Dự Luật HB-1 Chống Bạo Loạn của Bang Florida

Subject: Đạo luật chống bạo loạn của bang Florida - (Bình luận của ban biên tập Palm Beach Post)
From: Mike Wilson
Date: Wed, March 31, 2021 8:26 am

Dưới thời Ron DeSantis, đảng Cộng Hòa, thống đốc bang Florida, lập pháp đa số Cộng Hòa đang có động thái phản động - chống tự do ngôn luận bằng luật biểu tình !

Hạ viện bang Florida đã thông qua dự luật HB-1 bằng 76 phiếu thuận (Cộng Hòa) - 39 phiếu chống (Dân chủ), chỉ còn chờ biểu quyết của Thượng viện Florida

*** Đây là thủ đoạn tinh vi, mập mờ, tráo trở :

Mặc dù trong phong trào biểu tình của Black Life Matters, 93% là bất bạo động khắp nước Mỹ và toàn cầu, và chỉ có 7% là bạo loạn, đập phá, hôi của, v.v.

Mặc dù biểu tình bạo loạn ở Florida thì rất hiếm thấy nhưng dự luật này tấn công thẳng vào thành trì tự do ngôn luận bằng cách vơ đũa cả nắm, kết tội toàn thể đoàn biểu tình cho dù nếu chỉ có 3% thành viên bạo loạn !

Nói cách khác, nếu trong đoàn 100 người - chỉ có 3 người đập phá, hôi của, v.v. - thì tất cả 100 người biểu tình, kể cả 97 người tôn trọng luật pháp,
đều bị bắt về đồn cảnh sát, và đều bị kết tội hình sự !

Dự luật này không phân biệt kẻ gây tội và người vô tội - mặc dù đã có sẵn luật hình sự để xử riêng những hành vi phá hoại !

Nếu dự luật này được cả Thượng và Hạ viện bang Florida thông qua thì tất cả mọi công dân biểu tình sẽ bị tuyên án hình sự dù chỉ có 3% thành viên bức xúc, đập phá, bạo động !

Đây là ngăn chặn quyền tự do biểu tình, nghiêng dần về quyền cai trị độc tài phát xít.

Không một nước nào khác làm luật như vậy !

Mike Wilson
lược dịch và bình luận

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https://palmbeachpost-fl.newsmemory.com/?token=d2c3863f3aa2fab908f501c4432376d8_60648e24_f06f447&selDate=20210331
EDITORIAL THE PALM BEACH POST

"Anti-riot" bill endangers free speech

It is most unfortunate that the Florida House has passed the “anti-riot” bill — proof that raising that old reliable battle cry, “law-and-order,” is more important to Florida’s leaders than seriously grappling with Floridians’ financial and employment troubles or still-present dangers from the virus that has so far cost more than 33,000 Florida lives.

It’s all the more unfortunate that the Republican-dominated House approved HB 1 (a title of honor that itself reveals perverse priorities) by a huge majority: 76-39 along party lines.

The bill is Gov. Ron DeSantis’ answer to the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation and the world last summer — 93% of which were entirely peaceful, according to a study last fall. The far fewer incidents of looting and vandalism looped endlessly in videos on the nation’s TV screens, giving a false impression of runaway violence and menace. In Florida, a violent demonstration was almost as rare as an actual incidence of voter fraud. Or civil disobedience from a “sanctuary city.”

There’s still time for sensible heads in the Senate to get a grip and kill this pernicious legislation before it becomes a law that further embarrasses the state.

Under the provisions of this bill, 97 people at a protest can be entirely law-abiding as they hold their signs, give speeches, chant their demands — the most American of rights, enshrined in the First Amendment. But if just three cross the line into criminal activity — smash a car window, throw something at a police officer — all the people there, all 100 of them, can be rounded up and charged with a felony. A “riot” is defined extremely broadly; it’s essentially any event in which three or more people engage in violence or destructive conduct.

This bill isn’t anti-riot. It’s anti-free speech.

What group will take the chance of demonstrating if the actions of a few hotheads can make criminals of everybody there? The chill would freeze anyone with a cause: protests against gun restrictions or gun deaths, abortion rights or abortion limits, let alone racial injustice.

Given the history of police behavior in this country, we know what to expect. People of color, people of the left — they’ll be rounded up and charged far more often than those espousing causes dear to white conservatives.

As Rep. Tray McCurdy, D-Orlando, aptly stated during the nearly five-hour debate that preceded the House vote: “It seems that freedom of speech is free until Black and brown people start talking.”

The legislation toughens penalties for some crimes that already exist and creates new potential crimes including “mob intimidation,” “inciting a riot” and “defacing, damaging or destroying a monument,” a measure largely aimed at protecting Confederate statues still on pedestals across Florida. That’s right. Every Republican in the Florida House just voted for a new law to protect Confederate monuments.

We should all be troubled. As troubled as a former member of the Florida Supreme Court.

“This is an anti-protest bill,” says Justice Peggy Quince, “not a bill to enhance public safety.”

We should all be as troubled as some prosecutors.

“This is a politically motivated bill that nobody asked for,” Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg told the Post Editorial Board.

“This bill doesn’t actually help prosecutors,” Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren said at a press conference last week. “We already have laws on the books for rioting, looting, destruction, violence... Rather than draw a clear distinction between peaceful protesting and criminal conduct it actually blurs the line between them.”

That’s fundamentally unfair.

And it’s unnecessary. Warren’s office is currently prosecuting 120 people for more than 260 separate charges of looting, burglary, theft and attacking police, most of the cases stemming from the one night, May 30, of widespread rioting in Tampa. All under existing laws, Warren said.

The Combating Violence, Disorder and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act’s offenses don’t end there. The bill would also take away localities’ control of their police budgets, allowing the governor and one Cabinet member to reject a city or county budget if it shifts any amount of money from the police.

The Senate has a history of being the cooler-headed chamber. This would be an excellent time for senators to say, “OK, fun’s up. Enough with the posturing.” And then kill this putrid bill.