By: Sarah Johnson
Over the last few years, we have looked a a variety of bills that aim to crack down on protesting. In 2017, we looked at protesting as a whole with Protesting: Sparking change or putting yourself in danger? and had a Quick Update later in the year. In 2019, we looked at “Critical Infrastructure” and Anti-Protester Legislation, examining how states were using “critical infrastructure” to increased penalties for protesters who trespass on and disrupt property containing a “critical infrastructure facility”. In 2020, we looked at legislation from Tennessee that would take protesters’ voting rights away if they were arrested while protesting with More Tennessee Residents (including Protesters) could Lose Voting Rights. This week, we’ll take a closer look at some Oklahoma legislation that aims to crack down on protests by increasing penalties for blocking roadways and protecting drivers who hit protesters.
Overview
Over the last year, it has felt as though there is almost a constant state of protest in the United States surrounding racial injustice. Recently spearheaded by the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, but also used throughout history, protesters have been leveraging an effective tactic: gathering by critical infrastructure or on major roads and disrupting business or blocking traffic.
Protests blocking roadways are commonly dealt with by police diverting traffic to enable continued travel for people and emergency vehicles. Almost equally as often, these protests are met with force and chaos from police and the public. This chaos has resulted in tear gas, rubber bullets, and other methods of force being deployed by police in attempts to remove protesters from an area. This approach also has resulted in injury and death from citizens hitting protesters with their cars. If you have seen a video of someone plowing into a group of people with their car, you have seen first hand how alarming and scary it is.
Ever since traffic blocking has increased in prominence as a protesting method, we have seen state legislatures across the country propose legislation aimed at increasing the penalties for blocking roadways and creating legal immunity for drivers who hit protesters with their vehicle if they were partaking in this type of protest.
Incidents Where People Were Hurt
There have been many documented incidents, in fact, over 100, where people have hit protesters with their vehicles causing injury and even death. One of the most known cases of death is that of Heather Heyer, at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina in 2017. The man who drove through the counterprotesters to the rally was found guilty of killing Heyer. Read more about my reflection of this rally and the death of Heather here.
There are also many other instances of this occurring in the years since Heather Heyer’s murder.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the location of some of the biggest Black Lives Matter protests this past year in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a tanker truck traveling at high speed drove through a closed highway where thousands of people were protesting. Amazingly, no one was critically injured.
Some people were not as lucky. In St. Louis, a man ran over by a tractor-trailer after it drove into a group demonstrating on a road was dragged to his death. The driver has not been criminally charged. Another man drove drove into protesters on a highway in Seattle, seriously injuring one person and killing another. This man has plead not guilty to charges of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, and reckless driving. Many of these incidents have graphic videos from bystanders.
In Oklahoma, a pickup truck driver with his family towing a horse trailer drove into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters on one of Oklahoma’s frequented highways, Interstate 244. The incident occurred close to an overpass, and left three people seriously injured, one of which is paralyzed from the waist down after falling off the overpass. Carmyn Taylor, one of the individuals injured, had this to say about the incident, “The most vivid thing I remember is when I got pulled to the ground. I remember seeing both sets of wheels run over my legs, which was a little traumatizing. For the first two weeks after the accident, I couldn’t walk.” Taylor suffered a broken leg and a sprained ankle from the incident. Representative Kevin McDugle, the author of the legislation we are looking at next, said this about the incident, “It’s not going to be a peaceful protest if you’re impeding the freedom of others. The driver of that truck had his family in there, and they were scared to death.”
What does this Bill Do?
Representative Kevin McDugle introduced OK HB 1674 this year and it was signed on April 21st, 2021. The bill states that a driver “who unintentionally causes injury or death” while exercising “due care” will not be criminally or civilly liable if they reasonably believe they’re “fleeing from a riot” where they will be harmed. The bill also now constitutes obstruction of a public street, highway, or road as a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in a county jail and fines up to $5,000. Anyone who convicted of this new offense could be held liable for damages. Because of the timing of this bill and the increased number of protests related to racial injustice, opponents of the bill are pointing out that this will disproportionately impact people of color and could be used maliciously. This bill takes effect November 1st, 2021.
Iowa proposed a bill to strengthen legal protections for police and increase protest-related offenses penalties. Proposed Missouri legislation creates the offense of unlawful traffic interference if someone impedes or blocks traffic on a public street, highway, or interstate highway. Utah legislation would absolve motorists from criminal responsibility if the motorist struck a person in the street during a riot if “the motor vehicle driver is under a reasonable belief that fleeing is necessary to protect the motor vehicle driver from serious injury or death; and the motor vehicle driver was exercising due care at the time of the death or injury.”
In Indiana, they proposed legislation that would bar anyone convicted of unlawful assembly from holding state employment, including elected office. Minnesota proposed a bill to prohibit those convicted of unlawful protesting from receiving student loans, unemployment benefits, or housing assistance.
Cover Photo by Koshu Kunii on Unsplash
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