Florida Senate committee advances ‘anti-riot’ measureLegislation that would increase penalties against violent protestors narrowly cleared a Florida Senate committee on Friday – after hours of passionate debate with deep racial overtones – and is another step closer to reaching the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Republican governor has made passage of the bill a key legislative priority, launching his push last fall after months of turmoil across the country over the killing of Black people by police. DeSantis has argued that the state’s laws need to be strengthened to preserve law and order – and to deter violent protestors from destroying property.
Critics argue that it was squarely intended to quell the Black Lives Matter movement, which roiled the streets after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died last May while being detained by Minneapolis police. The trial against former police officer Derek Chauvin is currently underway.
The measure presented a clash between the First Amendment’s right to peaceably assemble and the rule of law.
“I think something needs to be done. I don’t think protests or demonstrations are going to stop tomorrow. They will not. I don’t know where the balance is,†said Sen. Ed Hooper, a Republican who voted for the bill.
“Is this the right thing? I think history will tell us that,†Hooper said.
The House has already approved the measure, and its fate in the Senate was unclear when the Criminal Justice Committee declined to hear the bill. In an anomaly, the committee’s chair, Sen. Jason Pizzo, is a Democrat and he opposed the bill................
https://www.winknews.com/2021/04/10/florida-senate-committee-advances-anti-riot-measure/
