H.R. 6054: Unmasking Antifa Act of 2018

[Bruno]

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr6054

"To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide penalty enhancements for committing certain offenses while in disguise, and for other purposes."

Punch a Nazi while wearing a hanky over your face, go to jail for no more than 15 years.

[The Wizard Joseph]

So... wearing a mask makes a relatively minor assault and possibly battery into a major possible prison sentence... FUCK! This is bullshit.

[LMNO]

Luckily, the bill is still in committee, with an estimated 20% chance of becoming law, as per Skopos.

The guy who wrote/sponsored this bill is Daniel Donovan Jr (R-NY).  He's up for re-election this year.  His opponent is Boyd Nelson.

The co-sponsors are:
Ted Budd (R-NC), also up for re-election against Kathy Manning.  Fun fact: Budd's campaign pulled a URL troll against her, buying www.kathymanningforcongress.com which doles out misinformation about her.

Paul Gosar (R-AZ).  Primaries are August 28.

Peter King (R-NY).  His opponent is Liuba Grechen Shirley, and there's a chance she'll beat him.

Anyway, for those who will be sharing this bill, it might be helpful to provide the above information so people can do more than just be gobsmacked and pissed off.

[The Wizard Joseph]

Luckily, the bill is still in committee, with an estimated 20% chance of becoming law, as per Skopos.

The guy who wrote/sponsored this bill is Daniel Donovan Jr (R-NY).  He's up for re-election this year.  His opponent is Boyd Nelson.

The co-sponsors are:
Ted Budd (R-NC), also up for re-election against Kathy Manning.  Fun fact: Budd's campaign pulled a URL troll against her, buying www.kathymanningforcongress.com which doles out misinformation about her.

Paul Gosar (R-AZ).  Primaries are August 28.

Peter King (R-NY).  His opponent is Liuba Grechen Shirley, and there's a chance she'll beat him.

Anyway, for those who will be sharing this bill, it might be helpful to provide the above information so people can do more than just be gobsmacked and pissed off.

Thank you.

[Bruno]

Luckily, the bill is still in committee, with an estimated 20% chance of becoming law, as per Skopos.

The guy who wrote/sponsored this bill is Daniel Donovan Jr (R-NY).  He's up for re-election this year.  His opponent is Boyd Nelson.

The co-sponsors are:
Ted Budd (R-NC), also up for re-election against Kathy Manning.  Fun fact: Budd's campaign pulled a URL troll against her, buying www.kathymanningforcongress.com which doles out misinformation about her.

Paul Gosar (R-AZ).  Primaries are August 28.

Peter King (R-NY).  His opponent is Liuba Grechen Shirley, and there's a chance she'll beat him.

Anyway, for those who will be sharing this bill, it might be helpful to provide the above information so people can do more than just be gobsmacked and pissed off.

Nice. Thanks LMNO.

Skopos looks interesting. Is that something you have access to through work?

[bpseudopod]

Specifically, it criminalizes one who "injures, oppresses, threatens, or intimidates" anyone while wearing a mask.
It has a specific exemption for police officers, and also increases the penalty for vandalizing or damaging anything on the water by two more years. I'm not a lawyer. How exactly are "oppression", "threats", and "intimidation" defined in the law? Depending on how loose the definition is, I could see this being used to mass convict entire protests, not just black blocs and similar—is a group of Muslim women wearing veils or headdresses "in disguise?"

Obviously, the specific targeting of antifa is worth being upset about, but there runs a deeper logic to this bill, which is why I fear it'll gain broad support in Congress. The point of wearing a mask is to subvert police surveillance, and neither party shies away from a police state. (The Dems pay lip service to BLM, but their hearts aren't in it, and they don't have a majority anyways.) Black Bloc movements are usually accompanied by some property damage, so crimes, righteous or not, are being committed, and empowering police to punish crimes isn't exactly a hard thing to sell, whether to politicians or to voters. Recall that the official state ideology is "peaceful protest" within an encircling set of parameters, and this is pushed on, well, anyone who went to public school. The people that aren't outright hostile to antifa are mostly at best ambivalent about the "violent methods" they're associated with.

Frankly, I'm surprised this law wasn't passed decades ago.

Does anyone know anything about other anti-mask laws in state or municipal codes? (I'd ask a lawyer, but I don't know any.)

[Cain]

By naming it the "Unmasking Antifa" bill, this pure virtue signalling from legislators.

If they had wanted it to pass with bipartisan support, they'd have named it something else, then used it to go after antifa and black bloc groups.  This is just base pandering, perhaps with a mix of trialing "anti-Antifa" sentiment for the 2018 elections.

[Doktor Howl]

Frankly, I'm surprised this law wasn't passed decades ago.

This must come as a great relief to you, then.