US: New Bill in Senate Could Cause Someone to Get 10 Years in Prison for Slapping Someone
June 8, 2020 in News by RBN Staff
Source: Lew Rockwell | NBC and Information Liberation
Senator Rand Paul is holding up the federal so-called anti-lynching bill that passed in the Senate last year during the Jussie Smollett ‘lynching’ incident (that was staged by Smollett himself), but the House changed the name of the bill, so the Senate must vote on it again. The bill creates a new crime called “conspiracy to lynch” that will allow the feds to imprison people for thought crimes because the bill fails to define conspiracy. Without a precise definition, prosecutors could claim that any act or verbal expression was evidence of a conspiracy, and there does not have to be an actual attempt or preparation for bodily harm. The bill states, “Whoever conspires with another person … shall be punished in the same manner as a completed violation.” [This is heaven for tyrants.] -GEG
A Senate impasse over a widely backed bill to designate lynching as a federal hate crime boiled over on Thursday in an emotional debate cast against a backdrop of widespread protests over police treatment of African Americans.
Raw feelings were evident as Sen. Rand Paul — who is single-handedly holding up the bill despite letting it pass last year — sought changes to the legislation as a condition of allowing it to pass.
But the Senate’s two black Democrats, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, protested, saying the measure should pass as is. The debate occurred as a memorial service was taking place for George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes, sparking the protests that have convulsed the nation.
The legislative effort to make lynching a federal hate crime punishable by up to life in prison comes 65 years after 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi, and follows dozens of failed attempts to pass anti-lynching legislation.
The Senate unanimously passed virtually identical legislation last year. The House then passed it by a sweeping 410-4 vote in February but renamed the legislation for Till — the sole change that returned the measure to the Senate.
“Black lives have not been taken seriously as being fully human and deserving of dignity, and it should not require a maiming or torture in order for us to recognize a lynching when we see it,” said Harris.
Paul, who has a history of rankling colleagues by slowing down bills, said the legislation was drafted too broadly and could define minor assaults as lynching. He also noted that murdering someone because of their race is already a hate crime. He said the Senate should make other reforms, such as easing “qualified immunity” rules that shield police officers from being sued.
Read the legislation:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/35/text
Additional source:
