- US lawmaker Nassau County passed a bill on Monday allowing police to prosecute protesters.
- A constitutional expert said the bill is “demonic” and gives police more rights than civilians.
- It is not clear whether the Democrat county governor will sign the bill into law.
- For more stories, please visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
Legislators in Nassau County, New York A bill passed on Monday This will designate the police as a “protected class” under the county’s human rights law and allow them to prosecute those who “harass, threaten, attack or harm” them.
However, the bill was criticized by local civil rights activists, and a legal expert said that if the bill becomes law, it will be deemed unconstitutional.
Gloria Brown Marshall, professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, described bill All of its attempts to “give the police more rights than civilians” are “demonic.”
According to the text of the bill, the bill will allow the police or any other emergency personnel to file a lawsuit for each violation and compensate US$25,000 (362,500 rand). If the perpetrator commits a crime “in the process of participating in a riot,” the fine will increase to US$50,000 (R720,000).
It is not clear whether the Nassau County administrator, who is a Democrat, will sign the bill into law. According to WABC.
Browne-Marshall said that a key issue with the text of the bill is that it does not actually define crimes against which the police can prosecute civilians.
Although most media coverage of the Nassau County Act focused on the possibility of police prosecuting protesters, Brown Marshall said that such a law is not limited to protesters — it allows police to prosecute almost anyone who insults them.
“What do you mean by harassment? What do you mean by threats?” Brown Marshall said. “So this is what the police officer thinks: the police officer feels harassed or threatened at work.”
She added that given the nature of police officers’ work to deal with hostile, chaotic or violent situations on a regular basis, this subjectivity is very problematic.
“This means that when the police arrive, everyone must maintain their best behavior,” she said. “How can this be possible when the purpose of the police is to bring order to chaos?”
Browne-Marshall pointed out that the police have received a lot of legal protection-especially the principle of limited immunity, which protects them from personal prosecution for their behavior at work, even if they violate their constitutional rights.
“These police officers already have guns and have received training in the use of lethal force. They already have the right to use force. They already have mace. They already have taser. They have batons. They have handcuffs. They accepted. Training on how to use force to use their bodies to knock down a civilian,” she said. “The most important thing is that they require all these things, civilians must always remain civilized, otherwise they will face a fine of 25,000 US dollars.”
Browne-Marshall said she is more disturbed that according to the text of the bill, police officers can prosecute civilians who have not been criminally charged or convicted for harassing, threatening, assaulting or harming police officers.
“They have all these weapons, they are eligible for immunity, they have the ability to evade court through their relationship with prosecutors, and they have laws that allow them to say that they are worried about their lives and can use deadly force,” she said. “They have all this protection, and apart from that, they don’t want their feelings to be hurt.”
