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Representative Alex Rizo of Florida (a republican of course) filed a house bill that would make it a second-degree misdemeanor to "impede" pigs (cops) in doing their job (crowd control, genocide, etc.). You can find the entire text here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/11/BillText/Filed/PDF.
For the intents and purposed of this blog post, see the excerpt of the bill below:
"Section 1.
"...(2)(a) It is unlawful for any person, after receiving a warning from a law enforcement officer [What if a warning was never given? Could a cop be punished if they arrested a person for "impeding, provoking, or harassing" without a warning? ] not to approach, to violate such warning and approach or remain within 30 feet [What, will cops be carrying measuring tapes to crime scenes now??? LOL.] of a law enforcement officer who is engaged in the lawful [most citizens, including cops, don't know the law--so who's to say that the activities being performed are 'lawful' at all?] performance of any legal duty with the intent to:
1. Interrupt, disrupt, hinder, impede, or interfere with the law enforcement officer's ability to perform such duty; 2. Provoke a physical response from the law enforcement officer [Oh! So, cops have no agency of their own to practice restraint??? Way to infantilize the people we expect to pRoTeCt uS. You think the public would 'set cops up' by making them 'behave badly' or something??? That's rich--especially since cops frequently set people up and behave badly without any provocation at all, lol.]; or 3. Directly or indirectly harass the law enforcement officer. [1) 'Harass'?! LOL. That's a strong word. Examining the denotation of 'harass', I ask: How could someone with a gun really be 'intimidated' or 'pressured' by a person that they could kill with impunity??? 2) Cops are members of the society. And studies have shown that many people's perception of Black people, particularly Black men, is unrealistic and biased. Check out the results of one such study here: (https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/black-men-threatening). Who's to say that these cops, the majority of whom are white (https://datausa.io/profile/soc/police-officers#demographics), don't have the aforementioned ingrained biases and racism-derived psychoses??? What's to stop them from fatally acting on their fantastical views of Black men??? If you happen to be one of the dummies wondering why I'm talking about Black men specifically, it's because Florida's prison population is mostly Black (https://www.vera.org/downloads/pdfdownloads/state-incarceration-trends-florida.pdf & https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/FL.html). (Surprise, surprise...) Finally, the wording of this section of the proposed bill makes the concept of harassment incredibly subjective. Who's to say that a Black teen filming quietly as they walk by the scene isn't 'harassing an officer'?]
(b) A person who violates this subsection commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 31 775.082 or s. 775.083. 32
Section 2.
This act shall take effect October 1, 2022."
Don't be fooled, brethren.
The folks already have all the license they need to do their job: As I said, they can literally murder you to do whatever it is that they consider their "job".
Then they can lie about it.
And/or delete evidence.
And/or plant evidence.
Then they can do it again.
Make no mistake: This racist bill isn't to help officers do their job. It's to keep victims (both citizens and alleged citizens) from holding cops accountable for their actions. They are trying to minimize the amount of evidence available to be used against cops in any given case. They don't want to be shown to be fallible or be pressured by public opinion. They want the freedom to have their cake and eat it too: they want to be criminals AND dictate what actions constitute "crime". They want to punish as they see fit.
It's bad enough that cops are hardly ever convicted. (See this NPR link for details: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/08/974941363/why-police-usually-arent-convicted-in-murder-trials & https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/956177021/fatal-police-shootings-of-unarmed-black-people-reveal-troubling-patterns). It's bad enough that many cops withhold, tamper with, or flout body-cam footage altogether (https://www.wired.com/story/body-cameras-stopped-police-brutality-george-floyd/). It's bad enough that Rizo and his other reptilian cronies feel comfortable threatening the public with the social leprosy of a criminal record (which we all know affects livelihoods indefinitely, especially when the incarcerated person is a BIPOC).
The kicker is that THIS PROPOSED BILL WOULD LIKELY BE A VIOLATION OF OUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS, YET THEY'RE STILL TRYING TO DO IT (see the full text of the Bill of Rights here: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/bill-of-rights).
This bill, as law would constitute specific violations of the first amendment (particularly of speech, assembly, and petition). It could also violate other amendments, such as #4 (seizure of property), #5 (right to due process and resisting self-incrimination), #6 (speedy and public trial, unbiased jury of one's peers, right to a lawyer to represent you), #8 (prevention of excessively high fines and cruel and unusual punishment), and #9 (the affirmation and endorsement of all rights not explicitly written).
If I can see all this, I'm sure that (non-racist) the lawyers can. I expect to hear about this bill (if it becomes law) being challenged in court.