Protect protesters, smite public disorder bill

When we see brokenness in the world, God calls upon us to protest. Look to any of the Hebrew prophets and one will see protest in action.

When God threatens to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, what does Abraham do?

He protests, saying, “Will the God of justice not do justly?”

Moses, too, becomes a leader in protesting Pharaoh and the Hebrew people’s enslavement. If God is not merely OK with protest but demands it of us, who is Gov. DeSantis to say we can’t?

House Bill 1 (Combating public disorder) and its Senate companion, SB 484, go precisely against our First Amendment rights. There are already state and federal criminal laws that address destruction of property, rioting, insurrection, treason, assault, and battery.

This proposed law would subject innocent protesters to arrest for the new crime of “committing a riot” simply because the protest has been infiltrated by three or more people intent on creating disorder. Under current law, to be guilty of a riot, each person must act with the intent of executing a disturbance.

When our synagogue members protested alongside a myriad of immigrant rights groups near Homestead in the summer of 2019, demanding the closure of the for-profit Immigrant Child Detention Center there, our actions made a difference. The center closed.

Black Lives Matter protests last summer changed the national conversation. Protest is powerful, which is why it must be protected.

We urge our legislators to reject HB 1 and SB 484. By doing so, they will be safe-guarding the prophetic foundation of our freedoms.

This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Protect protesters, smite public disorder bill."