Send a Letter: Protect your right to protest in Wisconsin!

Two dangerous “anti riot” bills are going to be voted on in the Wisconsin Assembly this week! The bills would criminalize protest and penalize people for exercising their right to free speech.

These bills are clear retaliation for recent historic protests against police violence and for Black lives, and we must stop them.

If signed into law, the bills would:

Redefine a “riot” as any instance where a single participant threatens to push somebody, even if no violence or property damage is committed!
Give even more discretionary power to law enforcement to determine the difference between a protest and a “riot.”
Punish anyone who attends a “riot” under this new definition with a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by a mandatory 30 days, up to 9 months in jail and a $10,000 fine!
Create a new Class A misdemeanor for any person who “incites or urges” three or more people to engage in a “riot.”
Punish anyone who attends the “riot” with a Class I Felony if “substantial” property damage or injury occurs, which is punishable by up to 3 and a half years in prison!

We have a chance to stop these bills from passing in Wisconsin, but we need to act now.

Send a letter to your State Assemblyperson and Senator today and demand they vote no on these bills!

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Over the last few months, two bills have been working their way through the Wisconsin legislature that if passed into law would violate the basic principles of American law and undoubtedly have a chilling impact on the participation of Wisconsinites in protest protected by the First Amendment, especially racial justice protests. These bills are Assembly Bill 279 and Senate Bill 296.

These bills chill free speech and deter participation in a protest, which the First Amendment protects. By defining “riot” based on the violent actions or threats of one or more people who are part of the larger protesting group, and then making it a crime for everyone participating in that protest to merely be present at that protest, the current bills effectively outlaw otherwise protected protest.

Furthermore, these bills give the authority to police to make arrests before issuing a warning and an order to disperse, providing no notice and opportunity to leave before an arrest takes place.

These bills also violate laws that say that you must make clear to people what is and is not illegal, using vague language which makes it impossible for a person to know whether a protest has crossed the line into a so-called “riot.” For instance, the bills define a riot as a "disturbance that involves an unlawful assembly." Does that mean that a riot must first be an unlawful assembly? Does it mean it must be declared an unlawful assembly? Can a largely peaceful protest become a "riot" because it "involves" a smaller group of people engaged in an illegal assembly? Moreover, one definition of “riot” under the bills is an unlawful assembly in which someone uses violence to "obstruct law enforcement or another government function." Almost anything a government official does could be called a "government function." Almost any protest activity could "obstruct" smooth functioning by drawing attention from the function to the protest.

Finally, the bills penalize attending a riot in one provision and participating in certain behaviors at a riot in other places. Is there a difference between the two? This contradictory and unclear language is too vague to show what criteria would be used to discern what is legal versus illegal and leaves too much up to interpretation by police.

Finally, these bills are a part of a larger trend that makes people afraid to be arrested and severely punished for participating in protests. Some examples include the enhanced penalties for students who protest on-campus speakers and the "critical infrastructure" law that increases penalties for trespassing on powerline and pipeline rights of way during protests.

Assembly Bill 279 and Senate Bill 296 should not become law. We call on our legislators to not move forward with these bills.

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