This rise of legalized vigilantism is one of the most disturbing aspects of Trumpist America. It’s been moving in that direction for a while. Think about “stand your ground” laws and “castle doctrine.” But lately they have been taking it to a new level with the Texas abortion law putting bounties on women who have abortions and legalizing vehicular manslaughter if someone “feels” in danger at a protest:
As the organizes of the fatal 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville are standing trial in a civil lawsuit, Republicans across the country are organizing to pass “hit and kill” bills that allow motorists to run down protesters.
On Monday, the Boston Globe reported on a “Back the Blue Act” signed by Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds. The bill took the side of drivers who run over protesters. In June of 2020, the driver of Reynold’s state-issued Chevrolet Suburban struck a Des Moines Black Liberation Movement protester who was urging the governor to restore voting rights.
“Iowa is one of three states, along with Oklahoma and Florida, to enact laws this year giving drivers some degree of legal immunity if they use their vehicles to hurt protesters, part of a wave of ‘hit and kill’ bills introduced in 13 other states by Republican legislators since 2017. Most of those proposals came after one of the most sustained periods of demonstrations in US history following Floyd’s murder, and the effort to crack down on protesters has sent a chilling message to activists, who believe it will encourage violence against them,” the newspaper reported.
Nick Robinson, a senior legal adviser at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, warned it the new laws were “just a recipe for disaster.”
“There’s this kind of vigilantism that’s returning,” Robinson said. “If we deem these protesters to be rioters, we’re going to take the law into our own hands. And if that means injuring them with our vehicle or killing them with our vehicle, we have an expectation that the state will protect us.”
13 states have introduced these bills.
Meanwhile we have vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse going on trial in Wisconsin with the entire right wing screaming that he not only had a right to carry an AR-15 into a protest, uninvited and unnecessary, he had a right to use it because he “felt afraid” of the unarmed people he killed. If those drunk idiots in Missouri wielding guns outside their McMansion as peaceful protesters walked by had shot someone, I’m sure these same people would defend them for being “afraid.”
For all the talk about the left being “snowflakes” it’s the armed and dangerous right who are claiming self-defense because they are constantly afraid of unarmed people. In fact, they are so afraid they are getting in their cars and/or strapping on guns and going out and finding all those fearful people so they can kill them.