Arizona vs the freedom to assemble

[Cyrano]

Is there really a need to demonize Republicans any more than has already been done? Or to call them out for the miserable pricks they are?

Well, probably yeah.

Here’s an article from the Daily Beast about how the GOP wants to “criminalize” protesting in Arizona. One can only suppose that their definition of “protesting” can be viewed as American citizens, peacefully standing in the street holding signs, and shouting out their opposition to the crimes being committed by Trump and his henchmen. Here’s an excerpt:

Arizona (Republican) lawmakers are using Trump-fueled rumors of “paid protesters” to push a new bill that would make rioting prosecutable under the same charges the state currently uses against members of organized crime rings.

Senate Bill 1142, which passed Arizona’s Senate on Wednesday and has been sent to the state’s House, would expand the definition of rioting, and make the crime prosecutable under racketeering laws. If booked on rioting charges—like some journalists were when they covered riots at Trump’s inauguration in D.C.—an activist could have their assets seized while officials investigated whether he or she had been paid.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/27/arizona-gop-wants-to-treat-protests-like-organized-criminals.html

It seems to me that Arizona Republicans are totally unaware of the Constitution, or the rights that American people have to peaceably assemble and protest the actions of their government. Either that, or they have decided to act like totalitarian thugs who will not put up with any sort of defiance to what they are organizing into their total dictatorship.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. No protest organizer

can possibly control what absolutely everybody attending the protest does. Unless there is proof that the organizer(s) intended for violence/lawbreaking to occur, there's no way that they should be able to be prosecuted for unintentional/accused lawbreaking that occurs during what is supposed to be a lawful protest. Hopefully, this law gets shut down by the courts really quick. This law is based on right-wing fantasies about left-wing protests (but could be used equally on right-wing protests as well) Awful.

[Cyrano]

2. As we've seen in the past,

cops can quickly cause what seems to be an unruly protest (riot) by rushing the protesters. And it goes without saying that this is what will occur 99% of the time.