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WA lawmakers advance bill making it a felony to threaten election workers
(www.seattletimes.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
245 points (98.8% liked)
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Why does the US not have severe penalties for threatening anyone? Or do they?
That might start infringing on everyone's right to shove a gun in each other's face.
We do, but we also love to elevate the punishment for crimes that annoy whatever group at the moment. A felony is more severe than a misdemeanor, and carries lifelong consequences.
Like the inability to vote...... OK why down vote. I'm right they limit your speech to disagree by taking your voice. The easy way to do that is make you a criminal with a felony conviction it is thee fastest way.
Sure you can argue it may fit the crime in this case but I get annoyed when we try to give all crimes the death penalty.
That's not a universal feature of felonies. According to Wikipedia, in the US it's any crime punishable by more than a year in prison.
Iirc most laws do cover threats but aren't enforceable due in large part of the first amendment. So threats are only enforced when there is real, imminent danger to the victim.
Even in cases of threatening the president, you get a visit from the Secret Service and charges are rare.
I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.