NC Senate Votes To Ban Masks, Send Children To Adult Prisons, Generally Do Bad Stuff

The hell is wrong with these people?

May 17, 2024

On Wednesday, the North Carolina state Senate voted to pass a number of bills aimed at trampling on free speech, barring people from protecting their own health, screwing kids up for life, murdering the environment, and other Republican priorities. Put on a hazmat suit (if they’re still legal): We’re diving in.

The “Who Cares About Your Health Or Your First Amendment Rights?” Bill

Perhaps the most controversial bill, House Bill 237 repeals the lockdown-era “health and safety exemption from laws prohibiting the wearing of masks in public places including public ways, public property, and the house of another person.” Republican supporters of the bill swore up and down that the only reason they wanted to pass the bill was to “crack down” on pro-Palestinian student protests, which everyone seemed to think was a very good and normal thing to say out loud, but still refused to include any exemptions for health and safety.

The bill passed 30-15 along party lines.

"Is it really that you find masked chemo patients that threatening? Something about them makes you really angry?" asked Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg, while the bill was being debated. "Or is this, more likely, a desire to score some political points with the anti-mask crowd during an election year, at the expense of vulnerable people?"

I would argue that it is probably both of those things. Republicans find pretty much everything very threatening and anger-inducing, and I’m certain that chemo patients are no exception.

"This bill criminalizes their behavior, and mine," said Sen. Sydney Batch (D-Wake), a cancer survivor. "We talk a lot about freedoms in this chamber. I hear it all the time. I should have the freedom — my children and my husband should have the freedom — to wear masks in order to protect and save my life, without fear of being arrested and charged."

But has Batch not considered how her wearing a mask makes Republicans feel? It makes them feel like she isn’t willing to risk her health for their comfort, and that’s kind of insulting! They’re very delicate, you know.

Republicans also felt like it was rude of Democrats to not trust police with fair enforcement of this law, with bill sponsor Buck Newton (R-Wilson) saying that it wouldn’t be used to "prosecute granny for wearing a mask in the Walmart," even though it is written to do exactly that. Newton did, however, add that if he had been in the Senate during COVID, he would have voted against allowing people to wear masks in public for health reasons then as well. So he seems, you know, normal.

Still it was nice that they could all come together and agree that using the mask laws to discourage pro-Palestinian student protests was a swell idea — and they’re not alone there. In Ohio, Republican Attorney General David Yost sent a letter to all of the public universities in his state informing them that they can charge students who wear masks at protests with a felony, for which they could serve 6 to 18 months in prison, excitedly noting that “[i]n our society, there are few more significant career-wreckers than a felony charge.” Students in Florida have been charged with masks as well, and a university ban on mask-wearing “to obstruct law enforcement” was used as a reason to allow police to violently attack student protestors in Texas.

Surely, someone at some point will figure out a way to make it a crime to be correct about a war being a bad idea before it gets to the point at which the “Very Serious People” start thinking “Oh shit, this actually does not seem to be going as well as we thought it would!”

The “Who Cares About Kids?” Bill

Now, if you thought that potentially ruining the lives of college students for the crime of being anti-war Cassandras was a thrilling idea — how about throwing high school sophomores and juniors into adult prisons?

As WRAL notes, prior to passing the Raise the Age law in 2019, North Carolina had the distinction of being the only state where 16- and 17-year-olds were automatically charged as adults. That law allowed for those offenders to be tried in juvenile court, while also allowing them to sometimes be charged as adults based on the seriousness of the crime.

For the record, 16- and 17-year-olds are not actually adults under any circumstances other than if they age and turn 18.

Alas, the Senate has changed its mind about at least some of that, voting 41-4 to pass House Bill 834 and automatically charge these teens as adults for a wide array of felonies.

Several experts spoke out against the change during the hearing, explaining that juvenile offenders are far, far less likely to reoffend when placed in juvenile detention than in adult prisons, but they were ignored on the grounds that putting teenagers in adult prisons seems like a really cool and tough-on-crime thing to do.

Via WRAL:

"Teens in adult prisons are far more likely to encounter gangs and drugs, and to be assaulted and raped," Tara Muller said. She leads the group Disability Rights North Carolina, which has filed multiple lawsuits outlining problems in state jails and prisons.
Muller added that beyond being safer, juvenile justice facilities also do more than adult prisons to teach inmates skills and help resolve mental issues that may have contributed to their past criminal behavior: "At the end of the day, these teens will almost all end up back in our communities," she said. "Our society is better off when people leaving the system have had their untreated conditions treated."

Who would have thought, except for anyone who actually thought about it for more than five minutes?

Sen. Danny Britt (R-Robeson), the bill’s lead sponsor, explained that it was just very necessary on the grounds that "[W]e have older gang members recruiting children to commit violent crimes, knowing that a 15-, 16-, 17-year-old, a 14-year-old, is less likely to face any type of justice."

Yes, the fact that children could be manipulated or frightened into committing violent crimes surely is an argument for sending them to adult prisons.

To be clear, by the way — not all crimes classified as violent actually involve violence. Also, “violent” offenders have much lower recidivism rates than those who commit most other types of crimes.

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The “Who Cares About Trees?” Bill

The North Carolina state Senate also passed a bill that would allow billboard companies to cut down even more trees to make way for billboards.

The new proposed law, WRAL reports, would “let billboard companies apply for a permit to cut trees within 500 feet of billboards on most major roads, up from 380 feet currently. They could also cut down trees without a permit as far as 300 feet from their billboards, up from 200 feet currently.”

Why? To what end? Can’t they just build taller billboards? Why do they have to kill that many trees? Is this pro-capitalism or just anti-tree? Maybe a little bit of both.

It sure would be nice if legislators could pass bills to protect trees, to protect people’s health, to protect their First Amendment rights or even just to protect and help children who get manipulated by modern-day Artful Dodgers instead of punishing them for it.

On the bright side, I suppose, these bills still have to make it past Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who could sign or veto them — and hopefully it will be the latter.

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