Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) unveiled a bill on Wednesday to curb pro-Hamas riots in the United States fueled by leftist groups, Breitbart News exclusively learned.
The bill, dubbed the Stop Pro-Terrorist Riots Now Act, would increase the maximum punishment for participating in a riot from five years to ten years and create a mandatory one-year minimum penalty for anyone who engages in or supports an act of violence as part of a riot.
“Radical, pro-Hamas mobs committing crimes and perpetrating violence should face the full extent of the law. No one has the right to commit violence in support of terrorism. This bill is necessary to ensure that we reject anti-Semitism and hold these pro-Hamas criminals accountable,” Cotton told Breitbart News.
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Protests in support of Hamas have broken out across the U.S. in the aftermath of the terrorist organization’s attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,200 people — many of them women, children, and elderly. More than 200 were kidnapped, and about a hundred remain hostage.
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Leftist groups, such as The People’s Forum, have organized and encouraged the riots, which often feature anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence. For example, last week, about 200 pro-Hamas rioters broke down the door of a campus theater at the University of California Berkeley, prompting an evacuation of Jewish students gathered to hear an attorney and former Israeli Defense Forces soldier speak.
According to the university’s student newspaper, protesters chanted, “Long live the intifada,” and ‘Killers on campus,” the Associated Press reported. A university spokesman said there have been four formal reports made to the campus police, including an allegation of battery along with antisemitic slurs that is being investigated as a hate crime. Another victim was allegedly kicked and spit at. There was also an alleged battery and injured while attempting to keep the door closed.
Although the protests often appear organic, Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer recently published a new book Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans, that details how the Chinese government are linked to these leftist groups and may use them to promote social chaos.
According to Cotton, in some locations, such as New York, the groups also receive U.S. public funding.
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