Florida is considering legislation that would penalize protesters who break the law while exercising their right to demonstrate, Flagler Live reported.
The Sunshine State and 21 others have put forth reforms which supporters say would protect the public from violent outbreaks, while opponents say proposed penalties would quash constitutional rights.
The proposal come after the summer of 2020 when many cities erupted into chaos and rioting following the death of George Floyd.
Carrie Boyd, policy counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, said the proposal should not slip into racial profiling of a heavy-handed or unfair enforcement of the law in certain groups.
“We know from existing data on arrests and convictions, [that] folks in the black community, in particular, are over-incarcerated and overcharged,” Boyd said in a report. “This bill, in our minds, is deliberately broad to cast a wide net and, frankly, to round up folks.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has spoken out against the measure, arguing that it could silence lawful protesters, or worse, damage someone’s record with a third-degree felony or arrest for violating the bill.
“Let us speak plainly about what this bill is and what it is not. It is not a measure intended to increase public safety,” Micah Kubic, executive director of ACLU Florida said in a release. “The sole intent of this bill is to protect white supremacy by silencing and criminalizing Black protesters and allies who exercise their First Amendment rights in the pursuit of racial justice.”
Kubic also decried the bill as a “political stunt.”