Earlier this week, the Oklahoma House took a vote on House Bill 1976.
If passed and signed into law, it would have given the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety – a rubber-stamp appointee of Governor Stitt – broad powers to "investigate" anyone they "reasonably" believed to be "engaged in terrorism, threats to public safety, organized crime, criminal conspiracies, or any other threats of violent crime."
You know, dangerous people like transgender athletes, public school teachers, and, uhm, OSU parking enforcement officials.
Well, at least that's who I assume Stitt and his law enforcement cronies would "reasonably consider" to be threats to public safety and involved in criminal conspiracies.
As we know, Stitt has been a front-line culture war commando since he was elected Governor, and has never hesitated to use his office as a political weapon to attack those he doesn't like, so it would be foolish not to expect him to take full advantage of any new authoritarian powers granted to him by lawmakers.
Fortunately, though, a rare moment of sanity at the Capitol prevailed.