Since the beginning of 2017,
Republicans in at least 18 states have proposed bills
to suppress certain protest tactics:
lawmakers in Missouri want to make it illegal to wear masks;
Tennessee wants to give legal protections
to drivers who hit demonstrators with their cars.
Jay Caspian Kang went to the Twin Cities
to speak to one of the politicians pushing for these new bills.
— Why are you so interested in these protests?
— If you close down the freeway,
that is not protected First Amendment rights.
That is an illegal activity.
You've drawn in extra resources,
and you deserve to go to jail.
Cut and dry.
— Minnesota State Congressman Nick Zerwas
thinks protests have gotten out of control.
To fix that, he’s written two bills:
the first would effectively ban demonstrations on highways and at airports;
the second would allow the state to sue anyone
who attended a protest that was deemed illegal.
But opponents believe the legislation
was designed to target Black Lives Matter activists,
who have shut down highways in almost every major city over the past two years.
— It is fundamentally unconstitutional to profit off of protests!
— Mica Grimm is helping lead the opposition against Zerwas’s bill.
Last summer, after the shooting of Philando Castille,
Mica and other organizers throughout the Twin Cities
held days of protests in front of the Minnesota Governor’s mansion.
— I believe!
— I believe that we will work!
— During the protests,
Mica presented the Governor with a set of demands.
When those demands weren’t met,
she decided to escalate the action
and shut down Interstate 94.
— Go, go, go, go!
— Let’s go!
— The highway was a really important tactic,
because it forced so many people to pay attention
to an issue that they never had to look at,
or even wonder about.
— Black lives!
— Matter!
— Black lives!
— Matter!
— People of color in this country face an incredible amount of prejudice.
They deal with inconveniences on a regular basis.
And this was our way of highlighting that inconvenience
for people who don't necessarily know that those things happen.
— It ain’t gonna be easy if there ain’t no justice.
Life ain’t gonna be easy for nobody without justice.
— I don't think that we would have gotten anyone
to pay attention to what's going on without doing that.
We've seen rallies at the government center,
we've seen rallies at the Capitol.
And, unfortunately, those don't get people as fired up.
And even if folks are mad,
we'd rather them be mad and talking about it,
versus completely ignoring it.
— No justice, no peace! Prosecute the police!
— On the I-94 protest, there was six hours of warnings.
— You need to leave the freeway immediately!
— 20 police officers were injured.
Those folks wanted to be arrested.
Those folks wanted a confrontation.
They were not going to leave the freeway.
There is a cost to that.
And I think the people breaking the law ought to pick up the tab.
— Move back now!
Hold your line, hold your line!
— When these protests happened in the past,
anyone arrested could be charged with a misdemeanor.
Zerwas’s bill increases the penalties to a fine of up to $1,000
and a jail sentence of up to one year.
— There are incidents throughout American history
where people are resisting lawful orders.
For example, sit-ins where people have to be pulled out.
Given that that is the history of protests and progress in this country,
why would you try and make something
that increases the penalties on that sort of expression?
— Penalties are meant to deter the activity or to punish the activity.
— So you would deter the people who were doing sit-ins?
— I would deter people from blocking the freeway.
— Why are all these people who have spoken out against the bill,
including lawyers from the ACLU, members of Black Lives Matter,
just general civil liberties lawyers around the country,
Why are they wrong?
— If you violate the law, you should go to jail.
— A 19-year-old goes to a protest,
is swept up in the sort-of emotions of what has just happened,
and runs out on the highway.
Do you think that person really deserves a year in jail?
— I think they deserve a stiffer penalty than is in current state statute.
— But you made the stiffer penalty, and it's a year in jail.
— It's up to a year in jail.
I don't know of any first-time offender that would get the maximum penalty.
— If the vast majority of people who go to these protests
most likely do not deserve a year in jail,
then why bump up the range?
— Because you need a range.
Because some people don't learn.
— I think that there would be a lot more fear
for the average person to participate in that kind of a demonstration,
if the stakes were so much higher,
the prospect of a felony on your record, the prospect of jail time.
I think you would have less people willing to commit acts of civil disobedience.
— Dissent is the power of the people.
If you feel like you have a voice,
if you feel like you’re powerful,
I want y’all to make some noise right now,
so they can hear us in there.
— Protest is meant to disrupt.
If we stay on the sidewalk, you're not disrupting anything.
That's why we enact civil disobedience.
We have to have these things,
because otherwise we'd be shouting at a wall.
— We will stand up for our rights!
Am I right?!
Let’s go!