(CNN)President Joe Biden signed a bill into law on Tuesday that makes lynching a federal hate crime, acknowledging how racial violence has left a lasting scar on the nation and asserting that these crimes are not a relic of a bygone era.
The text of the bill reads:
This Act may be cited as the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act”.
SEC. 2. LYNCHING; OTHER CONSPIRACIES.
Section 249(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by
adding at the end the following:
“(5) Lynching.–Whoever conspires to commit any offense under
paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious bodily injury
(as defined in section 2246 of this title) results from the
offense, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in
accordance with this title, or both.
“(6) Other conspiracies.–Whoever conspires to commit any
offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious
bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title) results
from the offense, or if the offense includes kidnapping or an
attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit
aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, be imprisoned for
not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or
both.”.
IANAL, but this reads generic enough to pretty much to consider any gathering they dislike a Lynching if somebody gets hurt. Do notice that does not mean that the direct actions of those in the “conspiracy” are the trigger, just that somebody gets injured or dead.
This is not about lynching (a concept which much is dead) or even righting a historical wrong (enacting a law offered by a black Republican Congressman in 1900 which never passed) but to stifle any gathering of Wrongpeople under the fear of being tagged under the new Anti Lynching law. Imagine some Liberal operative getting “hurt” during a DeSantis re-election event and suddenly the FBI starts a lynching investigation of the candidate and anybody else involved.
Do not forget this is the same people who transformed a D.C. trespassing case by a group of protesters into a sedition “investigation” and mass arrests, solitary confinement and possibly kangaroo courts with eerily draconian judgements.
No one has to get hurt. Scrape out the irrelevant parts and it says:
(6) Other conspiracies.–Whoever conspires to commit any
offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if…the offense includes…an
attempt to kill, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or
both.
So, what exactly constitutes a conspiracy to commit a hate crime that includes an attempt to kill? A blog post saying that trannies trying to groom our kids should be fed to woodchippers? A Tweet saying that if BLM riotors block your car in you should run over them? I can think of a million examples.
The original law established the penalties for thought crimes.
This addition establishes penalties for even talking about thought crimes.
There’s absolutely no possibility that this new crime will ever be abused by our government overlords to punish free speech that they don’t like, they’d never do that, right? RIGHT?
I agree with your view, but they won’t be selling initially without a certified bleeding Oppressed Minority to show for the cameras.