Tag: michigan

Michigan residents could be charged with a felony, face up to five years in prison and get a $10,000 fine for using the wrong pronouns under ‘unconstitutional’ new bill

Michigan‘s House of Representatives has passed a hate speech bill, known as HB 4474, which criminalizes causing someone to feel threatened by words, including the misusing of their pronouns, with the possibility of a hefty fine or even jail time.

The bill introduces hate crime penalties for causing someone to ‘feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened,’ with ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity or expression’ included as protected classes. 

Offenders could face up to five years in prison for such a felony offense or a $10,000 fine.

It is part of a continues effort by Democrats in the state to advance a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda in their first months in power. 

The proposed legislation aims to replace the existing Ethnic Intimidation Act and extends protection against intimidation.

Critics argue that the bill poses a threat to First Amendment rights and lacks clarity in defining ‘harassment’, leaving it open to subjective interpretation. 

The bill reads as follows: ‘Intimidate’ means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened.’

If passed, penalties would be based on how the supposed victim and court ‘feel’ about a particular matter. 

What constitutes as being deemed ‘intimidation and harassment’ would be up to the interpretation of the listener and a local prosecutor.

Critics argue that the legislation could infringe on free speech rights and undermine the principles of due process. 

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Michigan Democrats’ ‘Hate Speech’ Law Could Imprison People For Saying ‘Frightening’ Words

In an unprecedented move, Michigan Democrats have passed a new law, House Bill 4474, which seeks to enforce prison sentences for those found guilty of uttering words deemed to be ‘frightening’ or ‘intimidating’.

The bill expands the definition of hate crimes to include intimidation or harassment based on a wide range of individual characteristics, including race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disability, age, ethnicity, and national origin.

Under the terms of the proposed law, a person can be found guilty of a hate crime if they are found to have intentionally intimidated or harassed another person based on any of the above-listed characteristics. Intimidation and harassment under this law can take many forms, including causing physical contact, damaging property, or making threats that could cause another individual to feel frightened, threatened, or harassed.

According to critics, the bill’s broad definition of hate crimes, including the use of ‘frightening’ words, raises concerns about potential infringement on free speech. The law could have far-reaching implications, potentially criminalizing harsh words or expressions of opinion if they are perceived as intimidating or harassing, particularly if they are based on the characteristics listed in the bill.

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Proposed ‘Hate Speech’ Law in Michigan Threatens First Amendment Rights, Conservatives Warn

A bill moving through the Democrat-controlled Michigan State Legislature would make it easier for prosecutors to bring felonious “hate crime” charges against dissident speech.

The possible implications for preachers, school administrators, teachers, parents, politicians, and citizen activists have alarmed conservatives concerned about the effect the bill may have on free speech.

The proposed legislation, HB 4474, would amend the state’s Ethnic Intimidation Act of 1988 in order to consider it a hate crime if a person is accused of causing “severe mental anguish” to another individual by means of perceived verbal intimidation or harassment.

The amendment defines the words intimidate or harass as a “willful course of conduct, involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested…”

“Words are malleable,” Attorney David Kallman of the Great Lakes Justice Center (GLJC), a non-profit legal organization dedicated to preserving liberty in America, told The Epoch Times. “They can be redefined by whoever is in power.

“Under the proposed statute, ‘intimidate and harass’ can mean whatever the victim, or the authorities, want them to mean. The focus is on how the victim feels rather than on a clearly defined criminal act. This is a ridiculously vague and subjective standard,” he said.

“The absence of intent makes no difference under this law. You are still guilty of the crime because the victim felt uncomfortable.

“The bill will lead to the prosecution of conservatives, pastors, and parents attending a school board meeting for simply expressing their opposition to the liberal agenda,” Kallman said.

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Nearly 300 absentee ballots from 2020 election found in Michigan county storage unit

Nearly 300 absentee ballots from the 2020 election were found in a Michigan county storage unit, according to a township supervisor.

The ballots were discovered in a storage unit in Genesee County, which encompasses the city of Flint, Mich., and Thetford Township.

The discovery was made by Thetford Township Supervisor Rachel Stanke through a Freedom of Information Act and presented Wednesday to the township board and residents, according to Michigan News Source.

In 2021, Stanke first became aware of the potential existence of the missing ballots. She initially contacted the Michigan attorney general and the secretary of state, then later told the Michigan State Police after receiving tips regarding the missing ballots and supposed “old township documents” that were discovered.

The storage unit was rented by a former township employee who stowed the box of ballots there, according to the FOIA records. Stanke said that the employee was not aware of the contents of the box.

The Michigan police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the ballots after recovering them in August 2022.

Stanke hopes that residents can trust the fairness and accuracy of elections. “That’s why I want to bring this to their attention,” she said. “And I want them to be able to make sure that their elections are run fairly and smoothly.”

Katie Hicks, who lost by 19 votes in her race for Thetford Township Clerk in 2020, said she cannot trust future elections.

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MSU students are suing a professor after she required them to subscribe to a website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood

An adjunct professor at Michigan State University, Amy Wisner, is being sued by two of her students after requiring her business communications class to purchase a $99 subscription to an activist website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood.

The website, The Rebellion Community, was described in the class syllabus as “a global social learning community.”

Several students looked into the website and found posts from their professor on social media which detailed the leftwing causes that their membership fees were going to, most notably, Planned Parenthood.

MLive News reported,

Though Wisner initially told students that she would reap no benefit from the subscriptions, the lawsuit said, students found out that Wisner operated the site and had said in different contexts that its proceeds would be donated to Planned Parenthood or used to fund “an RV roadtrip around the United States to co-create communities of rebels.”

The university says that Wisner is no longer employed and the school has offered to refund the students the cost of their subscriptions.

