Journalists’ Roundtable: Increased penalties for protesters and more

It’s Friday, which means it is time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable, where we discuss Arizona politics. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services, Jeremy Duda of Axios Phoenix, and Camryn Sanchez of KJZZ Radio.

This week’s topics included:

• Bill to increase penalties for protesters
• Bill allowing local police to work with ICE
• Census counts U.S. citizens only
• Proposal to standardize state election dates
• Governor Katie Hobbs vs. Senator T.J. Shope
• Bill: No medical mandates enshrined in the Constitution 

Bill to increase penalties for protesters:

Howie Fischer: “Well, there’s a right way and a wrong way…coercion is also persuasion, that is the nature of protest. But this would make it a crime to try to coerce a change in government…the nature of protest, the nature of all this stuff is to say, we don’t like the way you’re doing things, so have you suddenly committed a felony.”

Jeremy Duda: “A lot of stuff they’re targeting is already illegal. Destroying property, blocking traffic…but this ratchets up kind of some of the penalties, creates new classification…so it’s really trying to make these more severe penalties…make it easier to prosecute people, giving law enforcement, police, a lot more latitude in what they’re arresting people for…it all comes down to what they’re protesting about.”

Camryn Sanchez: “I think for me, probably the most interesting one is if you’re warning someone…when people do that, and they’re looking out for one another, is that obstructing the law, and should they be felons for that, or is that part of your legal right to communicate, protest, free speech, etc.”

Bill allowing local police to work with ICE:

Camryn Sanchez: “Requiring local enforcement to be in touch with ICE, and to turn people over…have reason to believe they might be undocumented. Which I think begs the question, how would we implement that, and how would that work with our legal system, because we are supposed to have due process, and we have rules that we’re currently following.”