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The
murder of George Floyd gave rise to the largest social justice
movement in U.S. history, with 15
to 26 million
Americans participating in protests. It also produced a vicious
Republican backlash against civil rights and civil liberties.
Mirroring
voter suppression efforts throughout the country, GOP lawmakers in 34
states have introduced 81 bills
to criminalize peaceful protest, and in some cases protect motorists
who mow down demonstrators.
Ironically
dubbed “anti-riot” laws, these bills are anti-protest,
anti-free speech, anti-democratic and, unfortunately, very American.
GOP
lawmakers today seem to be channeling their segregationist
predecessors. Jim Crow politicians promulgated segregation
laws
that strictly limited the movement and freedom of Black people, and
vagrancy
and loitering
laws that criminalized Black Americans for being outside and
assembling in groups.
Movements
create social change, and this new legislation is a direct response
to the Black Lives Matter movement and the increased national calls
to end police violence and systemic racism. While the January 6
insurrection at the U.S. Capitol demonstrated the preeminent danger
of white supremacist and right-wing domestic terror groups such as
the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, Republicans view social justice
— a symbol of a changing, diverse and inclusive nation —
as a threat.
With
361
voter disenfranchisement bills in 47 states,
gerrymandering and anti-protest measures, the GOP hopes to silence
its multiracial political opposition in the way that Southern
segregationists quelled Black power.
In
Florida, Gov.
Ron DeSantis
signed into law what he called “the strongest anti-looting,
anti-rioting, pro-law-enforcement piece of legislation in the
country.” Signed during the trial of Derek Chauvin — the
former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd —
the law classifies
a riot as a public gathering of three or more people and denies bail
for defendants accused of committing offenses during a protest until
they have appeared in court.
The
law also enhances
penalties
for damaging Confederate monuments and flags, and like similar
legislation in Iowa and Oklahoma, protects
drivers
who hit or injure protesters.
These
cruel and obscene laws would have protected James Alex Fields Jr.,
the neo-Nazi who was sent
to prison
for plowing his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a “Unite
the Right" rally in 2017, killing 20-year-old Heather
Heyer.
Republican
legislation proposed in Minnesota would prohibit
people
convicted of engaging in protest from working in government,
receiving student loans, food stamps, housing assistance,
unemployment and other government services and benefits.
Moreover,
Arkansas,
Montana,
Kansas
and Ohio
have promoted
increased criminal penalties for climate protesters who trespass on
“critical infrastructure” including oil, gas, coal and
plastics facilities.
The
American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a conservative group
representing lobbyists, lawmakers and corporations, including the
fossil fuel industry, has drafted
the anti-pipeline protest bills for state legislatures. Like voter
ID, Stand Your Ground and other ALEC initiatives, this anti-protest
legislation disproportionately targets communities of color.
“State
Republicans who can’t stop screaming about ‘cancel
culture’ are doing everything in their power to cancel the
First Amendment right to assemble,” tweeted
Robert Reich, the former Clinton administration labor secretary who
now teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.
With
only 25% of people identifying
as Republicans — a dwindling base in a changing multicultural
America — the GOP faces a choice. It can either listen to the
Black Lives Matter protesters and adopt new policies to reflect a new
reality or seek to silence their voices.
The
Republican Party is choosing the latter.
This
commentary was originally published by Progressive.org
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