As part of NBC’s State of the Struggle series promoting radical left-wing activism, on Wednesday, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle wailed about legislative efforts across the country to toughen laws against rioting. The liberal host rushed to warn viewers that such measures would “chill free speech and target people of color.”
“Later today, an Alabama lawmaker will introduce a bill to punish protesters that are deemed rioters, with very harsh penalties, like being barred from public office,” Ruhle proclaimed. She then fretted: “It is one of many anti-protest bills we are seeing after last year’s racial justice movement. Supporters say it will prevent violence, but civil rights groups say it could chill free speech and target people of color.”
Reporting live from Montgomery, Alabama, correspondent Chris Jansing sounded the alarm:
Take a look at the provisions in this bill, including, if you get arrested during a protest, you can be held for 24 hours without bail. And if you block an interstate, it will be considered a felony....opponents say that there is a consistent miscasting of protesters as agitators. All across the country though this is happening. Spoke to folks at the ACLU and at they tell me that there are at least 60 bills, they’ve never seen anything like it, 60 similar bills in at least 26 different states, that they are tracking them very closely. They call them un-American, unconstitutional, and unnecessary.
Ruhle followed up by bringing on two left-wing pundits to denounce the anti-riot bills and preach wild conspiracy theories. Turning to former Obama administration hack Brittany Packnett Cunningham, the anchor wrung her hands: “If anti-protest bills like this get passed, what does that mean to peaceful protesters?”
In response Cunningham made a series of irresponsible false claims and pretended they were facts:
Well, what we have to remember is that 93% of the protests from this past summer were deemed peaceful and without incident, and much of the 7% were actually caused by white supremacists and people who were using the cover of these nonviolent protests in order to cause chaos and damage and have black protesters across the country cast exactly as we are. So what this will mean is a doubling down on the punishment of audacious black people, audacious indigenous people, and folks who stand up for right across the country.
Of course Ruhle never bothered to demand a source for the unsubstantiated statistics that Cunningham threw around or fact-check the absurd notion that violent left-wing riots in cities across the country were somehow manufactured by white supremacists.
Instead, Cunningham was allowed to continue her tirade and smear all Republicans as racist: “This says far more about what the Alabama GOP, and what I would say, frankly, is the national GOP and their opinion and perceived criminality of black people, than it actually says about the movement.” She wrapped her rant with even more incendiary rhetoric: “...we have to be very clear that this is an insidious attempt to punish black people to live freely and to make it illegal to change the institutions that continue to kill us.”
Moments later, TheGrio’s Jason Johnson chimed in to agree with his fellow leftist and declare: “What happened last summer is mostly peaceful protesters who were attacked by police officers.”
Of course the partisan hacks in the press have never found a left-wing riot they didn’t like, constantly attempting to spin such violence as “mostly peaceful” demonstrations.
This clear example of MSNBC’s complicity in excusing leftist violence was brought to viewers by Progressive and Google. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a transcript of the February 24 segment:
9:47 AM ET
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STEPHANIE RUHLE: And today’s news comes as other states are cracking down on demonstrations. Later today, an Alabama lawmaker will introduce a bill to punish protesters that are deemed rioters, with very harsh penalties, like being barred from public office. It is one of many anti-protest bills we are seeing after last year’s racial justice movement. Supporters say it will prevent violence, but civil rights groups say it could chill free speech and target people of color. Let’s go right to NBC’s Chris Jansing in South Montgomery. Chris, you spoke to the lawmaker whose introducing this bill in Alabama today. Why is he doing this?
CHRIS JANSING: Yeah, Allen Treadaway says he knew this was going to be controversial, but he spent 31 years in law enforcement and after watching the protests following the death of George Floyd, he said he determined that the laws in place were not sufficient and that there were a lot of people coming from the outside trying to hijack a cause. He doesn’t call them protesters, he calls them rioters. But the people on the other side say, listen, this is going to suppress free speech, it’s going to stop due process. Take a look at the provisions in this bill, including, if you get arrested during a protest, you can be held for 24 hours without bail. And if you block an interstate, it will be considered a felony. Take a listen to the arguments from both sides.
STATE REP. ALLEN TREADAWAY [R-AL]: If you take a brick and you throw it through a window and loot a store or you take that brick and you bash the head in of a police officer, I want mandatory minimum sentencing to serve. We see what the destruction that’s left behind when you don’t have law and order. This is a law-and-order bill.
