HB-1 is  the infamous anti-protest bill that was was recently passed in Florida.  An analysis of the bill’s language and behavior of various groups aligned with former President Donald Trump suggest the bill is intended to promote attacks on civil rights activists by simplifying the legal defense for acts of vehicular homicide.  Oklahoma recently passed a similar bill HB-1674, that provides similar protections.  These laws may be referred to as “James Alex Fields” laws, a reference to the Trump supporter who drove his car into a crowd of civil rights activists who had gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest against the “Unite the Right” Trump rally.  Fields has since been convicted for the murder of Heather Heyer, who was killed when he plowed his car into the crowd, and for causing injuries to over a dozen other activists.

Discussion of using cars to attack Civil Rights activists began with dark jokes on right-wing message boards beginning in 2017.  Since then, the number of vehicle attacks has increased substantially.  “Right-wing extremists are turning cars into weapons, with reports of at least 50 vehicle-ramming incidents since protests against police violence erupted nationwide in late May.”  Republicans are passing bills simplifying the legal defense for a method of attack that is clearly favored by right-wing extremists.  In the decision for the case Gamble v. United States, Chief Justice John Roberts famously wrote, “while jurists are required to give plaintiffs the benefit of the doubt, they are not required to exercise a degree of naivete that is absent from everyday life”.  I believe that is clearly the case here. Republicans can insist all they want that they are only passing these laws for public safety.  Any rational person can see what’s going on.

So, the question is, do Republican governors really think the rest of the country is so stupid that we just wouldn’t notice that they’re dog-whistling to the alt-right and basically advertising their states as places where right-wing extremists are welcome to attack Civil Rights protesters?  Did they really think we’d just be too stupid to figure out that automobile attacks are to modern day Trump supporters what lynchings were to those Trump supporters’ grand-parents?  Did they really think no one would notice that Florida and Oklahoma are now states sponsoring domestic terrorism, and that any executive branch official from those states who refuses to arrest a domestic terrorist who murders a Civil Rights activist by automobile attack because of these laws would be subject to criminal charges from the DOJ under 18 USC §§ 241 and 242, and subject to civil action from any injured survivors or immediate family members of the deceased under 42 USC § 1983?

An essay coming Sunday, April 25th on the Otter Globe and Intelligencer will be offering a rough outline of a theory for civil action against public officials who refuse to prosecute domestic terrorists who try to use “James Alex Fields” laws to get away with terrorist attacks.

Image credit: Wikipedia: File:2017 Charlottesville vehicle-ramming attack.webm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2017_Charlottesville_vehicle-ramming_attack[.]webm