Just what the world needs now, another federal crime singling out a protected class of individuals who are more deserving of enhanced punishment than others.
On Monday California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell introduced the Journalist Protection Act, making it a federal crime to attack news reporters. The bill subject persons who cause bodily injury to a journalist “committed with knowledge or reason to know such individual is a journalist” to a fine and up to six years in prison.
Eric Swalwell of California (AP pix)
“During his campaign and since taking office, President Trump has created a climate of extreme hostility to the press by describing mainstream media outlets as ‘a stain on America,’ ‘trying to take away our history and our heritage,’ and ‘the enemy of the American People,” said in a press release put out by Swalwell announcing the introduction of the bill. “He tweeted a GIF video of himself body-slamming a person with the CNN logo superimposed on that person’s face, and retweeted a cartoon of a ‘Trump Train’ running over a person with a CNN logo as its head.”
The congressman said such antagonistic communications encourage others to think violence against journalists is more acceptable, he declared.
Oh great, one more hate crime law. Journalists now join the elderly, some races, gender identities, public officials and countless others deemed needful of additional protection from and punishment for something that is already a crime regardless of identity.
The definition of a journalist is “a person who writes for newspapers, magazines, or news websites or prepares news to be broadcast,” which could be just about anyone at any given time, including partisans on the left and right who are really activists, like those arrested during Antifa protests and the conservative blogger arrested for his role in the Bunkerville ranch standoff in 2014.
“Not all attacks on journalists this year have been committed by Trump supporters, but the fact remains that rhetoric emanating from the world’s most powerful office is stoking an environment in which these attacks proliferate,” Swalwell said in his press release. “We must send a loud, clear message that such violence won’t be tolerated.”
No, we must protect all people equally under the law, not single out certain classes.
Just so you know how much I pay attention, and for no other reason; I think it should be “than” in that first sentence.
Probably the stupid autocorrect;)
More likely a typo. Thanks.
Reblogged this on Doug Knowles.
If we don’t “single out certain classes” how can we divide and separate the people who we keep arguing and pointing fingers at each other, thereby ensuring we hold onto power?
This is as bipartisan as it gets.
I couldn’t agree more. Another example is the Republican idea of capping damages in malpractice lawsuits, so that if you’re injured by a doctor, then your reward is limited, but if you’re injured by say, a construction company, then the sky’s the limit. Equal protection under the law is another dream of the Founding Fathers that has been systematically eroded.
What might be interesting is to see what position the media and particularly the journalistic associations and groups have or will take on this piece of inspired legislation.
We long ago started down this slippery slope of enhancing punishments for rimes committed against certain classes of people. I have never quite understood why the exact same crime committed on two different persons should bear different penalties because one may belong to a specially protected class. A rose is a rose…..
Based on what we see happening on our campuses today, we ought to think about enhanced punishments for attacks on conservatives speakers. .
I rather suspect that Rep. Swalwell is engaging in some political theatre as a device to attack President Trump. Swalwell is not concerned about tamping down the “rhetoric” going up just what he perceives asgoing down.
Or perhaps he just wants to suck up to the Press Corps.