Dozens attend ‘Rally to Save Protesting,’
Hours after House Bill 1 passed the Florida House Friday, dozens of cars assembled across a field outside Camping World Stadium at a drive-in rally hosted by March For Our Lives Florida to protest the bill, exercising a form of free speech many fear would be suppressed by the legislation.
HB 1, currently titled “Combating Public Disorder,” passed the House 76-39 Friday afternoon along partisan lines but has yet to pass through the state Senate. The bill, seen by many as a response to the Black Lives Matter protests last year after the death of George Floyd, would subject Florida’s protesters to some of the hardest punishments nationwide.
Its provisions include banning protesters from blocking roadways, increasing the severity of some offenses if they are committed during civil disturbances — like instituting a mandatory six-month minimum sentence for people convicted of battery on a police officer — and prohibiting people arrested under certain offenses from posting bail before their first court appearances.
At the rally at Tinker Field, State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said the bill “didn’t pass without a fight” and was the subject of nine hours of debate between Thursday and Friday. It was supported by all Republicans and opposed by all Democrats.
“Though it passed the House floor, the fight is nowhere near over. The Florida State Senate has not given House Bill 1 one hearing in committee,” she said. “That’s a good thing. And that is only because of each one of you fighting back against this bill, organizing against this bill and letting your state elected officials know where you stand.”
Some legal experts have said they fear the bill would create a “chilling effect” discouraging peaceful protests protected by the First Amendment. At the rally, many speakers from local and state organizations like the R.E.A.C.H. Party, Vets for the People and Dream Defenders voiced concerns that the bill would silence the
Black and brown communities most impacted by injustices.
“HB 1 would not only make it harder to protect against these unjust anti-immigrant laws, but also intimidate immigrant communities from protesting by threatening arrest from your participation in this democratic process,” United We Dream activist Marissa Echeverria said.
Though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis the bill is touted as anti-riot legislation, the majority of Orlando’s protests for racial justice and police reform have been peaceful, with isolated instances of property destruction and post-curfew clashes with law enforcement resulting in arrests and officers deploying tear gas.
Maxwell Frost, a national organizing director for March For Our Lives, was among those arrested in a July demonstration. If HB 1 had been in effect then, he said he would have been released from jail last month.
“When I think about this bill, it terrifies me,” he said. “These beliefs call back to an era before civil rights … When [DeSantis] says he wants to criminalize protesting
now, he’s also saying what happened before, during the civil rights era, should also be criminalized. And I’ll be damned if I sit to the side while someone like him works to take away one of the very rights that my ancestors used to make it so that someone who looks like me can stand on a stage like this and talk about justice.”
From the hoods of their cars and blankets socially distanced across the field, attendees cheered speakers and ate free Jamaican food supplied by event organizers.
Nancy Borders, 65, and Rick Borders, 75, sat in folding chairs listening in support
of fellow activists and the right to protest. Rick Borders called HB 1 unconstitutional and unlawful, and he said he did not think it would stand court appeals if passed, a sentiment his wife agreed with. “We fought for the rights of people to do this, so if you take away that right, you’re taking away a Constitutional right,” said Nancy Borders, adding she and her husband are Air Force Veterans who each served over 20 years. “It’s just wrong on every level.”
Katie Oakley, 21, and Mya DeSimone, 19, watched the rally from the hood of their car. For Oakley, social media
played an important role in spreading the messaging of last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, and she said it was important to her to attend Friday’s rally and continue to spread similar advocacy messaging on her own accounts for those who could not attend.
Both said feeling the rally’s sense of community and joy was encouraging during a time of uncertainty.
“It’s absolutely crazy that America is trying to stop protesting,” DeSimone said. “... That’s what we’re built on.”