July 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Left-wing activists, who have taken to putting bandanas over their faces during anti-Trump protests, are furious over a new bill that would add an additional penalty to laws against infringing on others’ Constitutional rights if done while wearing a mask.
“Americans have the natural right to speak and protest freely; it is not a right to throw Molotov cocktails and beat people who assemble peacefully while hiding behind a mask,” said Rep. Dan Donovan, R-NY, who introduced the Unmasking Antifa Act of 2018.
Americans have the natural right to speak and protest freely; it is not a right to throw Molotov cocktails and beat people who assemble peacefully while hiding behind a mask. My bill adds a penalty for doing so to the decades-old civil rights statutes
— Dan Donovan (@RepDanDonovan) July 11, 2018
Penalizing people for violently infringing on Constitutional rights while hiding behind a mask is a fairly reasonable proposal, but you wouldn’t know it reading some of these extreme defenses of violent anarchy
— Dan Donovan (@RepDanDonovan) July 11, 2018
To those predicting a doomsday totalitarian state from my Unmasking Antifa Act: please read the bill. It simply adds a penalty for wearing a mask while infringing on the Constitutional rights of others to assemble and speak freely.
— Dan Donovan (@RepDanDonovan) July 11, 2018
The group “antifa” (short for anti-fascist) is a far-left group that strongly opposes the current administration. Its members have been arrested at violent protests.
They say they wear masks while agitating against Trump because “in the current political climate, antifascists who speak out against fascism, racism, xenophobia, etc. are routinely harassed, threatened, and attacked by the far right, often supported by the police.”
Donovan has defended his bill on Twitter, writing, “Penalizing people for violently infringing on Constitutional rights while hiding behind a mask is a fairly reasonable proposal, but you wouldn’t know it reading some of these extreme defenses of violent anarchy.”
He also called out former New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark Viverito for complaining about the bill when she has “paraded down Broadway with a terrorist,” a reference to her bringing convicted Puerto Rican terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera to a 2017 parade in honor of Puerto Rico.
That’s unsurprising coming from somebody who paraded down Broadway with a terrorist. If anyone were to actually read the bill, they’d realize it simply adds a penalty for wearing a mask to the 70-year old civil rights statutes. https://t.co/3pekug8SQq
— Dan Donovan (@RepDanDonovan) July 11, 2018
One feminist tweeted that the bill adding more penalties to violent acts while wearing masks unfairly targets “behaviors typically associated with anti-fascist activists.”