Part of an ongoing trend where the GOP and criminal justice system is criminalizing protest. Here, damaging property (including statue) or engaging in peaceful if disruptive protest (blocking roads) results in *felonies* plus loss of govt employment or benefits. https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1308095991183220736
This is really a marked trend that has not been getting enough coverage. See previous threads with examples: https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1295532679488851969?s=20 https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1295830125808963584?s=20
Ron DeSantis is what a 2020 Jim Crow Governor looks like. He did all he can to block the repeal of a 19th century Jim Crow felon disenfranchisement law with a poll tax, and is now pushing new laws that turn BLM protestors into felons. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/who-gets-to-vote-in-florida
These Ron DeSantis policies could be from the 1880s. Removal of bail rights if you were arrested at what police label a disorderly assembly. Local governments effectively prohibited from any rethinking their policing, but exposed to legal liability if they don't stop protest.
We have had a summer where BLM protestors have asked for a stop to police brutality. We have seen some progress at a local level, but also a draconian rejection of that ask that has responded instead by stripping protestors of their rights and criminalized them.
I keep hearing how the 1619 project is creating division in America. But maybe it's the actual use of disproportionate physical and other forms of state force targeted toward some groups and not others that is creating the division. Just a thought.
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