NC House approves controversial anti-riot bill with enough votes to override a veto
The North Carolina House approved legislation Wednesday that would implement stricter criminal penalties for rioting, sending the controversial bill that critics have called “racist” to the Senate.
After more than an hour-and-a-half of debate, including the adoption of some last-minute amendments, House Bill 40 was approved 75-43 in a mostly party-line vote, but with six House Democrats voting in favor of the bill, including some members of the Legislative Black Caucus.
Rep. Shelly Willingham, a primary sponsor of the legislation, and Rep. Michael Wray, both of whom voted for a previous iteration of the bill in August 2021 that was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, voted in favor of it again. Reps. Abe Jones, Garland Pierce, Cecil Brockman, and Laura Budd also voted in favor of the bill.
With support from those Democrats, the bill passed by a large enough margin to override a veto from Cooper, if he were to block the bill again. Moore said bill sponsors had worked to address concerns from Democrats, and that he hoped Cooper would not oppose it.
At least one of the Democratic supporters of the bill, Willingham, has already said he will vote to override a veto if it comes to that.
The bill, which would increase felony penalties for certain existing rioting charges, is similar to the earlier bill that Moore introduced in response to some of the violence and rioting that occurred during 2020 protests against police brutality in downtown Raleigh.
What the anti-riot bill would do
Original language proposed by Moore and other sponsors would’ve have made it a more serious felony to “willfully” engage in a riot and cause serious bodily injury or property damage greater than $1,500. Another provision of the bill would’ve allowed authorities to hold people charged with rioting and looting for up to 48 hours, to serve as a “cooling off” period.
After speaking with Democrats who expressed concerns about those provisions, Moore said he and other bill sponsors had agreed to increase the threshold for property damage to $2,500 and reduce the period during which people could be held to 24 hours. That was one of four amendments to the bill that were adopted Wednesday.
Other increased penalties would apply in situations in which a person engages in a riot and causes someone’s death, or assaults a police officer or other emergency personnel.
During House floor debate on the bill Wednesday, Moore reiterated that he respected the constitutional rights of people to protest, but said that violent behavior that results in property damage or injury to others needed to be strongly punished.
“What we found was, our current laws that are in place were not sufficiently strong enough, to guarantee that those who engaged in the most violent and destructive behavior, would ever see the inside of a jail cell,” Moore said. “I thought that was unacceptable. I would submit to you that most North Carolinians would find that unacceptable.”
Opponents say bill was rushed through House
Critics have said they are concerned the bill’s enhanced penalties will be disproportionately applied to people of color, and have accused its supporters of wanting to silence protests for racial justice and other causes. Moore and other sponsors including Willingham, who is Black, have vehemently rejected that notion, saying that the law applies to everyone equally.
Moore pointed to supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol and destroyed property, to emphasize that in both the cases of the Jan. 6 attack, as well as violence that occurred during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, violent conduct should be punished, regardless of who was committing it.
“This is not about whether you are left or right or anything,” Moore said on the House floor, adding that people of all political leanings could engage in violence.
But opponents of the bill remained unconvinced, saying they were alarmed by how quickly House leaders were moving the bill through committees.
“If a speeding ticket could be issued for the fastest bill we’ve ever seen, this would get it,” said Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham County Democrat.
During consideration of the bill by a committee earlier on Wednesday, critics of the bill said that HB 40 was one of several bills cracking down on legitimate protests that had sprung up across the country in response to the George Floyd demonstrations that occurred during the summer of 2020.
Dawn Blagrove, the executive director of Emancipate NC, said the bill was “racist” and “designed to harm and limit the voices of Black, brown and marginalized people.”
“We should not be harming or hurting, or passing any legislation, that further marginalizes already marginalized people,” she said.
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This story was originally published February 8, 2023 at 12:54 PM.
