Could anything be worse than Florida’s Stand Your Ground? Yes, a new, racist legislative proposal | Editorial
Proponents of Florida’s proposed “Combating Public Disorder” law are spinning it as a reaction to the violent mobs that stormed the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6 to try to reverse the results of the presidential election.
But don’t be fooled. House Bill 1, a priority of the Republican leadership in Tallahassee, is redundant, racist and totally political. It’s aimed at Black Lives Matter and will make it dangerous for the movement’s supporters to take to the streets, however peacefully.
Gov. Ron DeSantis first pitched the idea in September, in the wake of summer protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and former President Trump’s calls for law enforcement to crack down on them.
Sponsors of HB 1 say it would target bad actors while protecting peaceful protesters, but the 60-page legislation “is problematic from beginning to end,” according to Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. We agree.
Totally unnecessary
Florida already has laws that punish violence, theft, burglary and vandalism committed at protests. Last year, protests in the Sunshine State mostly were peaceful. But HB 1 would impose harsher sentences if those crimes are committed during participation in a “riot” or “unlawful assembly,” which are loosely defined in the bill. The proposal also would make it a third-degree felony to cause $200 or more in damage to a monument (by that, read Confederate monument) and would create a slew of new crimes.
It would fill up jails by ordering that those deemed as rioters be detained with no bond until a first-appearance hearing.
Worse, it lets vigilantes and counter protesters who injure or kill those considered rioters escape liability in a civil lawsuit. (Kyle Rittenhouse, anyone?)
The Legislature has gone down this racist road before. In 2005, lawmakers passed Florida’s notorious Stand Your Ground law, which eliminated a person’s duty to retreat before using deadly force against a perceived threat. A 2017 law made it even harder to convict citizens claiming Stand Your Ground by shifting the onus on the prosecution to disprove a claim of self-defense in a hearing before a jury trial takes place.
Broward state Rep. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat, has filed for the second time a bill to repeal Stand Your Ground. Of course, the legislation is all but dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled Capitol, but it should start a conversation about how the law has been used.
In states with similar laws, homicides are deemed justifiable five times as often when the shooter is white and the victim Black than when the situation is reversed, according to Everytown USA, a gun-safety organization.
Therefore, it’s no wonder Black and brown communities fear HB 1 would disproportionately affect their ability to protest — and to live. Its sponsor, Rep. Juan Alfonso Fernandez-Barquin, R-Miami-Dade, dismissed that concern and told a House committee last month that any law could be applied disproportionately against a group, including minorities. It’s a tone-deaf response. Is he saying he’s OK with such bias in how the law is applied?
Biased against Blacks
We already have seen how Black protesters have been treated differently under existing laws. When Black Lives Matter supporters got into a verbal confrontation in New Port Richey with the far-right group Proud Boys and other counter-protesters, only the former were cited for violating a noise ordinance, the Washington Post reported. Police in the Tampa suburb later dropped the citations.
The question remains on whether peaceful protesters attending a demonstration that turns violent could be deemed “rioters.”
Fernandez-Barquin told the House committee that he doesn’t believe that would be the case. It’s unfortunate that he’s turning a blind eye to reality. The ACLU and others point out it would be up to law enforcement to determine who is and isn’t participating in a riot and, therefore, subject to harsher punishment.
That’s critical, for HB 1 creates a new crime of “aggravated rioting,” defined as nine or more people who cause great bodily harm, damage property or endanger traffic “by force or threat of force.” Would “force” include a protester who stops drivers by saying, “I’ll kick your car door if you move?” That threat isn’t justifiable, but should it be punishable by up to 15 years in prison?
HB 1 won’t stop bad actors determined to cause mayhem. It will create bad actors, then let them off the hook. Like Stand Your Ground, it will have deadly consequences and, as history has shown, Black and brown people will likely pay the price.
