Missouri bills seek liability shield for drivers who hit protesters blocking traffic
Reacting to a summer marked by protests against police violence around the country, a pair of Missouri lawmakers are pushing for legislation shielding drivers from liability if they hit protesters with their cars.
State Sen.-elect Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, is sponsoring a bill that would bar lawsuits against drivers for injuries to a person who “was blocking traffic in a public right-of-way while participating in a protest or demonstration” unless the driver’s action “constitutes gross negligence.”
Brattin’s bill is a wide ranging proposal that targets demonstrations in numerous other ways. It would also yank benefits from public employees convicted of unlawful assembly or rioting, withhold state funds from local governments who cut police budgets too much and impose a prison term of 5 to 15 years for vandalizing a monument on public property.
In the Missouri House, state Rep. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles, also wants to shield drivers who injure or kill demonstrators with their cars. His proposal, which covers both civil and criminal liability, would apply to people fleeing an “unlawful or riotous assemblage” if “the person reasonably believes he or she or any occupant of the motor vehicle is in danger.”
The General Assembly convenes Jan. 6 for its annual session. Legislative staff began assigning bill numbers and publishing pre-filed bills on Dec. 1. Early filing assures a low bill number but does not give legislation a priority spot for debate.
Brattin, a former House member who is returning to Jefferson City after two years as Cass County auditor, did not respond to several messages seeking comment on his bill.
Schnelting, in an interview last week, told The Independent that he only intends to protect people unwittingly caught in a riot.
The scenario he envisions, Schnelting said, is a 20-year-old mother with two infants in the back seat caught in a violent situation where rioters are trying to break into her car.
“She has a right to flee to protect herself without being charged,” he said.
Both unlawful assembly and rioting have specific definitions and penalties in state law. Schnelting said he is not trying to legalize ramming peaceful protesters with a car, even if their message is personal.
“I have been screamed at plenty of times,” Schnelting said. “That doesn’t mean that I am in danger.”
Despite the legislators’ intentions, the door opened by the bills, if they became law, is troubling, said Frank Bowman, a professor of law at the University of Missouri who specializes in criminal justice.
“Let’s assume I am spooked by the Black Lives Matter demonstrators or the Proud Boys on the corner and I speed away,” Bowman said. “Apparently there is no limitation on how prudent I have to be. This is basically open season on any pedestrian who happens to be within one block, two blocks, three blocks.”
Missouri protests
Throughout the nation this summer, and even into the early fall, people poured into the streets following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who died after a white police officer put his knee to Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes as he lay prone and handcuffed.
Some protests turned violent, for a variety of reasons that ranged from instigators within the protesters to provocation by police or opportunistic criminals using cover of the crowd to loot businesses.
The scenes were not new in Missouri, which saw similar protests followed the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson and again in 2017 when former St. Louis police officer Jason Shockley was acquitted in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith.
What was different this summer nationwide, and in some parts of Missouri, was the size, duration and extent of the protests.
In Kansas City, what started as confrontation calmed when police tactics changed, KCUR reported.
In St. Louis, day of peaceful demonstration on June 1 was followed by violence that included the shooting death of a retired St. Louis police captain outside a looted pawnshop. In response, Mayor Lyda Krewson imposed an overnight curfew.
In the run-up to November’s election, many Democrats focused on the grievances expressed by the crowds in the street—police brutality, institutional racism and social inequities. Republicans, playing to their base, focused on the violent incidents and called for the public to back police actions.
This story was produced by The Missouri Independent, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization covering state government, politics and policy.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 11:42 AM.