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Congressman: Disruptive protesters should pay for police overtime, not taxpayers.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new bill might be on the horizon after a GOP congressman said that disruptive protesters should foot the bill for police overtime instead of the rest of the area’s taxpayers. 

Rep. Jim Banks said on Monday that his new legislation would specifically go after unruly demonstrators after the climate change protest, “Shut Down DC” led protesters to block traffic at 22 intersections across D.C.’s streets, causing commuters a considerable headache.

 

Fox reported that police made at least 32 arrests during the civil display. According to Rep. Banks, the bill would require those disruptive protesters to pay for police overtime as well as other fees generated by effects of their  actions. 

 

Banks isn’t trying to go after everyone who chooses to voice their opinion — simply those that engage in illegal activities and protests. 

“To be clear, my bill will not prohibit other demonstrations or protests on the National Mall like the annual March for Life or Women’s March. Those protests are legal because they obtained official permits. My bill would only apply to illegal protesters who are arrested,” he clarified.

 

He simply wants to stick the bill with those that cross the line. 

“Washington, D.C. collects over $4 billion in federal funding. Hoosier taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for illegal protests — it is a violation of their First Amendment rights,” Banks wrote in a tweet on Monday afternoon. 

The outrage grew as hundreds of thousands of protesters from all over the world gathered in city streets to protest the issue of climate change.

While most demonstrations remained peaceful and led to few arrests, the organizers of the D.C. protest wanted to bring the “whole city to a gridlocked standstill” and “cause massive disruption for politicians, huge corporations, and the lobbyists who control our government.”

 

Protesters fired back against reports that the display had caused an inconvenience to commuters.

“Science tells us we are, that the implications of climate change are extremely wide-ranging and would cause mass suffering on a huge scale,” said a spokesperson for the event. “The momentary inconvenience experienced by commuters has to be seen alongside the situation that we’re in.”

As other demonstrations continued around the world, videos from the scene in Portland showed that cops are no longer taking abuse from protesters that lash out at officers.

Reports claimed that members of the extremist group Antifa hijacked the protester’s chants about saving the world and instead turned it into a rally against police.

Conservative journalist Andy Ngo, who you might remember as being brutally attacked by the group earlier this year, told Fox & Friends that the relatively calm rally got stirred up when black-clad protesters began using the public gathering to harass police who were monitoring the area.

Ngo said that the Antifa members congregated near the Portland ICE facility and threw rocks and other projectiles at officers.

Congressman: Disruptive protesters should pay for police overtime, not taxpayers.
Videos caught at the scene showed protesters telling police to shut up and getting right up in their faces. (Fox News)

 

Videos posted to Twitter showed protesters get right up in the officer’s faces, screaming expletives at them and calling them pigs. 

This video was posted by Ngo, showing the ‘masked militants’ who threw projectiles at police outside the immigration facility running from federal officers. 

 

One young man can even be seen getting right in an officer’s face and telling him to ‘shut the f—k up.’

Ngo said that the chants that had originally been directed toward the ‘impending threat of end of the world’ and the need for change, but when the masked protesters showed up, cries about the climate were quickly changed to go after police.

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Congressman: Disruptive protesters should pay for police overtime, not taxpayers.

 

Ngo said in his interview that the average age of these demonstrators who are becoming violent seems to be getting younger and younger, as many of those seen at the rally were essentially kids.

“What’s concerning about this to me is that this movement is able to recruit younger and younger people. I mean, any of these masked people are really children,” Ngo said.

Another video posted from the turmoil showed a female officer recovering behind a cruiser after being pepper sprayed, though it was not clear if she had been assaulted by protesters or if she had gotten exposure from a police deployment.

 

Federal authorities arrested one man after he was seen allegedly throwing rocks at officers.

 

Details of his booking appeared across social media, complete with the cache of weapons found on his person. 

 

Ngo says that the entire movement has managed to condemn anyone who wears the badge, and without actual consequences, the tension will only increase.

“You see how they’ve bought in to this narrative that the police are evil and they have no hesitation in not just showing disrespect to law enforcement, but hatred and trying to actively get in the way of the arrests.”

 

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