HR0508 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Unacceptable acts of violence have scarred our democratic process; and

WHEREAS, This violence has touched a campus political rally in Utah, the quiet suburban streets of Minnesota, a synagogue in Pittsburgh, the oldest Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas, and so many communities in between; and

WHEREAS, The toxic combination of violent political rhetoric and racial hatred led to an appalling crime here in Illinois, when a 73-year-old man brutally murdered 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and attempted to murder the boy's mother after racially profiling the Muslim family and falsely linking them to international events in which they had no involvement; and

WHEREAS, While stated and speculated motivations of perpetrators vary, some radicalized on the darkest corners of the internet, some driven by hateful racist ideology, and some lost in the apocalyptic rhetoric that pervades our political discourse, their common goal is to inflict violence on someone they view as different and to instill fear; and

WHEREAS, Even as people from all sides of the ideological spectrum stand united in condemning these violent acts, we cannot truly condemn politically motivated violence while condoning the politically motivated violence Donald Trump is inflicting on people across Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Donald Trump's agents are profiling people simply because of how they look and deploying chemical munitions in communities where people just want to live in peace; acting on Trump's orders, they are inflicting violence on people they view as different and are instilling fear; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize that politically motivated violence, whether in the form of a mass shooting or a mass deployment of masked troops empowered to instill fear, is a threat to our democracy; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we condemn politically motivated violence in all of its forms, whether caused by individuals radicalized by extreme rhetoric or by extremists who use political violence to advance their own agendas.