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A rapidly moving Senate bill threatens to criminalize peaceful protests and educational activities outside vaccine clinics.
S.B. 742 criminalizes protests near vaccination sites. While the bill rightfully seeks to prevent violent protests, it also prevents peaceful protests and any attempts to “harass” the public. That sounds reasonable, until you read the definition of “harass.” “Harassing” means knowingly approaching, without consent, within 30 feet of another person or occupied vehicle for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling with, that other person in a public way or on a sidewalk area.”
So simply being within 30 feet of someone outside a vaccine clinic while holding a sign would now be a crime. Or handing someone a copy of the vaccine insert that tells them about the potential side effects would now be punishable with a $1,000 fine or up to six months in jail.
S.B. 742 is moving fast! It was approved by committee 12-4, and is heading for a vote on the floor of the Senate.
TAKE ACTION:
Contact your California State Senator and ask them to oppose S.B. 742.
You can look up who represents you: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov
Calls are more effective than emails, and only take a few minutes.
Sample script:
“Hi, my name is ____ and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Senator____ to oppose S.B. 742, which makes it a crime to peacefully protest at vaccination sites.
The First Amendment protects our freedom of speech and assembly. Yet this bill blatantly ignores the Bill of Rights and makes it a violation of law to demonstrate or educate.
The bill redefines harassment to include simply handing someone educational material. That goes far beyond any normal understanding of what it means to harass or threaten people, and threatens the basic concept of free speech.
I urge Senator _____to OPPOSE S.B. 742.”
TALKING POINTS:
Keep your call or email short! Pick the 2 or 3 of these talking points – or none of them — that are most important to you, and be sure to explain why this issue matters to you personally.
- “Education” is not the same as “harassment.” S.B. 742 re-defines “harass” to include “educate” and sets a dangerous precedent.
- “Handing out fliers” is not an act of violence. Violent protests outside vaccine clinics have been very rare and can, and should, be addressed without destroying our right to free speech – just as we address violent protests in every other context, from abortion to immigration, without stopping free speech.
- One of the most basic human rights is that of bodily autonomy, as recognized by the Nuremburg Code. Ethical medicine requires prior, completely voluntary and fully informed consent. One way people get educated is from others who peacefully demonstrate.
- Vaccines are medical procedures that carry risk of serious injury. The U.S. Supreme Court recognizes vaccines to be “unavoidably unsafe” and to cause injury and death in some recipients. The U.S. Government has paid out $4.4 billion to the victims of vaccine injury. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/ensuringsafety/monitoring/vaers/
- Vaccine package inserts warn of the risk of brain damage, life-threatening allergy, and death and no one knows in advance whom a vaccine will harm. Each of us may respond differently as we have different medical histories, genes, epigenetics, and microbiomes.
MORE INFORMATION
Learn more about the bill at: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB742
Read this article about A.B. 742: https://ca.childrenshealthdefense.org/legislation/ca-sb-742-attacks-free-speech-and-the-right-to-assemble/
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The “bill” starts out with reference to “the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) “. If this virus was never isolated then that reference needs to be refuted and thereby “pull the rug out” from under this attempt to invent a crime.