ATLANTA — Protesters became a target of Georgia lawmakers this week as both the state House and Senate passed legislation to enhance punishment against people who get in the way of police or of drivers.
“The danger is real,” said Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, explaining why she wanted to make it a felony to use a vehicle, whether moving or stationary, in a non-violent effort to block local, state or federal officers.
House Bill 1076 would impose a punishment of one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for anyone who uses a vehicle and “knowingly obstructs, hinders, blocks, or otherwise interferes” with officers enforcing the law.
It passed the House Tuesday night over objections by Democrats, who said the measure would add a redundant law to the books. Police already have a variety of charges they can use against such perpetrators, they said.
But they worried that the wording in this new one would give officers broad latitude to charge bystanders, such as a grandmother who couldn’t move her car.
HB 1076 would require that prosecutors prove intentional obstruction. But the legislation would raise the risk for everyone, one Democrat said, noting a felony “could ruin lives.”
During a committee hearing last month, Ehrhart cited statistics showing an increase in vehicle-related deaths of law enforcement officers as the reason for bringing her bill. But after a Democrat quizzed her about her numbers, she acknowledged they reflected all manner of vehicular incidents, including collisions while officers were driving their own vehicles.
On the House floor Tuesday, a couple Democrats suggested Ehrhart’s motive was a political reaction to the protests surrounding the killing of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.
Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, asked Ehrhart if her bill was “a political response to an American citizen, Renée Good, who was shot and murdered by law enforcement.”
Ehrhart responded that she was addressing a problem that predated Good’s death: “a dramatic escalation in motor vehicle-related incidents with police officers since 2020.”
HB 1076 passed the House 97-64 in a party-line vote.
The vote came hours after the Senate approved a measure to increase the fine for protesting in the streets.
Senate Bill 443 initially would have allowed felony charges against protesters who block roads, but the author, Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, dialed it back. He reduced the charge to a high and aggravated misdemeanor, which brings up to a year in jail, the same amount of time as the misdemeanor charge in current law.
However, Summers’ legislation would raise the financial stakes. The maximum fine for a misdemeanor is $1,000. For a high and aggravated misdemeanor, it is $5,000.
