While legal battles rage on over North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law known as House Bill 2, law enforcement officers in the state won’t be arresting any restroom deviants any time soon. Damien Graham, a spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department, told NPR on Tuesday that his department will not enforce the sweeping law, which requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that do not match their gender identity, because “the bill doesn’t speak to enforcement nor penalty.”…. Raleigh Police had attorneys review the language of HB 2, but since there “wasn’t any specific language that spoke to enforcement or even penalty,” the department wasn’t sure how its officers could enforce the law[.]
In the considerable Sturm und Drang surrounding HB2, one thing that seems to have been uniformly missed is that the Tarheel State’s new “bathroom law” lacks two essential components necessary for any law to be effective. Turns out HB2 has neither an enforcement mechanism nor any specified penalties for those found to be in violation.
Think about that for a moment. The North Carolina legislature passed- and Gov. Pat McCrory signed- a law prohibiting a specific behavior while simultaneously neglecting to specify how that proscription would be enforced or what the penalties for violating it would be. Could the intentions of North Carolina’s Conservative culture warriors be any more transparent? It seems they were in such a rush to legislate hatred and discrimination that they forgot- or simply didn’t bother- to lay out how HB2 would be enforced or what potential punishment might entail.
The result is that North Carolina police departments have no idea how to enforce the law…and have in most cases chosen not to- if for no other reason than HB2 doesn’t specify HOW it’s to be enforced. I listened to one interview in which a spokesperson said police will respond to citizen complaints as they would with any other suspected illegal behavior, but they’d make it clear they won’t make arrests.
North Carolina’s culture warriors have succeeded in erecting the legal equivalent of a Potemkin village- a grand facade with nothing behind it. Not only that, they’ve put law enforcement in the untenable position of having to decide they can’t enforce a law…because the law in question makes no provision for enforcement or penalties.
If the police receive a complaint about someone in the “wrong” bathroom, the department will respond, says Graham, but officers will not penalize or arrest anyone for using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
NPR confirmed with several local police departments that there has not been a single complaint filed about transgender people using restrooms in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, or Asheville. This tracks with overwhelming evidence nationwide that proves there has never been a single verified report of a transgender person assaulting a cisgender (nontrans) person in a bathroom or locker room, nor has there ever been a confirmed instance of someone “pretending” to be transgender to gain access to sex-segregated spaces for nefarious purposes.
Christina Hallingse, the public information officer for the police department in Asheville, told NPR that it would be nearly impossible to enforce HB 2. Doing so would drain the department’s resources, because it would require officers to stand guard outside public restrooms asking people to present their birth certificates before entering these gender-segregated spaces.
“It would take them off the streets, off patrol and having to put them at bathrooms,” explained Hallingse of the logistics of enforcing HB 2.
In the end, HB2 is an indictment of itself, a monument to the incompetence and ineptitude of Republican legislators and Gov. McCrory. Clearly, little if any thought was given to the practical aspects and application of HB2. How would it be enforced? Who would enforce it? Who would pay for enforcement? What penalties would be assessed to violators…especially repeat offenders? Would people be required to carry their birth certificates with them at all times if they wished to use a public restroom or changing facility?
This is what happens when those charged with setting policy believe they have the right to provide their prejudice, ignorance, and hatred the force of law. HB2 is a laughably inept attempt at addressing what North Carolina’s Conservative culture warriors believe to be an appropriate use of the law. They’ve created an ill-considered solution to an imaginary problem and expended a significant amount of righteous energy claiming it’s not exactly what any decent, fair-minded person recognizes it to be.
What’s happening in North Carolina demonstrates Republican incompetence and ineptitude when it comes to governance. This is what happens when ideologues more committed to a narrow, hateful social agenda decide the installation of that agenda to be Job One.
Congratulations, North Carolina! You elected these brave, steadfast, and highly incompetent culture warriors. It seems you have EXACTLY the quality of leadership you deserve. Who knew your standards were so low?
