Breitbart:
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) says American taxpayers should not be paying to provide federal unemployment benefits to “Antifa thugs” and those associated with Black Lives Matter (BLM) who have started riots across the United States.
Last week, Breitbart News exclusively reported Banks’ newly filed legislation, the Support Peaceful Protest Act, which would make convicted rioters ineligible for federal unemployment benefits and force rioters to pay police officers for the law enforcement they provide during the riots.
Banks explained his plan in an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Saturday, saying such a policy would have an immediate impact in terms of ending the months-long rioting.
“It’s occurred to me over the last few weeks that it’s not just George Soros and left-wing groups like BLM that are funding many of these riots and mob protests that are turning violent in the streets of America’s cities, but if you think about it, you and I are also funding it in a way,” Banks said.
These protestors, the Antifa thugs that are showing up and causing so much destruction are also getting $600 a week through unemployment benefits through the CARES Act and the federal benefits that have come about through the coronavirus aid. I want to put a stop to it. If they’re unemployed and they show up on a daily basis, and they’re traveling all over America — especially many of them coming to Washington, DC — the last thing they deserve is our tax dollars going into their pockets to pay the costs for these professional protestors and rioters and causing this kind of ruin and destruction in places like Washington. So that’s one big component of my bill. [Emphasis added]
There are videos online of protestors holding up traffic jams … I think these protestors should have to pay the cost of the law enforcement that have to come out and deal with situations like these. [Emphasis added]
