{"id":199,"date":"2021-04-08T09:55:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T09:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/common-cause-opposes-floridas-anti-protest-bill\/"},"modified":"2021-04-08T09:55:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T09:55:13","slug":"common-cause-opposes-floridas-anti-protest-bill","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press\/common-cause-opposes-floridas-anti-protest-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Cause Opposes Florida\u2019s Anti-protest Bill"},"template":"","class_list":["post-199","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"The Florida Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear House Bill 1, which would create new criminal penalties for protesting. Our country would not have moved forward without protests. Women\u2019s suffrage. Ending child labor. The 40-hour work week. Voting rights for people of color.","featured_image":6530,"press_type":149,"authors":null,"related_issues":false,"related_work":false,"location":12},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tomorrow, the Florida Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2021\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">House Bill 1<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which would create new criminal penalties for protesting; shield those who kill or injure people engaged in protesting; allow the Governor and his cabinet to alter municipal budgets; and open municipalities up to lawsuits for unlimited damages after protests. The bill was first proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclufl.org\/en\/press-releases\/aclu-florida-condemns-gov-desantis-proposed-anti-protest-bill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">last fall<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, during Black Lives Matter protests about police brutality and the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the many lives lost before them.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The House passed the bill on March 26, 2021.\u00a0 <\/span><b><\/b>\r\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><b><i>Statement of Keshia Morris Desir, Mass Incarceration Project Manager for Common Cause<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Common Cause opposes <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2021\/1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the anti-protest bill<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> now being considered by the Florida Senate.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students of history know that our country would not have been formed without protests. Colonists protested the Stamp Act, the Quartering Act, and Townsend Act taxes. The most famous protest \u2013 the Boston Tea Party -- led eventually to the First Continental Congress.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Protest was such an important part of our country\u2019s early history that our Constitution enshrines the right in the First Amendment: \u201cCongress shall make no law\u2026 abridging the freedom of speech\u2026 or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students of history also know that our country would not have moved forward without protests. Women\u2019s suffrage. Ending child labor. The 40-hour work week. Voting rights for people of color. Environmental protection laws. Workplace safety laws. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of these changes \u2013 and others \u2013 came only after people assembled and petitioned our government for the redress of grievances.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now some Florida legislators want to ignore that history and violate Floridians\u2019 right to protest.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>The bill being heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee tomorrow would effectively criminalize protests like those that have shaped America\u2019s history.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would allow people to be punished for the actions of others \u2013 allowing peaceful protesters to be arrested and convicted of \u201crioting\u201d they did not do.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It duplicates existing protections against violence property damage \u2013 while creating harsh criminal penalties that will almost certainly be imposed disproportionately on people of color.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It encourages violence against people engaged in peaceful protests \u2013 by inventing a new liability shield for those who kill or injure protesters.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It takes away cities\u2019 authority to set their own budgets \u2013 giving the Governor and his cabinet the ability to reject and amend local budgets.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It opens huge liability risks for municipalities \u2013 by waiving sovereign immunity and allowing civil lawsuits against municipalities for any amount of damages, based on an after-the-fact determination of whether law enforcement\u2019s response to an assembly was \u2018reasonable.\u2019<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bill was a political response to the Black Lives Matter movement and has grave consequences for all of our freedom of speech rights.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>It\u2019s odd that a bill threatening Floridians\u2019 free speech and assembly rights should be assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee.<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But as long as the bill is in front of the Committee, the Committee should consider:<\/span>\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How much this bill will cost the state of Florida. One analysis calculated that increased incarceration, attributable to the bill, will <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclufl.org\/en\/press-releases\/new-economic-analysis-finds-house-bill-1senate-bill-484-will-cost-taxpayers-and-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">cost taxpayers $6.6 - $17.5 million per year<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Other costs will include: decreased sales and property tax revenues resulting from the impact of incarceration on individuals\u2019 ability to earn a living; and increased need for public assistance. We urge the Senate Appropriations Committee to fully quantify these costs before taking any action on this bill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How much this bill could cost municipalities. The bill will encourage civil lawsuits seeking unlimited damages. Municipalities\u2019 insurance costs will be affected \u2013 and local property taxpayers will bear the brunt of increased costs. We urge the Senate Appropriations Committee to fully quantify these costs before taking any action on this bill.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The likely national reaction to this bill, and what that could cost Florida. Georgia\u2019s tourism industry just <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/04\/03\/us\/mlb-all-star-game-relocation-lost-money-economic-impact\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">lost an estimated $100 million in revenue<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when the MLB moved its All Star Game out of state. The boycott of South Carolina cost the state <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-06-24\/the-confederate-flag-has-cost-south-carolina-millions-in-tourism-thanks-to-naacp-boycott\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">millions in tourism dollars<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> before the confederate flag was removed from state capitol grounds in 2015. Passing this law to criminalize peaceful protest could easily trigger a boycott against Florida. We urge the Senate Appropriations Committee to quantify and take those potential costs into consideration before taking any action on this bill.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We also urge the Senate to avoid rushing this bill through the legislative process. Hasty decisions do <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">not<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> make good public policy.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Florida\u2019s senators are supposed to represent their constituents \u2013 this bill would <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">harm<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> those constituents\u2019 interests. It would increase incarceration costs and property taxes. And it would violate the right of every American, guaranteed under the Constitution, to peacefully assemble and petition our government for the redress of grievances.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>"}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Common Cause Opposes Florida\u2019s Anti-protest Bill - Common Cause Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/common-cause-opposes-floridas-anti-protest-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Common Cause Opposes Florida\u2019s Anti-protest Bill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press\/common-cause-opposes-floridas-anti-protest-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Florida\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/peaceful_protest_is_american_vidhya_nagarajan.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/common-cause-opposes-floridas-anti-protest-bill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/common-cause-opposes-floridas-anti-protest-bill\/\",\"name\":\"Common Cause Opposes Florida\u2019s Anti-protest Bill - 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