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DeSantis is seeking to advance his career at the expense of Black lives in Florida | Opinion

The nation is focused on voter-suppression bills advancing through state legislatures, but there is another wave of bills that are just as much of a threat to voting rights: blatant attempts to raise the penalty for protesting that could harm our ability to vote.

Last year, as protesters demanded justice for George Floyd across the country, the police rampaged, exploited their power and, under the direction of the Trump administration, arrested more than 10,000 protesters, including 90 who face federal charges. Instead of protecting us, police all over the country tear gassed, dragged, beat, ran over and arrested protesters for standing up for Black lives.

None of that stopped us from organizing and showing our power at the polls in 2020. But we now see a surge of anti-protest bills introduced, which for some like Gov. Ron DeSantis, it’s an open invitation for violence and disenfranchisement to further their careers.

In 2021, 45 states have some form of anti-protest legislation on a fast track to becoming law. Many came after millions took to the streets last year in the wake of Floyd uprisings in cities across the country, including in Florida, where DeSantis is leading the charge to snatch away our rights. These bills target our movement’s most innovative practices, push back against demands for an end to police violence and exacerbate the racism we all know is deeply embedded in the nation’s legal systems.

The bills include vague language that dramatically expands police power to surveil, arrest and cage Black people who engage in innovative protest. They protect drivers who plow into crowds of protesters on roads,and enhance penalties for protests on highways and along pipelines. Police can rule any gathering a riot and cause for mass arrest. Worse, they empower individuals to overrule communities who want to move funds out of overmilitarized police departments into other critical parts of local budgets that have long suffered from disinvestment in the interest of ineffective police strategies.

While they vary from state to state, most make use of common legal mechanisms that have been weaponized against Black communities for years. The U.S. government has a long history of using the police and federal law enforcement to suppress social movements for peace and justice. From raids on Black Panther Party breakfast program sites, to the murder of Fred Hampton and countless other freedom fighters, to lifelong imprisonments of political prisoners such as Mumia Abu Jamal and 18-year-old Josh Williams from Ferguson, Missouri, police are always used to protect white supremacy and destroy our movements.

Under House Bill 1 in Florida, 1950s lunch-counter protests at the Tallahassee Woolworth would be characterized as a riot; the Black wade-ins that desegregated beaches in Fort Lauderdale, though peaceful and without violence, could be categorized as a riot; the crowd of bystanders who pleaded with Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to spare George Floyd’s life could be called a riot.

Under HB 1, cops could arrest people who participate in #SoulstothePolls marches. Penalties under this bill would lead to felony disenfranchisement based on exercising your right to peacefully protest, wiping out any progress realized with Amendment 4 — an effort to restore voting rights to ex-felons that enjoyed bipartisan support across the state of Florida.

Jim Crow 2.0 is happening right now — not just with adjustments to election law, but with our right to peacefully protest for our survival. DeSantis has characterized our efforts to survive in the worst light and prioritized HB 1 to show his political “strength” as a governor — despite having no such riots in Florida. A recent poll found that a whopping 63 percent of Floridians, regardless of party think HB 1 is a bad idea. It’s clear that the state of Florida is not with the governor on this bill.

Black people are not protesting for fun. We are protesting because our people are dying. DeSantis is doing everything in his power to step on our backs to propel himself into national office, and if it helps lead the way for other governors across the country, all the better for him. The people of Florida deserve to feel safe in the communities we love and for our elected officials to hear our ideas for how to make things better — not for political games that will do more violence and advance the ambition of one politician over the millions of people he is supposed to serve.

Francesca Menes is a co-founder and board chair of The Black Collective. She is the former treasurer for the Florida Democratic Party, former state committeewoman for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and past second vice chair of the Miami-Dade County Commission for Women.