Across the nation, Republican legislators have been working tirelessly to squash the rights that every American is guaranteed in our Constitution to organize and voice our dissent. North Carolina recently pushed through legislature allowing vehicles to plow through peaceful protestors with no legal ramifications. On May 3, Oklahoma’s answer to the question how much of a moron can one be? Governor Mary Fallin signed a new trespassing law that does a lot more than protect private property.
Under the newly signed trespassing law individuals will face a felony and a minimum $10,000 fine if a court determines they entered property intending to damage, vandalize, deface, “impede or inhibit operations of the facility.” Should the trespasser actually succeed in “tampering” with the infrastructure, they face a $100,000 fine or 10 years of imprisonment.
Significantly, the statute also implicates any organization “found to be a conspirator” with the trespasser, threatening collaborator groups with a fine “ten times” that imposed on the intruder — as much as $1 million in cases involving damage.
The Intercept points out that the “critical infrastructure” protested by the bill is basically everything the fossil fuel industry does. With this bill in place, a new bill has been approved that would really expand the concept of who and what could be considered “liable” protests.
A second bill, passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives Thursday, would permit “vicarious liability” for groups that “compensate” protesters accused of trespassing. The bill’s author reportedly called it a response to the Dakota Access pipeline protests, aimed directly at organizers fighting to stop the Diamond pipeline, a project of Valero and All American Pipeline that would transport oil from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Protests against the pipeline have already begun and construction is scheduled for completion before the end of the year.
In this case, “liability” is so poorly defined that it could mean anything from raising money to housing someone who is going to protest something. I wonder if Oklahoma officials will try to fine the earth for all those earthquakes Oklahomans face as a result of their fossil fuel industry?