Minnesota Lawmaker Launches Possibly Unconstitutional Attempt To Curtail Black Lives Matter Proteste

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Minnesota Lawmaker Launches Possibly Unconstitutional Attempt To Curtail Black Lives Matter Protesters

by Aaron Rupar at Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/03/14/3759318/black-lives-matter-zerwas-bill-minnesota/

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Black Lives Matter protesters in Minnesota have shut down the Mall of America twice, blocked an interstate highway near downtown Minneapolis, occupied part of the airport, and camped outside a police precinct in north Minneapolis. The protests were sparked in part by the 2014 deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hands of police officers and rekindled late last year after Minneapolis resident Jamar Clark was shot and killed during an altercation with cops.

Black Lives Matter helped stimulate a discussion about racial inequities in Minnesota, but some oppose the tactic of shutting down shutting down public roads and police precincts. In an attempt to deter those sorts of protests in the future, Republican Rep. Nick Zerwas has introduced a bill that makes protesters civilly liable for law enforcement costs if they refuse to disperse when ordered to do so and end up being arrested and convicted of a crime. The ACLU, however, says the proposal is unconstitutional.

“Local jurisdictions would have the ability to recoup costs,” he added. “If this is the new thing where once a month a [protest] happens, we can’t possibly expect our property tax payers to pay for it.”

In a statement about the bill, Zerwas noted that the additional police presence deployed in response to Black Lives Matter’s Mall of America protest in late 2014 cost more than $25,000. He hopes his bill “will save taxpayers money if such unlawful protests occur in the future.”




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