State lawmaker wants tougher penalties for setting fire to police vehicles | Georgia

(The Center Square) — A Georgia lawmaker wants to building up the penalties for any individual who units a legislation enforcement car on fire.

Rep. Deborah Silcox, R-Sandy Springs, introduced a renewed push for House Bill 500 when lawmakers go back in January. The announcement comes after vandals set fire to legislation enforcement bikes parked at an Atlanta Police Department facility on Southside Industrial Parkway this is house to the Atlanta Police Training Academy and its particular operations precinct.

Police consider the vandalism, which government stated destroyed 8 police bikes and was once a part of a sequence of assaults concentrated on private and non-private belongings throughout Atlanta, is tied to once in a while violent protests in opposition to the deliberate Atlanta Police coaching facility in DeKalb County, derisively nicknamed “Cop City.”

“We welcome peaceful demonstrations, but Georgia will not tolerate the destruction of property,” Silcox stated in a statement. “An attack on police property is an attack on public safety, and HB 500 would give prosecutors a mechanism to directly penalize arsonists who pose a threat to public safety. In addition to the danger and destruction of property, these violent acts project a negative image of our city, which hurts our business climate and tourism industry.”

Under HB 500, any individual convicted of the arson of a legislation enforcement car faces a most fantastic of $100,000 and between 5 and twenty years in jail.

While the state House handed the measure all over the 2023 legislative consultation and the state Senate Judiciary Committee gave it the thumbs up, it didn’t succeed in the Senate flooring for a vote ahead of the top of the consultation.

“These attacks on public safety resources are outrageous and completely inexcusable,” Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, stated in a commentary posted to Twitter. “This planned destruction of property and attempted use of explosive devices put both lives and community assets in danger. Those are the tactics of organized criminals, not protestors, and their supporters should ask themselves if they truly want to be associated with such radical and violent people.

“Working with state, native, and federal legislation enforcement companions, we can in finding those criminals and produce them to justice,” the governor added.