Georgia lawmakers push for harsher penalties against protesters

Bills that aim to restrain public protests advanced in Georgia’s House and Senate in the wake of shooting deaths in Minneapolis that shocked the nation.

One would expose people charged with blocking roads to stiffer financial penalties. Another would make it a felony to use a vehicle, whether moving or stationary, to block local, state or federal officers.

During a hearing Monday, Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, cited statistics about recent increases in law enforcement deaths due to motor vehicle incidents as a reason to pass her legislation, House Bill 1076.

Though she later acknowledged that her numbers reflected all manner of vehicular incidents, including collisions while officers were driving their own vehicles, she said cars in the hands of protesters posed a danger to police and that protesters should face stiff penalties for using even stopped vehicles.

“It is dangerous conduct and should be taken seriously,” she said, before a Republican-led committee of the House passed her bill over objections by Democrats. “The danger is real,” she said. “A motor vehicle in the hands of an ill-intentioned person is a lethal weapon.”

HB 1076 would make it a felony punishable by one to five years in prison and a $100,000 fine for anyone using a vehicle who “knowingly obstructs, hinders, blocks, or otherwise interferes” with officers enforcing the law.

Ehrhart said groups representing Georgia police and sheriffs told her they supported her bill and that prosecutors were neutral about it.

Critics said the legislation was unnecessary because Georgia already had a law against harming an officer with a vehicle. Aggravated assault, a felony, could be applied in such a case, said Mazie Lynn Guertin, executive director of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

At a another hearing in early February, a representative with a civil liberties organization offered a similar critique and suggested a motive for the legislation.

“Recent occurrences that we’ve seen in Minneapolis seem to be at least an origin or intention of this bill,” said Sarah Hunt-Blackwell, senior policy council with the ACLU of Georgia.

This was less than a month after Renee Nicole Good was shot dead in her vehicle during an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents amid a protest in Minneapolis.

Then, Alex Pretti was shot dead as Customs and Border Protection agents forced him to the ground.

Ehrhart’s bill is at least the second to seek enhanced penalties for protesters.

Police can already charge anyone with a misdemeanor who “recklessly obstructs” a road, a violation punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

But last week, a Senate committee advanced Senate Bill 443, which would elevate the charge to a high and aggravated misdemeanor punishable by the same amount of jail time but a fine of up to $5,000.

The bill initially would have allowed felony charges in road-blocking protests that led to injury or property damage.

The chief co-sponsor, Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, then reduced the stakes by deleting the felony provision and by offering to strike language in current law prohibiting the reckless blocking of sidewalks or other public passages.

But he kept the high and aggravated misdemeanor charge and his bill would also allow lawsuits against protesters who block roads.

“Protest all you want to,” Summers said. “Just don’t act the fool.”