When I first wrote this story about A8951A, which seeks to classify non-violent protest in roads and public facilities as “Domestic Terrorism” and make a Class D felony, and A8334
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of disruption or disturbance of a lawful assembly
I had originally thought that these were fringes bill sponsored by right-wing fringe DINOs. Obstructing a roadway in a public protest is a felony only in a tyrannical authoritarian dystopia. Alarmingly, their Putinism now seems to have the support of of Assembly Codes Committee chair Jeffrey Dinowitz, a mainstream Democrat from the liberal Riverdale neighborhood in the Bronx. “The Bronx-based representative, however, said that he is generally supportive of what Pfeffer Amato and Berger have introduced. “I can tell you that these two bills, I have put my own name on the bills,” Dinowitz said. “And I don't do that for a huge number of the bills in my committee.” But Dinowitz said that he would wait to see if the bills had support before bringing them out of committee. You have to wonder, what would Alexei Navalny or Martin Luther King have to say on the topic? With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?
Here are the names of the members of the Assembly Codes Committee. We need to let them know that New Yorkers don’t want non-violent demonstrators reclassified as criminals and terrorists. Please contact them if you live in their districts. As for the bills’ sponsors, they deserve a primary!!!