Indian Republican Rep. Jim Banks has introduced a bill that would block individuals convicted of rioting and looting from receiving coronavirus unemployment benefits.

Banks sponsored the “Support Peaceful Protest Act” earlier this month with the bill also calling to hold those looters “financially liable for the cost of federal policing.”

According to Fox News, Banks told a local radio outlet, “If you’re convicted of a crime that caused more manpower and law enforcement officers to deal with it, then perhaps you should be on the hook to pay for that.”

Banks added, “What we’re seeing happen in big cities and around the country are angry violent mobs showing up at federal properties, tearing down monuments on federal properties, especially in Washington, D.C., and it’s got to stop.”

“What my bill would do is add new consequences to those individuals who are breaking the law,” he continued, adding he supports peaceful protesters saying, “There are a lot of Americans who are showing up at peaceful protests.”

“The people who are acting out in violence are very different from those who are showing up peacefully and it’s easy to see the difference.” Banks said. “We should take those tax dollars away and say that those who break the law in violent protest shouldn’t receive taxpayer dollars.”

Riots and nationwide protests have broken out over the course of the summer after the killing of George Floyd, and now more recently the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. President Donald Trump‘s poll numbers have begun to shift in his favor with voters’ attitudes in swing states beginning to change on the protests.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2EJgsTx