Use the RICO Act on town hall disruptors

I am sick and tired of seeing hired goons getting away with the kind of terroristic behavior they have exhibited at town hall meetings about health care reform. The same pattern of loud unruly disruptors -- making threats, committing assaults, hanging a member of Congress in effigy and even carrying firearms -- is happening all over the country. Many of them evidently don't live in the districts where the town hall meetings are taking place. Some have been identified as participants in the 2000 post-election thuggery that halted a Florida recount, helping cost Al Gore the presidency.

Raw Story has an article about a former insurance industry executive claiming that the industry is behind these disruptions. http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/11/whistleblower-insurers-put-profits-before-care/

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act covers acts of terrorism.

I hope Attorney General Holder will put together a task force to examine these town hall meeting disruptions, find out who is organizing and financing them, and, if appropriate, file federal charges against individuals, groups and corporations.

We should refuse to tolerate efforts to control our nation, its elected representatives, and its laws via acts of violence and thuggery.

And to an extent, that may be true, but it's time that Obama himself address these crazies that hate him. Not that it will convince any of them, but he still needs to confront them head on, unlike the previous president.

Rhetoric like this is very alarmingly like the kind of crap I saw on right wing boards (know thy enemy) when they were discussing former president minibrains' visits and antiwar demos.

Let us not become the very evil we fought against.

to insist that our nation's laws be followed?

And how is it evil to suggest that these loud disruptors' behavior be investigated and called to account? I would be terrified to attend a townhall meeting with my member of Congress if I had reason to believe these people would attend.

I am simply calling for an investigation. That's not rhetoric.

It's a good idea, but it's hard to imagine the Democrats actually definitively acting in the face of GOP thuggery....

And then why didn't it work?

It was my impression that they never really pursued it...

I believe NOW was pushing for its use

http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_rico.htm

Basically, the Supremes said that "thuggery" (in this case extortion) wasn't involved (though the original court refused to allow in evidence showing a years-long pattern of, well, thuggish behavior by the anti-choicers)

Whether this definitively resolves using RICO as a tool against rightwing violence, I'm not sure.

And if not RICO, then what do you use to stop the "Brownshits?"

they print lies, you print facts

knock on doors, educate those who aren't paying attention

...so it's not quite a level playing field...

go to a walmart on a saturday and hand out fliers, go to a mall put fliers on windshields....organize with friends, take out an ad in a local paper.

I've been out there, protested, been arrested for civil disobedience.

You?

Once in awhile, though, it'd be nice if my government had my back. At least when Democrats were "in power...."

And I'd like to see the other side have a similar set of rules to play by.

But they don't.

And we need to recognize that.

The point is, we've got 60 seats in the senate. We don't need the media, we don't have to have town halls we don't have to do anything but support the people we put in office.
Let the pukes whine and cry, let them squirm and scream.
Be constructive in the response

that's the problem....

they promised to end the war, didn't. They were going to impeach Bush, didn't. The told us with 60 seats we'd get healthcare, now they're making excuses. Fuckers can't even get an investigation into the bush administration for torture.

But you're right about the blue dogs

and a good question:

"if not RICO, then what do you use to stop the "Brownshits?" "

I am very much worried that these rightwing mobs are a threat to our democracy.

Town Hall meetings with members of Congress have been around for a while, and I'm shocked that these have been turned into opportunities not just to disagree with elected representatives, but to shout them down, keep them from speaking, threaten, intimidate and assault them.

Certainly anti-war protesters have attended such meetings in the past and made noise, but I can't imagine that they threatened members of Congress or actually physically assaulted them. Sure, many anti-war protesters were organized, but they weren't hired by corporations to push a political agenda with violent behavior, as far as I know.

So what CAN be done about these townhall disrupters? It would be nice if local police did enforce existing laws, and I hope they are doing so. It would be nice if attendance were limited to those living in a given election district, but I don't know if that is possible.

And if the insurance industry IS paying people to organize groups to attend these meetings for the purpose of stopping them and intimidating people and.or committing violence, I want the insurance company executives held accountable.

But oh, well. Nobody's held accountable for anything in this country any more, so why bother.(sarcasm) So if these neofascists succeed in shutting down healthcare reform, hobbling our Congress and President, and turning this country into a fascist regime, that's okay (sarcasm). At least we won't have hurt their widdle feelings along the way by messing with their freedom of expression. (sarcasm directed not at you but at others)

Anti-abortion activists

RICO laws were unsuccessfully cited in NOW v. Scheidler, a suit in which certain parties sought damages and an injunction against anti-abortion activists who physically block access to abortion clinics.

Keep in mind, the repukes could be in power again some day and may want to sell another war to the country

I'm saying this behavior needs to be investigated.

If there is a crime being committed (assualts, vandalism, battery) then sure, investigate and arrest them. If they are being disorderly, sure target them...beyond that, you're getting into an area that can come back to bite you when someone decides your behavior is a little "suspect"

and violence, as I suspect, and it is found that this is being financed and organized by the health care industry, then I think an investigation into possible violations of RICO would be appropriate.

Move On, Code Pink or any other group they disagree with, you going to applaud that move?

Instead of investigating who is drumming up opposition, use facts to shut them up. Democrats having town halls should have answers, with sections and page numbers to refute the lies and the idiots spreading them

If so, you're naive. The goal is to shout down anyone who disagrees with them and intimidate people so they don't come to or hold these types of meetings for this issue.

Of course, there's the guy at the Obama town meeting today with a gun and a sign saying it's time to water the tree of liberty. I'm sure he's just "protesting."

There you go - intimidation and disorderly conduct.

and you can't shout down people who have the facts on their side.

Pull your head out of your ass. The last eight years of "free speech zones", denied entry because of t-shirts or bumper stickers, arrests and charges being dropped a couple of days later, surveillance, wiretapping, constitutes not just being bitten, but being chewed up and spit out by the right-wing propaganda machine. To not see the asymmetry between protests during the Bush years and those taking place now is to be deaf, dumb, and blind.

They go back to the vietnam war, they were used during the clinton years too.
And, that's what I'm talking about, you think the Pukes wouldn't take RICO statutes and apply them to the people who opposed the next war they've got cooked up for the next time they control things?

you think it was bad under little boots, open a new door for them and see how the next little asshole whose daddy had money gets in power turns around and decides how he wants to use it.

and let the fuckin' neoNazis just take over.

Let them threaten and intimidate the public, assault members of Congress and hang them in effigy. Let them force us to drop any kind of legislation they decide they don't like. Let them run around with guns at these healthcare reform town hall meetings.

What ideas do YOU have to offer?

Their patsies at the scene are less important--expose the organizers.

Use RICO to squash free-speech and a lot of liberals may join their protests.

If there are violations of laws, there should be prosecutions.
In my opinion free speech doesn't protect physical assaults, intimidation and threats of violence.

They manage to flip out on the flimsiest of pretexts.