(ConservativeSense.com) – Republican Senators have introduced legislation to criminalize blocking roads. It comes after pro-Palestinian protestors stood on public highways and obstructed traffic over the holidays. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee co-sponsored the bill that proposes creating a criminal offense of purposely obstructing or delaying traffic on public roads.
The Senators said they were proud to support the Safe and Open Streets Act, which will make the behavior a federal crime carrying a five-year prison term. “The emerging tactic of radical protestors blocking roads and stopping commerce is not only obnoxious to innocent commuters, but it’s also dangerous and will eventually get people killed. It needs to be a crime throughout the country,” Senator Tillis said.
On January 8, protestors in New York City blocked the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges, causing traffic chaos early on Monday morning. They also cut off access to the Holland tunnel that links the Big Apple with New Jersey at the height of commuter rush hour. Police said they arrested a total of 325 people and managed to get traffic back to normal by around 11.30.
Similar scenes have been witnessed in Los Angeles and other US cities in recent weeks. Just after Christmas, police in LA arrested 36 people who blocked the roads leading into LAX International Airport. A statement from LAPD said the protestors “threw a police officer to the ground, used construction debris, road signs, tree branches, and blocks of concrete” to obstruct the road, and also physically attacked “uninvolved passersby in their vehicles.”
The Interstate-5 in Washington State was also impacted. Demonstrators calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war caused a six-mile tailback near Seattle. On this occasion, however, police did not detain or disperse the crowds, who have taken to the streets of Seattle almost every weekend since the designated terrorist group Hamas attacked and killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians on October 7 last year.
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