MINNESOTA — A Minnesota bill would make anyone arrested and convicted 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, Washington Examiner reported.
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. The proposed legislation has not yet come to a vote but has been introduced to the Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.
Osmek 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 Examiner. “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 riots, which occurred after the death of Daunte Wright, 20, who was killed by a police officer firing her duty weapon when she intended to deploy her Taser.
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 Examiner reported.
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 time for jury deliberations.
Both the prosecution and defense concluded their closing remarks Monday afternoon, and the jury is sequestered in a hotel to make their final decision in the case. It could take a significant amount of time to reach a unanimous decision.
