By Imani Thomas
House Bill 1 will give law enforcement and prosecutors tools to prevent violence and property distraction during protests. The bill is sponsored by representative Fernandez and other representatives. The bill will also impose felony penalties on protesters, who will be denied bail and detain them until trial.
The Bill will also create new crimes prohibiting a person from defacing, damaging, or destroying a memorial. HB 1 also creates a new crime for mob intimidation.
Under the bill, it is unlawful for a person, assembled with two or more other persons and acting with a common intent, to compel or induce, or attempt to compel or induce, another person by force, or threat of force, to do any act or to assume or abandon a particular viewpoint. A violation for mob intimidation is a first-degree misdemeanor.
House Bill 1 was set in place due to the protest and riots that were happening around the world. After George Floyd, a black man who was murdered by the Minneapolis police. Florida itself had over hundreds of protests in the past year.
HB 1 defines the offense of inciting or encouraging a riot. Under the bill, a person encourages another to participate in a riot, will be arrested and charged with a third-degree felony.
The Dream Defenders is an organization of Black, Latinx, and Arab youth who fight for change around the state of Florida.
Their recent agenda is to stop House Bill 1, Dream Defenders are set to hold an event on February 17 informing others about the bill. Marie Rattigan, the lead organizer of Dream Defenders in Tallahassee, Florida says that the bill is a racist response to the movement.
“This bill is violation of our First Amendment right, it’s put in place to censor the people who were out there in the height of the killings of Black and Brown people,” Rattigan said.
The Dream Defenders believe that the bill is a way to censure protesters and take away our First Amendment.
The House Minority Office has fought for bills like House Bill 1 in the past to make sure bill like this are denied. Representative Kamia Brown Leader Pro Tempore of the Minority Office believes that the house should not be waste time on bills like this.
“These changes to the criminal justice law are really unnecessary, In the past people have protested for people’s rights and have done this peacefully,” Representative Brown said.
During this time, the Democrats are trying to fix criminal justice reform with not putting people in jail for small acts. “This bill will put people in jail and prison for longer that they really need to be there,” Representative Brown said.
The Majority Party supports this bill and think this bill will have a positive impact on prison and jail beds by creating new felony and misdemeanor offenses. Also, please make sure to protest or riot like what happened at U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
The bill, if passed will take effect July 1, 2021.
