Where Running Over Protesters Could Become Legal
After a summer that saw dozens of horrific car attacks on Black Lives Matter demonstrators across America, activists and attorneys are warning that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is trying to legalize them, and turn Florida into a model of vigilante anti-protester violence for other states to follow.
DeSantis’ effort follows in the tracks of an earlier one. In 2017, several states proposed—but did not pass—indemnities for drivers who ran down protesters. They did so shortly before the most infamous such episode: the August 2017 murder of antiracist protester Heather Heyer at Charlottesville’s Unite The Right Rally.
Now, should other Republican governors or state legislatures follow DeSantis’ lead, much of the groundwork will already be in place.
DeSantis’ proposals, announced in a Monday tweet, amount to a grab bag of anti-protest measures that read like they were devised by a police union. The measures would ratchet up charges for people involved in disorderly assemblies or damaging statues, make it a crime to participate in a disorderly assembly at a public accommodation or restaurant, and attach racketeering (RICO) liability to people who organize disorderly assemblies.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/where-running-over-protesters-could-082450588.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
