Lengthy Island county legislature votes to permit first responders to sue protesters and units civil fines of as much as $50,000 – WRCBtv.com

“This bill would create a novel, dangerous and unconstitutional ‘irrefutable presumption’ that illegal behavior towards police and other first responders was motivated out of hatred if the rescuer was in uniform at the time,” the group said. “This means that anyone charged under this law faces criminal penalties, mandatory civil penalties and damages in civil litigation without the opportunity to produce evidence that they were not acting out of bias. In the criminal context, this is plain and simple unconstitutional. “