Orange County shouldn’t follow Florida’s example by joining protest crackdown
Orange County may have a legal basis for banning protests in neighborhoods. But that doesn’t mean county commissioners should go along with yet another effort to curtail First Amendment rights.
The more that governments chip away at the right to protest, the less free we are, regardless of whether those limits are imposed on by local or state authorities.
Orange County is considering a neighborhood protest ban after Sheriff John Mina’s deputies encountered a crowd last summer at a vacation home owned by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who has since been convicted of murdering George Floyd.
Chauvin’s Orange County home had become a flashpoint for protesters for about a week after it was discovered he owned a place in Central Florida.
Mina conceded the protests were mostly peaceful, except for a couple of acts of vandalism that resulted in arrests. Which is how it’s supposed to work: Someone breaks the law, you arrest them.
Neighbors seemed mostly unbothered, Mina said, though they were eager for the crowds to leave. And who could blame them?
But that’s the thing about living in a free society — it can sometimes get a little messy, a little uncomfortable.
What we don’t need are more laws outlawing more forms of protest just because we’re feeling uncomfortable.
That’s what Winter Park did in 2012 when the home of a Planned Parenthood official was targeted by anti-abortion activists. The city quickly passed an ordinance that made it a misdemeanor to protest or picket within 50 feet of a dwelling, whether it’s a single-family home, apartment or condo. Orlando also has a ban on neighborhood protests, although its ordinance is more vaguely worded.
Cities like Winter Park have relied primarily on a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the door to such bans.
Nevertheless, the Sentinel’s Editorial Board wrote in 2012, “We question why government officials are so quick to crack down on freedom of speech. Imagine the outcry if commissioners had tried to go after the Second Amendment.”
Today, we continue to resist government placing new, unnecessary limits on the right to protest, which is why we opposed Gov. Ron DeSantis’ rotten-to-the-core initiative to crack down on protesters.
Aside from the fact that it was primarily a stunt to get right-wing media attention, and that it criminalized behavior that already was illegal, we think the new law was intended to have a chilling effect on the fundamental constitutional right to protest. Its many provisions include delaying bail for those who get arrested, providing civil lawsuit protection to people who run down protesters with their cars, and exposing people who aren’t involved in rioting to third-degree felony charges.
How can that possibly be counted as an accomplishment in a free society?
That’s why Orange County needs to proceed carefully. And by carefully, we mean county commissioners should vote no when this neighborhood protest ban comes before them.
Orange County’s proposal is more draconian than Winter Park’s. It creates a 150-foot buffer between protesters and any type of housing, triple the distance in Winter Park.
And for what? Because some people aghast at a brutal killing committed by a white police officer against a Black man spent a few days protesting in front of that officer’s empty vacation home?
We were encouraged to read in a Sentinel news story that not all commissioners were jumping on this bandwagon. Commissioners Emily Bonilla and Mayra Uribe expressed reservations.
Mayor Jerry Demings — a former Orange County sheriff — is reportedly in favor of the measure. He needs to rethink that position. The easiest path is not always the best one, particularly when it comes to the basic rights we enjoy in this nation.
We published an editorial several weeks ago criticizing the Florida Legislature’s Republican majority for arrogantly passing so many bad bills this year because, as the majority party, there was nothing to stop them.
Orange County needs to keep that in mind when commissioners are faced with deciding whether to further curtail protest rights.
Maybe the courts have said they can, but that doesn’t mean they should.
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The editorial board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight @orlandosentinel.com.