Florida House set to adopt controversial Combating Public Disorder Act
(The Center Square) – A revised version of Florida’s proposed Combating Public Disorder Act passed its last committee Wednesday, sending the controversial measure to the House floor.
The House Judiciary Committee advanced House Bill 1 in a 15-5 vote after a provision allowing citizens to challenge local law-enforcement budget cuts was scaled back to permit only state attorneys and an elected official who voted against the reductions to do so.
Other clarifications include requiring a demonstrator must have “willfully” obstructed traffic to be a crime and the insertion of “imminent force” into a newly-created “mob intimidation” charge and the state’s legal definition of riot.
HB 1 sponsor Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin, R-Miami, said the phrase “clarifies the public disturbance has to be violent as opposed to non-violent.”
Last summer, as police brutality demonstrations erupted in violence in cities nationwide, Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a crackdown on protests. In January, after November elections further cemented their domination in Tallahassee, GOP leaders unveiled the 60-page ‘Combating Public Disorder Act.’
HB 1’s Senate companion, Senate Bill 484, filed by Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, has been not been heard but if HB 1 is adopted by the House, it will be moved into the Senate for likely fast-tracked endorsements.
HB 1/SB 484 would enhance penalties for crimes committed during a violent protest, not allow those arrested be released from jail before a court appearance, create felonies for participating in a violent demonstration and for destroying memorials commemorating “historical people or events.”
Since introduced, a “mob intimidation” offense was added to apply when three or more demonstrators act “with a common intent to compel or induce, or attempt to compel or induce, another person by force, or threat of force, to do any act or to assume or abandon a particular viewpoint.”
Despite the changes, Democrats argued the act is “a political stunt,” targets minorities and will not withstand court scrutiny.
“This will be my second time hearing this bill and, candidly, it’s not getting much better,” said Rep. Michael Grieco, D-Miami Beach. “I don’t want to say it’s getting worse but I think we’re still in the same posture.”
Rep. Andrew Learned, D-Brandon, said he’s received 12,827 emails against the act and six for it. Rep. Dianne Hart, D-Tampa said her office has fielded more than 28,000 phone calls and 3,500 emails opposed to it.
Rep. Ramon Alexander, D-Tallahassee, denounced the measure as racist.
“You know what can control human behavior?” he asked. “Giving people access to opportunity, jobs, making sure people can break down generational cycles of poverty, addressing mental health issues. Addressing systematic racism. Addressing institutional racism, giving people the opportunity to have a seat at the table.”
Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Pensacola, countered the act is “not about color. This bill is not about Democrat or Republican. It’s about law-and-order.”
Rep. Daniel Perez, R-Miami, contended only the violent would be affected.
The “bill does not limit anyone’s freedom of speech,” he said. “I’d say quite the inverse. It gives you every opportunity to say what is on your mind, what is in your heart, as long as we do it peacefully without any violence.”
HB 1/SB 484 has drawn rebuke nationwide, including by 71 university law school professors who cited it as the most “draconian” of a slate of Republican bills filed in state legislatures nationwide seeking to “criminalize dissent.”
In a letter urging lawmakers to reject the bill, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren wrote, it “will not help State Attorney’s Offices prosecute rioters and it complicates any such prosecutions by blurring the line between protesting constitutionally protected by the First Amendment and unlawful rioting.”
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