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MI House Democrats seek to imprison kids for having BB guns

Michigan may have a hunting and gun culture, but legislative Democrats are doing everything in their power to change that.

The latest example comes as House Democrats have proposed HB 4184, a bill to ban those 18 and under from “using or possessing certain BB guns outside of their property,” according to the summary.

State Rep. Julie Rogers, a Democrat from crime-riddled Kalamazoo, filed the bill earlier this session.

The bill is to “regulate the possession or use of pneumatic guns,” that is, those that are designed to use air pressure to propel the projectile. The bill bans kids from having guns “that will expel a BB or pellet by spring, gas, or air.”

“An individual less than 18 years of age shall not use or possess a pneumatic gun outside the curtilage of the individual’s dwelling unless the individual is accompanied by another individual over 18 years of age,” it states.

A child who breaks the proposed law “is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 90 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.”

“Please get your kids outside this summer to make some epic memories before the leftists who have never engaged in such fun ban it,” state Rep. Angela Rigas (R) said in response.

“Allowing kids to use BB guns unsupervised can have life-threatening consequences,” Rogers claimed. “All too often, these guns are treated as toys, without regard to the dangers they pose. As with all types of guns, adult supervision for children to ensure they are following safety precautions is necessary for everyone’s well-being.”

During Rogers’s first term in office (2021), Kalamazoo was one of the most dangerous cities in the state.

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Former police oversight commissioner’s death investigated as homicide after she’s found dead in her Michigan home

Foul play is suspected after a former police oversight commissioner was found dead in her Ann Arbor, Michigan, home by officers conducting a welfare check, the department said Thursday.

The death of Jude Walton, 51, is being investigated as a homicide. A police spokesman said there was evidence of forced entry to the home’s backdoor and “obvious signs of trauma on her body.”

No arrests have been made. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday to determine the cause of death, spokesman Chris Page said.

Police were called to the home on Chapin Street around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday after her employer said she had not shown up for work. She was last seen by a neighbor around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Page said.

“Once officers arrived and entered the home, they discovered the body of a 51-year-old Ann Arbor woman,” a police news release states.

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Michigan Republican admits to taking bribes while overseeing state medical cannabis board

A former Michigan House speaker was indicted along with two lobbyists and a medical marijuana business owner as part of a bribery scheme.

Rick Johnson, the Republican former House speaker and chairman of the state medical marijuana licensing board from 2017 to 2019, was charged with accepting bribes, while registered lobbyists Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and John Dalaly, who had sought a business license, was charged with payment of bribes, reported the Detroit Free Press.

“Unfortunately, a small percentage (of public officials) abuse the public trust,” said James Tarasca, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan. “Public corruption is a top criminal priority for the FBI. Public corruption erodes confidence and undermines the strength of our democracy.”

James Totten, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, said a five-year investigation determined that Johnson was the “heart” of the bribery scheme that involved more than $100,000 in cash payments from companies and lobbyists seeking licenses from the board he led.

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Whitmer Concedes Her COVID Rules Didn’t Make Sense

Nowhere did the COVID hysteria blight the land as remorselessly as it did in Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan, and now that the Left’s lockdown narrative has thoroughly unraveled, the embattled governor will need a new fake FBI kidnapping plot to divert attention from how she drove her once-thriving state into a ditch and revealed a disturbing taste for authoritarianism. Now, Whitmer is backpedaling furiously, even admitting on CNN Sunday night that many of her COVID measures “in retrospect, don’t make a lot of sense.” Uh, yeah. We could have told you that several years ago, Governor, but you would have dismissed us as purveyors of “disinformation.”

Even in the midst of making this concession, however, Whitmer tried to cover her tracks and justify her COVID measures. Michigan Capitol Confidential ( “Michigan’s Watchdog,” a publication of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy) noted Tuesday that during her conversation with Chris Wallace, Whitmer “misrepresented her COVID-19 record and used a false talking point to question Florida’s COVID data.” Wallace asked her what she would do differently if the COVID insanity began today. He pressed the governor — who forced people to remain in their homes, forcibly closed businesses and schools, and even prohibited people from buying seeds for their gardens and toys for their children — for specifics on how she might handle the same situation now.

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Michigan may soon enact red flag laws. Implementation could make all the difference.

After a mass shooting on Michigan State University’s campus that left three students dead and another five wounded, Democratic lawmakers set their sights on altering gun ownership practices in Michigan.

The bills, introduced days after the shooting, fall into three categories: Requiring universal background checks for the sale of all firearms; establishing penalties for failing to safely store a gun when around a minor under the age of 18; and creating a process to implement extreme risk protection orders – otherwise known as red flag laws – in the state of Michigan.

These specific laws are frequently touted from anti-gun violence groups as being the start of true reform in curbing firearm-related deaths. But opponents of the bills say that the better solution comes from focusing on mental health supports instead of penalizing all gun owners for the actions of a specific few.

Legislative Republicans have pointed toward work done by the Bipartisan School Safety Task force as being a better solution to curbing firearm violence, especially in Michigan schools. The package, born in the wake of a 2021 shooting at Oxford High School which left four students dead, deals primarily with K-12 school safety while installing more security and mental health coordinators.

But to researchers like Shannon Frattaroli, a professor and course faculty member with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, it’s not a question of which is better – mental health or gun safety supports – but how best to combine the two with preventing community violence.

“Implementation is really a key component to gun policy and the potential to realize an effect,” she said. “It’s critically important to focus on guns … but there’s also a lot of progress to be made on some sort of community violence prevention interventions, thinking about how it is that we can really start to address the root causes of violence.”

That’s especially true of implementing red flag laws, Frattaroli added. As of 2022, 19 states including Florida, Maryland, Colorado, Illinois and Oregon – as well as Washington D.C. – possess a form of risk-based gun removal laws.

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