New Bill Would Strip Violent Protesters of Unemployment Payments

Congressman Jim Banks, R-Ind., has surely proposed something that the rest of us were thinking. He has introduced a new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that makes those convicted of federal crimes in connection with rioting and looting ineligible for any unemployment compensation and pandemic relief payments they may otherwise be entitled to. The bill also requires them to pay restitution for the costs of federal law enforcement and governmental response to those riots.

Called the “Support Peaceful Protest Act,” the bill, introduced Friday, consists of two paragraphs:

“In the case of an individual convicted of a Federal offense related to the individual’s conduct at and during the course of a protest with respect to which a Federal law enforcement officer was engaged in policing activity, the court shall, in addition to the penalty for such conviction, order the individual to pay an order of restitution to the appropriate Federal law enforcement agency in an amount that is equal to the cost of such policing activity, as determined by the court.

“An individual convicted of a Federal offense related to the individual’s conduct at and during the course of a protest, is ineligible for any Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation under section 2104 of the CARES Act (15 U.S.C. 9023) or any other Federal supplemental unemployment compensation during the COVID–19 public health emergency (as such term is defined in section 2102 of the CARES Act (15 U.S.C. 9021).”

In announcing his bill, Banks explains that, “Antifa thugs are descending on suffering communities, disrupting peaceful protests, and leaving violence, looting and vandalism in their wake. They turned Milwaukee, Seattle and Portland into war zones, and now they’re moving the chaos to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Who knows which community is next? Due to enhanced federal benefits, taxpayers are giving wages to jobless rioters who are destroying our communities. We need to cut them off from their funding and make them feel the full financial consequences of their actions.”

Anarchists may want to destroy our cities on the way to destroying our way of life. But there’s no reason they should be receiving government benefits that allow them to do so.

Photo from Heartwood Films / Shutterstock.com

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