A.G. Gancarski
A Florida Senate bill banning protests outside of people’s homes cleared its second committee of reference Tuesday.
SB 1664, filed by Gainesville Republican Sen. Keith Perry, amends the unlawful assembly statute to ban a person from “picketing or protesting before or about another person’s home in order to harass or disturb the person in his or her home.”
Violations of the law would constitute a second-degree misdemeanor. Violators could face 60 days in jail, a $500 fine and six months probation — per the statutory penalties listed in state law. However, Perry said a warning would be issued first.
“This bill recognizes the right to privacy, safety, and peace that we all deserve in our home,” Perry said Tuesday at a meeting of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
“You can turn on the news and see these protests that are now taking place outside the public square, in neighborhoods and (at) people’s homes,” Perry said. “We’ve seen those where bullhorns are being used, where neighbors are being intimidated, where children getting off a bus are walking through lines of protesters getting in and out of their homes.”
As the bill is currently contemplated, the ban would also include public right of way spaces, Perry said, including sidewalks and streets in front of condo complexes.
“That’s public space,” remonstrated Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes, offering a libertarian take. Brandes, the vice-chair of the committee, would be a no vote on the bill in the end.
Perry defended the bill, saying it was designed to contravene a clear “intent to harass” by demonstrators.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina was among the bill’s supporters.
Mina said a statewide ordinance would offer enforcement clarity given differing local regulations across the state, noting that his own “hands were tied” during a mass protest in his jurisdiction last year in a residential area.
Tallahassee City Commissioner Jacqueline “Jack” Porter opposed the bill, saying there was a “lack of clarity” on what public spaces are, and that the legislation is part of a “slippery slope” of bills designed to blunt protests.
Other speakers, including a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union, shared concern the law would be used as a cudgel against Black and Brown communities.
An amendment from Democratic Sen. Annette Taddeo was intended to address neo-Nazi protests, such as the one that happened in Orange County on a public thoroughfare recently, by barring “paramilitary groups” from congregating in a public space.
Taddeo said it was necessary to “do everything possible to stomp out these groups and deter them from organizing.”
Taddeo eventually withdrew her amendment, but not without emphasizing the need to send a “strong message” to extremist groups like those in Orlando.
Similar legislation is moving in the Florida House also.
