New law is set to make recording violent attacks on social media a crime

A California assemblyman has proposed a new law that would make it a crime to record violent attacks for the express purpose of posting them on social media.

The law would be called Jordan’s Law, after Jordan Peisner, a 14-year-old who was hospitalized after being sucker punched by a stranger close by a Wendy’s on December 2. His skull was fractured, his ear drum was left bleeding, and the assault caused bleeding in his brain that he is still recovering from. Because of his injuries, he will be unable to return to school for the rest of the year.

What’s more, the incident was filmed on a girl’s cell phone as she followed Jordan all the way through the attack and posted the video online.

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“It’s a cowardly move. But the person who followed him and filmed it is equally at fault,” said Jordan’s father, Ed Peisner. “My son’s brain was bleeding because someone wanted to see a video?”

Assemblymember Matt Dababneh proposed the law on February 17, saying, “When you think about this attack and the nature of it, one thing I’ve learned in government in this: That our laws, unfortunately, do not always catch up to the technology that we use every day.”

The law would not penalize bystanders or news organizations, just those whose express purpose is to record the attack and who knew it was going to happen.

The bill itself reads: “This bill would make it unlawful to willfully record a video of the commission of a violent felony pursuant to a conspiracy with the perpetrator of the violent felony to record the video, with the intent to encourage the commission of the underlying violent felony.”