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Arizona GOP Wants Felony For Protesters Who Damage Statues

AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File

Republicans in the Arizona Legislature are reacting to last year’s wave of damage to Confederate monuments by civil rights protesters by trying to make it a felony to damage any public or private monument.

  

Rep. John Kavanagh supported his proposal at a Senate committee hearing Thursday by saying public monuments are a statement by the community that demand more protection. Democrats call Kavanagh's an effort to criminalize protests against pro-slavery statues. The House passed Kavanagh's proposal on a party-line vote opposed by minority Democrats last month and it now awaits action in the GOP-controlled Senate.

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