people advocating those. The authoritarians are already preparing for Plan B, that’s obvious. Fortunately, there’s no amount of preparedness that deflects Plan C, unfortunately the results of Plan C look a lot like Syria.

  5. johnson catman says

    So . . . if the police come upon a peaceful protest and start using their batons and pepper-spray on the peaceful protesters, the protest can be considered to have turned violent? Therefore, the assets of all the protesters can be seized? How could this possibly pass constitutional muster?

  6. multitool says

    Oh well. At least now you can join an anti-abortion protest and start throwing bricks at property.

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