Name: Rep. Eskamani: Protest laws are a DeSantis power grab | Commentary
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Rep. Eskamani: Protest laws are a DeSantis power grab | Commentary

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AdvertisementBy Guest ColumnistSep 26, 2020 at 6:00 amNearly 700,000 Floridians have been infected by COVID-19, and nearly 14,000 have died. More than a million Floridians have lost their jobs, and hundreds of thousands remain unemployed. The ongoing pandemic is the worst health and economic crisis in Florida’s history, and Floridians are begging for help — and leadership. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has ignored their pleas. Instead, this week he announced that his top legislative priority is not fixing the unemployment system or ensuring better access to health care, but an abuse of power aimed at suppressing Floridians' First Amendment rights.Flanked by Republican legislative leadership at a press conference this week, DeSantis announced his plan to ram through the Legislature a laundry list of new crimes related to modern civil-rights protests. DeSantis claimed his proposal is designed to protect law enforcement from “mobs.” Nonsense. In reality, it’s a power grab designed to silence critics.AdvertisementTo DeSantis, protesters are not people exercising First Amendment rights; they are criminals. That’s why his proposal would allow prosecutors to use a law aimed at breaking up organized-crime conspiracies to investigate and charge people who criticize him in public.DeSantis' proposal would eliminate basic rights to free assembly. In 1965, the late congressman John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to protest racial discrimination. Under DeSantis' proposal, Lewis would have been guilty of a third-degree felony and faced five years in state prison.AdvertisementPerhaps worst of all, while DeSantis would criminalize free speech, he would legalize vehicular manslaughter by protecting people who run over marchers with their cars. Heather Heyer was killed at a protest in Charlottesville, Va., after she was hit by a car driven by an angry white supremacist. Under DeSantis' proposal, Heyer would have been subject to arrest and prison, while her murderer would go free. This is not law and order, but instead thuggish protection of the worst among us, masquerading as public safety.It’s easy to see why Gov. DeSantis would propose this cartoonish buffet of half-baked authoritarianism. DeSantis has failed so thoroughly at his most basic task of protecting Floridians — both from the virus and the economic collapse it caused — that he is desperate to distract voters from his poor record.Sorry, governor, but that can’t happen.The truth is Florida is in trouble. Hundreds of thousands of our neighbors are out of work and can’t make ends meet. Families are being evicted, and small businesses are shutting down by the day. My office has processed tens of thousands of unemployment applications through a system that, per the governor’s own admission, Republicans designed to fail. (Let that sink in.)WeeklyGet latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. &gt; For many of the fraction of Floridians who have received relief, benefits are already exhausted, and they don’t know what to do. These good people don’t want handouts, but they deserve a hand up.For months, my Democratic colleagues and I have urged DeSantis and Republicans in Tallahassee to convene a special session that would give us the chance to approve real relief for small businesses and fix the state’s broken unemployment system. Not a single Republican in the Legislature voted for it. Every Floridian wants safe communities. But Democrats are committed to protecting public safety, protecting constitutional rights, and defending the rule of law. Gov. DeSantis and his Republican allies prefer to play politics with public safety. They want Floridians to fall for their tricks.AdvertisementI have more faith in Florida. Floridians will not be duped by Ron DeSantis and the Tallahassee establishment. When Republican leadership try to take away our rights, the good people across this great state will resist. They will hit the streets following Congressman John Lewis' advice to “never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”Anna V. Eskamani, a Democrat, represents the 47th District in the Florida House of Representatives. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Guest ColumnistSep 26, 2020 at 6:00 amNearly 700,000 Floridians have been infected by COVID-19, and nearly 14,000 have died. More than a million Floridians have lost their jobs, and hundreds of thousands remain unemployed. The ongoing pandemic is the worst health and economic crisis in Florida’s history, and Floridians are begging for help — and leadership. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has ignored their pleas. Instead, this week he announced that his top legislative priority is not fixing the unemployment system or ensuring better access to health care, but an abuse of power aimed...

Rep. Eskamani: Protest laws are a DeSantis power grab | Commentary

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