Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Additional Protections for ANC Commissioners?

Today's Washington Post featured this article on pending legislation to increase penalties for those who harm, intimidate, or impede commissioners in conducting official ANC business.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this like a hate crime legislation?

I should hope that if someone hit my dog with a brick, or put firecrackers in my car's gas tank that I would have some legal protection and recourse.

I suspect that this is "feel good legislation put out there by a Mayor wannabe. If Cantania really cared about ANCs, he would make sure that they all had office spaces to conduct their official business and to store their public records.

inked said...

I think this is less like hate crime legislation, and more like laws that offer stricter penalties to anyone who harms, threatens, or intimidates an orange hat patrol (i.e. punishing someone for carrying out a legal/quasi-laegal/law enforcement role rather than punishing them for a personal trait). A criminal may harsher penalties for shooting a police officer because the police officer is performing a role necessary to the smooth functioning of society/the state (ditto for witness intimidation/jury tampering rules). I think the rational behind this law could be the same. It would be nice if the city gave ANCs office space.