Hazily Miserable Jollity

While all but one speaker decried the bill as an attempt to intimidate protesters and curb First Amendment rights, in the end the bill passed out of the committee with a 9-6 split along party lines — with every Republican on the committee voting for it, and every Democrat against.

The bill’s 27 authors, all Republicans including House Speaker Kurt Daudt, also include eight members of the committee to which it was referred: the House public safety committee, chaired by Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, who is also listed as an author.

The political division was not lost on Cathy Jones, vice president of the Minneapolis NAACP, who told committee members the bill was a “shameful Republican response to the Black Lives Matter movement in Minnesota.”

Rep. Nick Zerwas, R-Elk River, the bill’s primary author and sole person to argue in its favor during the hearing, cast it as a response to recent protester shutdowns of streets and highways.

“I think if you’re convicted of a crime where you intentionally inflict as much expense and cost upon a community as possible, you ought to get a bill. It should not be property tax payers’ responsibility to cover for your illegal behavior,” Zerwas said.

also me: *sees a trump supporter*

HAPPY BEARDAY, JONGIN — part I ;; part II.