Surprise! Florida strikes again. HB-1 was passed by the Florida House after huge advocacy from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It includes 15 year sentences for pulling down Confederate flags, felonies and jail time for protesters without possibility of bail, and NO LIABILITY for people who PURPOSELY kill protesters with their cars.
But wait – did Floridians even want this?
Actually, 63% of Florida’s population doesn’t. And 93% of Black Lives Matter protests, as an example, resulted in no injuries to people or even to property. But, this trend of anti-protest legislation, believe it or not, makes sense.
Voting rights, worker’s unions, and desegregation are all things that came from protests – because protesting is effective. That includes what’s happened in the past few years: a recent study found that in places that had BLM protests, police murders dropped by 16.8% on average. But, there’s more.
After just this summer, several cities restricted chokehold use, cut ties between school campuses and cops, and even cut police department funding. It’s no wonder states like Florida want to silence us.
This bill blatantly criminalizes Black protesters after a summer of trauma, grief, and continuous struggle for our rights. If it becomes law, we can't stop fighting. And we certainly can't stop giving protesters in the state our resources and support as we work to dismantle this white supremacist system.