Protesting Now Illegal, Basically

Look at what the freedom-hating Chinese government has done! They’ve gone and passed a law saying that it is illegal to enter a “restricted” area even if you didn’t know that the space was restricted, and also made it illegal to protest in said "restricted" area or do anything that could be "disruptive," like booing. Except just kidding, it wasn’t passed in China; it was passed in the United States, and it also makes protest punishable by up to ten years if it’s carried out anywhere that the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting.

First noted yesterday by the Washington Times , the law is called the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act and it improves "Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds" as well as places designated as the site of a  "special event of national significance," and "building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting."

In other words, this bill improves Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds, special events of national significance (the state of the union, the state of the state, even the Superbowl or the Grammy awards), and places where the Secret Service will be visiting in order to offer protection to someone more important than you. Isn't that wonderful?

But wait! HOW will all this stuff be improved?  Oh, just by making sure that you'll get slapped with ten years in jail or a fine for knowingly entering these restricted areas, or acting with "disorderly" or "disruptive" conduct so that official business in one of these areas is disrupted. No biggie, right?

The good news is that this bill is bipartisan, since it passed unanimously in the Senate and with only three “no” votes in the House and Obama signed it into law. But don't worry, it's not like they'll ever actually USE this law against anyone, so it's totally fine, and even if they do, we're free to sit at home and write all the angry letters we want, which will definitely help. Oh and also? This law was passed in March but there was no coverage of it in the mainstream media until just yesterday, when the Washington Times ran the above essay in the “Communities” section of their website. Aren’t you glad we don’t have a state-controlled press? Or live in a commie-fascist state like China? That would be horrible!

 [The Washington Times]