Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 4-9-21
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State News
Anti-Protest House Bill 1 Passes On The House Floor And Threatens Floridians’ Rights
On Friday, March 26, 2021, House Bill 1, known as the “anti-protestor bill,” passed the Florida House sharply along party lines by a vote of 76 to 39. Rep. Fen- trice Driskell (D-Tampa) led the Florida House De- mocrats’ fight against House Bill 1 as House Democratic Policy Chair.
House Bill 1 creates six new criminal offenses that threaten punishment of peaceful protestors and fuels the fire of the mass incarcer- ation crisis by increasing jail time and taking away bail for those who get convicted under the new law.
For example, under the new crime of “mob intimida- tion,” a group of three or more who tries to compel others by force or threat of force to do something or as- sume or abandon a viewpoint would be punishable by up to
a year in prison.
Under the crime of “ag-
gravated riot” a group of 10 or more people could be pun- ished with up to five years in prison if it was deemed that one person in the group dis- played a deadly weapon or endangered traffic by force or threat of force. This is a particularly dangerous and overbroad aspect of the bill as it potentially could result in individuals who engage in no wrongdoing of their own getting lumped in and pun- ished accordingly with other individuals who engage in il- legal behavior at a protest.
Although HB 1 was filed on January 6, 2021, purport- edly under the guise of pre- venting incidents like the violent insurrection that oc- curred at the U. S. Capitol on the same day, it was actually first promoted by Governor DeSantis last summer in
REP. FENTRICE DRISKLELL House Democratic Policy Chair
the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests spurred by the killings of George Floyd and others.
Proponents of the bill claim that HB1 will “combat civil disorder,” but the bill ac- tually threatens to criminal- ize free speech and have a chilling effect on the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly. This bill also protects vigilantes by making it such that if during a riot someone injures or kills a person who ultimately gets convicted of participating in that riot, that individual would not have any civil lia- bility for injuring or killing the rioter.
Although House Bill 1 passed its first chamber, it has yet to be heard in the Florida Senate. Its compan- ion bill, Senate Bill 484, must be heard and passed in the Florida Senate in order to be- come law. The 2021 legisla- tive session is scheduled to end April 30.
Rep. Driskell issued
the following statement in response to the party line vote:
“House Bill 1 is one of the most regressive policy proposals to pass in this Chamber in modern Florida history. We exposed this leg- islation’s threats to Florid- ian’s access to democracy and civil liberties and even attempted to try and make the bill better, which was re- jected along party lines. The passing of this damaging leg- islation in the Florida House sets a dangerous precedent of prioritizing partisan poli- tics over people and under- scores government’s fear and misunderstanding of why people turn to protest in the fight to end systemic and racial injustice. Our efforts must now turn towards en- suring this bill does not see the light of day in the Florida Senate.”
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