A Minnesota bill would make anyone arrested during a protest ineligible for all state government aid, including student loans, food assistance, and employment benefits.
SF 2381, which was introduced on April 7, states that “a person convicted of a criminal offense” in a “protest, demonstration, rally, civil unrest, or march” will be disqualified from “college student loans and grants, rent and mortgage assistance, supplemental nutrition assistance, unemployment benefits and other employment assistance, Minnesota supplemental aid programs, business grants, medical assistance, general assistance, and energy assistance,” among other benefits.
The legislation would not be retroactive and would only apply to crimes committed after the bill took effect.
State Sen. David Osmek, a Republican, spearheaded the bill, which has not yet come to a vote but has been introduced to the Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. He said the “vast majority” of his constituents are “sick and tired” of the widespread rioting in the state that followed the death of George Floyd in late May 2020.
“Minnesotans have a long history of supporting the freedom to protest and the [First] Amendment,” Osmek told the Washington Examiner in an email. “But the vast majority of them also are sick and tired of the vandalism and violence that recent ‘protests’ have become.”
“Considering city and county attorneys are not prosecuting the laws that the Legislature has written, it is time that criminal protesters lose the right to taxpayer wallets,” he said, adding that demonstrators do not “have the ‘constitutional right’ to throw a brick through the window of a business, throw frozen soda cans at police, and loot cellphone stores.”
Osmek’s legislation follows the death of Daunte Wright, 20, who was pronounced dead after former Minneapolis-area police officer Kim Potter mistook her gun for a Taser and shot him one time. Potter has since been arrested and charged with manslaughter for the incident that took place last Sunday, and the city once again seen droves of rioters descend on its streets.
On Tuesday, over 60 people found themselves behind bars by the conclusion of the night after footage circulated of crowds looting businesses, attacking police officers, and defying a curfew. Two dozen more were apprehended the following night.
The National Guard was deployed to quell the unrest as the city grapples with threats of violence stemming from the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer accused of killing Floyd. Officials erected fences and boarded up windows outside of the courthouse as the trial nears the time for the jury to deliberate on whether to convict Chauvin of murder.
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Both the prosecution and defense are expected to conclude their closing remarks by the end of the day Monday, and the jury will then be sequestered in a hotel to make their final decision in the case. It could take days, or even weeks, to reach a verdict.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Minnesota GOP did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.
