Racist, or necessary to protect property? Anti-rioting bill passes NC House after heavy debate

North Carolina Republican lawmakers passed an anti-rioting bill in the state House Wednesday, over objections from Democrats and community activists who said the bill is racist and unconstitutional.

The bill’s main sponsor, House Speaker Tim Moore, personally presented it in two House committees Wednesday — a rare move that shows how strongly he supports it. Moore said the bill isn’t aimed at any specific group of people, and that it shouldn’t worry any peaceful protesters.

Moore then fast-tracked the bill for a vote on the House floor Wednesday morning. After passing 75-43, it now goes to the state Senate for debate in that chamber.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to veto the bill if it passes the full legislature, as he did last year when a similar bill passed the legislature. But the measure has a better chance of passing this time. Coming off a strong election season, Republicans are just one vote short of a veto-proof supermajority in the House this session — and one of the bill’s sponsors is a moderate Democrat, Rep. Shelly Willingham of Rocky Mount.

“Sometimes peaceful protests are loud,” Moore said. “Sometimes they’re not so polite. But that’s fine. The First Amendment allows that. … But what we can’t do is allow that to be twisted into something where folks can go out and damage property, assault individuals.”

And for those whose protests turn violent, he said, the bill could apply just as easily to Black Lives Matter protesters who smashed windows in downtown Raleigh in the summer of 2020 as it could to Donald Trump supporters who attacked police and stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Critics said they weren’t convinced by Moore’s reassurances. Police would use the bill to target Black protesters, potentially using mass arrests to throw hundreds of peaceful protesters in jail if even just a small crowd smashed a window, critics say.

“This bill is racist,” said Dawn Blagrove, executive director of the group Emancipate NC. “This bill is designed to harm and limit the voices of Black, brown and marginalized people.”

Blagrove was later forced to stop speaking during a Wednesday committee meeting, after officials said her comments were “out of order.”

Several Democrats said they wanted to propose amendments to address specific pieces they believed were unconstitutional or otherwise problematic.

Moore didn’t allow amendments in committee, as is the normal process. He said he would allow them to be considered when the bill hits the House floor for a full vote.

Multiple Democratic lawmakers and community activists raised issues with a portion of the bill that would require anyone accused of violating the anti rioting bill to be held behind bars, with no possibility of bail, for at least 48 hours.

Moore later allowed Democrats to amend the bill to lower that from 48 to 24 hours. But he was adamant that being arrested had to come with at least some mandatory jail time. He said he’s spoken to police officers who get frustrated when they arrest protesters, only to see them quickly make bail and go back to the protest.

Critics said it’s un-American and is intended to have a chilling effect, scaring people away from going to protests for fear of being swept up in mass arrests and being sent to jail — potentially losing their jobs or custody of their children, simply for being at a protest where other people engaged in violence.

“No one is in favor of riots, property damage or loss of life,” said Democratic Rep. Amos Quick of Greensboro. “But we also have to be sure that we don’t chill the rights for people to assemble peaceably and to protest. I have a feeling that this bill will chill that in the minds of people, thinking that they can’t assemble. Thinking that they will be charged for rioting, for peaceful assembly.”

A Republican politician who’s also in law enforcement, Rep. Charles Miller of Brunswick County, took umbrage at critics assuming police would use this bill as an excuse to round up Black protesters to silence their voices.

During the nationwide protests in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd, Miller said he helped respond to protests in Wilmington. And despite having rocks and firecrackers thrown at them, he said, he and his fellow deputies worked to identify only the people who were acting violently, instead of just arresting everyone.

“I think we arrested six people, and maybe one of them was African-American,” he said.