Iowa joins states stepping up against Antifa

Iowa’s legislature and governor recently enacted legislation to provide their state’s law enforcement and the criminal justice system new tools to control and punish violence employed by groups like Antifa.

Iowa joins a growing list of states, including Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama that have instituted such measures in the wake of dangerous riots in the streets of America over the past year or more.

Signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds, SF 342 (also known as the “Back the Blue” bill) makes rioting a felony as opposed to a misdemeanor, increases penalties on a range of other destructive criminal activities, establishes qualified immunity for peace officers, and increases due process protections for law enforcement. It also attempts to hold local governments accountable if they prevent local law enforcement from doing their jobs.

Additionally, the new law provides safeguards regarding police officers’ personal information, such as their home address, personal phone number, date of birth, social security number and driver’s license number. Releasing such information, a tactic called “Doxxing” is frequently deployed by Antifa/BLM organizers. The Center for Security Policy has urged states to adopt laws punishing the malicious doxxing of law enforcement.

The law modifies existing assault laws in Iowa to make using a laser with intent to harm a Class D felony. (Antifa members frequently show up to a riot en masse with laser pointers, used to damage an officer’s eyesight.)

The act raises the level of crime applied to damaging, defacing, altering, or destroying publicly owned property, including statues and monuments and orders restitution to repair damages inflicted. Again, Antifa has commonly vandalized, destroyed and damaged public property, ranging from courthouses to monuments.

As mentioned above, previously, participating in a riot (or unlawful assembly) in Iowa was a misdemeanor. It is now a Class D felony.

Like laws passed in Oklahoma and Florida, SF 342 protects a driver from civil liability if the driver injures a rioter who is unlawfully blocking a roadway.

Though federal law enforcement and left-wing district attorneys in some localities seem to have a blind-spot when it comes to Antifa, states like Iowa, have a clear understanding of the threat it poses to public safety.

We encourage more states act as Iowa has, and raise the cost of engaging in Antifa’s violent tactics, especially as there is reason to assess that Antifa will once ramp up its violent, disruptive tactics on our city streets as the mid-term 2022 elections approach.