During the heyday of the Standing Rock demonstrations, Republican state lawmakers across America introduced laws that would legalize murdering protesters with your car; now that a white supremacist terrorist has murdered an anti-Nazi protester with his car, these lawmakers are letting it be known that they won’t back down from their proposals.
They are backed in this by police unions, who also want to ensure that people who murder protesters will be shielded from liability.
North Carolina’s version of the immunity bill, HB 330, passed the lower chamber of the legislature in April. The text of the bill says that a “person driving an automobile who is exercising due care and injures another person who is participating in a protest or demonstration and is blocking traffic in a public right-of-way is immune from civil liability for the injury.” The definition of “due care,” of course, would be highly debatable.On Monday morning, the bill’s co-sponsors, state Reps. Justin Burr and Chris Millis, released a joint statement defending their legislation and claiming it would not apply in the context of Charlottesville.
BACKED BY POLICE UNIONS, LEGISLATORS STAND BY LAWS TO PROTECT DRIVERS WHO KILL PROTESTERS
[Zaid Jilani and Lee Fang/The Intercept]