No Stimulus Check for Protesters Proven Guilty of Causing Violence
Protesters who will be found guilty of causing violence on the streets will no longer be able to receive their $600 enhanced coronavirus unemployment benefits.
This, should the bill introduced by Indiana's third congressional district Rep. Jim Banks dubbed as the Support Peaceful Protest Act get passed.
Aside from losing the federal benefit, those found guilty of instigating violence will also be made liable financially for the federal policing.
These are people who are charged and found guilty of violence, looting or vandalism in relation to a protest, according to a report on Fox News.
According to Banks, he decided to introduce the bill after what happened to his friends and constituents, an older couple, who got harassed by protesters while leaving the White House after the Republican National Convention.
The couple had attended U.S. President Donald Trump's acceptance speech of his nomination.
Banks did not mention who the couple was. However, the National Public Radio reported that protesters surrounded sen. Rand Paul and wife as they were leaving the White House on the night of August 27.
They had come from attending the Republican National Convention wherein Trump had accepted his nomination.
The protesters who surrounded them were shouting "justice for Breonna Taylor," "no justice, no peace," and "you need to respond."
Taylor was the 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was killed by police officers who were in the process of executing a no-knock warrant in Kentucky.
Senator Paul represents Kentucky.
Banks said that his bill would take away the $600 benefits that these protesters are making as professional protesters by night.
According to the representative, he wondered who pays these people to protest every night and cause violence to erupt on the streets.
Banks added that the left-wing could fund them, but then he also realized that they are also getting from the taxes that the U.S. citizens pay by receiving federal benefits.
So, if these people are found guilty of causing violence during protests, they should not receive the federal benefits.
Banks said that his bill could help end the violence during protests in the same way that the executive order that Trump signed instituting a 10-year prison term on people who vandalizes statues and tearing them down worked.
Banks added that Trump had said during his acceptance speech that those incidents have come to an end once he signed the order.
The president himself also aimed at people who join protests against social injustices such as police brutality and racial injustice, as Bloomberg reported.
President Trump said they were not protesters but troublemakers.
He added that they do not really know anything about the police killing a Black man.
Instead, they are just agitators, anarchists, looters, and rioters.
Banks said he has nothing against people protesting as long as they do it peacefully.
Should Banks' bill get passed, then protesters who will be proven guilty of instigating violence on the streets will no longer receive the coronavirus benefits.
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