Mar 05, 2021 By Gary Blankenship Senior Editor Top Stories
Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin
The second Florida House committee meeting on a proposed bill to toughen criminal penalties for rioting went about as the first.
Dozens of people showed up to speak against it and were given a minute or less each to testify because of time constraints on the meeting.
Backers called the bill necessary, while Democratic members blasted it as an infringement on civil rights. And in the end, the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee on March 3 passed HB 1 on a party line vote, as the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Subcommittee did just over a month ago.
On Wednesday, community organizer Keirten Nivol traveled to the Florida Capitol to speak out against a bill that critics say would censor the freedom of speech of protesters. But after using the word fuck during an impassioned plea to lawmakers, he was escorted out by security, issued a trespass warning, and barred from returning to the Capitol until the end of the legislative session.
Nivol, a member of the social-justice organization Dream Defenders, criticized the legislation, saying it seems to target people of color who protest on behalf of their communities. The goals of this bill, as is, is to make organizing and our freedom of speech a crime, when y all could have just told Black folks to fuck off. Like, if y all didn t want us to have a livelihood., Nivol said before he was cut off. He was then escorted out of the room.
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