Assaults on Sports Officials (H 7549)

This legislation would make simple assaults on a sports official a felony. While we do not doubt the good intentions behind this legislation, we opposed it based on the argument that assault is already a crime, and serious assaults are already felonies. We argued that, by creating yet another, overlapping, carve-out to increase the penalties for what is, by definition, a minor assault, this legislation would turn more offenders into felons, and attach to them all the consequences that entails.