VA Senate Passes Bill Banning Mandatory Jail for Assaulting Officers or Judges, and Making Misdemeanor Charges Possible

Yesterday, Virginia Senate passed bill SB 5032 Assault and battery; penalty in a 21-Y to 15-N vote. This bill removes mandatory jail sentence for those who assault a police officer, firefighter, volunteer fire fighter, judge, magistrate, correctional officer. According to an article on Wavy TV 10, “the bill also removes mandatory minimum 6-month jail sentence for assaulting a police officer.”

The complete summary reads “Eliminates the mandatory minimum term of confinement for an assault and battery committed against a judge; magistrate; law-enforcement officer; correctional officer; person directly involved in the care, treatment, or supervision of inmates; firefighter; or volunteer firefighter or any emergency medical services personnel and provides that such crime can no longer be committed as a simple assault and must result in a bodily injury.”

WSLS: Virginia Senate passes bill allowing assaulting police officer to be misdemeanor, removes mandatory jail sentence

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) August 27, 2020

Richmond has had many riots or protests over the past three months over. Many Confederate monuments have been vandalized and some have been removed by the localities. Some rioters have attacked police officers during the protests, throwing concrete, chemicals and using lasers and flashlights targeting the officers eyes.

In June a proposal was made to defund the Richmond police and that proposal was killed in July. With the Senate passing this new bill, this may embolden some rioters to believe they could push the envelope further and get away with more, in our view. The bill has yet to pass the House and we will be watching to see what comes of this. If it should pass the House will radical leftist Governor Northam sign it?