JILISA MILTON [BLACK LIVES MATTER BIRMINGHAM CO-FOUNDER]: We’ve heard the words “law and order” in other contexts where it has directly affected our families and it has not been what he says it is.
TRAVIS JACKSON [BLACK LIVES MATTER MONTGOMERY CO-FOUNDER]: It is going to give police more reason to cause brutalities on black people, indigenous people, and other communities of color.
JANSING: Yeah, opponents say that there is a consistent miscasting of protesters as agitators. All across the country though this is happening. Spoke to folks at the ACLU and at they tell me that there are at least 60 bills, they’ve never seen anything like it, 60 similar bills in at least 26 different states, that they are tracking them very closely. They call them un-American, unconstitutional, and unnecessary. But we just got off the phone with Allen Treadaway, he says in just the last day he’s already gotten 12 supporters for this bill. And the simple fact of the matter is, Stephanie, Republicans have a super majority here. And so if they want to get this bill through, they won’t have any trouble doing it and that could set a precedent for some of these other states. Stephanie?
RUHLE: Chris, thank you.
I want to dig deeper into this and bring in Jason Johnson, he’s a contributor to TheGrio and a professor of politics and journalism at Morgan State University. We also have Brittany Packnett Cunningham – Packnett, with an “N,” it makes me crazy when people leave the “N” out. She’s a former member of President Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force. Brittany, to you first. If anti-protest bills like this get passed, what does that mean to peaceful protesters?
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM [FMR. MEMBER, PRES. OBAMA’S 21ST CENTURY POLICING TASK FORCE]: Well, what we have to remember is that 93% of the protests from this past summer were deemed peaceful and without incident, and much of the 7% were actually caused by white supremacists and people who were using the cover of these nonviolent protests in order to cause chaos and damage and have black protesters across the country cast exactly as we are. So what this will mean is a doubling down on the punishment of audacious black people, audacious indigenous people, and folks who stand up for right across the country.
This says far more about what the Alabama GOP, and what I would say, frankly, is the national GOP and their opinion and perceived criminality of black people, than it actually says about the movement. And her’s what’s more important about that bill, they’re not just talking about punishing people of color, most often, who are protesting, they’re also talking about making it illegal to actually change the systems that are causing the harm in the first place. Why are people protesting? Because the police keep killing people.
And what is proposed in this bill is that any government entity in Alabama that defunds a local law enforcement agency will lose eligibility for grants, revenue and more. Look, we know in the state of Alabama that they will arrest and charge and convict people who not only protest for their rights, but who are assaulted by police just like Chikesia Clemons was in a Saraland, Alabama Waffle House just a few years ago.
So this law is unfortunately par for the course with Alabama, but we have to be very clear that this is an insidious attempt to punish black people to live freely and to make it illegal to change the institutions that continue to kill us.
RUHLE: Jason, is this a double-edged sword? Because we need actual rioters to be held accountable. When we think about the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6 and we watch them get to go home on bail, go on vacation to Mexico, and we’re furious about it. The argument we keep hearing is, “Well, we don’t have domestic terror laws in place in the U.S.” If we did, would that not excessively harm peaceful protesters that want racial justice?
JASON JOHNSON [THEGRIO CONTRIBUTOR]: Right, Stephanie, because comparing what happened on January 6 to what happened last summer is completely conflating the issue. What happened last summer is mostly peaceful protesters who were attacked by police officers. What’s really problematic about this law is not just the things that Brittany mentioned, but at the core of it, who on earth determines when something moves from a peaceful protest to a riot? If I go to a protest and someone downtown throws a rock into a window, these kinds of laws mean that you can just grab everybody in the paddy wagon and throw them in jail.
And that’s the issue we’re seeing here. What they want to do is come up with an excuse to just throw black people and protesters in jail. And these arguments that “We’re trying to stop outside agitators,” they were saying the same thing about Martin Luther King the SCLC and SNICK 60 or 70 years ago. It’s just an attempt to stop these attacks.
Now, for domestic terror, I’ve got to say we have laws on the books. I’ve said from the very beginning, if you were in the Capitol building on January 6, all we’ve got to do is track your cell phone, you’re trespassing on federal property. They could have snatched all of those people. The only reason they’re not getting arrested and prosecuted is because of larger problems we have in our criminal justice system.
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