Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that increases penalties for assaulting law enforcement and unlawful assembly.

Highlights:

• Establishes the driver of a vehicle who is exercising due care and who injures another person who is participating in a protest, demonstration, riot, or unlawful assembly or who is engaging in disorderly conduct and is blocking traffic in a public street or highway shall be immune from civil liability for the injury caused by the driver of the vehicle (Sec. 1-1).

• Establishes a person who commits an assault against a peace officer, a civilian employee of a law enforcement agency, jailer, correctional staff, or member or employee of the board of parole is guilty of a class C felony with a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of two years (Sec. 3-1).

• Establishes criminal mischief is criminal mischief in the second degree if the any of the following apply (Sec. 5-1):

• The cost of replacing, repairing, or restoring the property that is damaged, defaced, altered, or destroyed exceeds one thousand five hundred dollars but does not exceed $10,000;

• The acts damage, deface, alter, or destroy any publicly owned property, including a monument or a statue. The court will include an order of restitution for any property damage or loss incurred as a result of the offense.

• Classifies a riot as three or more persons assembled violently, disturbing others, and with any use of unlawful force or violence by them or any of them against another person or persons, or causing property damage (Sec. 6).

• Classifies an unlawful assembly as three or more persons assembled, with them or any of them acting violently, and with intent that they or any of them will commit a public offense (Sec. 7).

• Specifies a person commits an aggravated misdemeanor when the person commits disorderly conduct and does any of the following (Sec. 8-3):

• Obstructs or attempts to obstruct a fully controlled-access facility on a highway, street, or road;

• Commits property damage; or

• Is present during an unlawful assembly.

• Establishes any person who possesses a tool, instrument, or device with intent to use the tool, instrument, or device to suppress or disrupt law enforcement from legally deploying a device to control public disorder commits an aggravated misdemeanor (Sec. 9).

• Authorizes the court to release the defendant in less than 24 hours if the court finds that the defendant is not likely to immediately resume the criminal behavior based on the circumstances of the arrest and the defendant's prior criminal history (Sec. 10.a).

Full Bill Text