NewsVine_Mariyam
Platinum Member
If people have Constitutional or other legally protected rights but due to fear of repercussions that may follow, opt to not exercise them, then what's the point of having them? Passing laws that allow others to intimidate or encroach upon any of our rights is sending us back in time to when black people had no legal rights or protections against harm caused by racists.
At least this is what the proposition of these laws makes me think, first they attacked and further restrict voting rights, now they're attaching the 1st Amendment protections for peaceable assembly and petitioning our government for a redress of grievances?
At least this is what the proposition of these laws makes me think, first they attacked and further restrict voting rights, now they're attaching the 1st Amendment protections for peaceable assembly and petitioning our government for a redress of grievances?
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/chauvin-verdict-links-back-george-floyd-protests-so-lawmakers-are-ncna1264741
Instead of looking to stamp out police brutality, (mostly Republican) politicians are turning against the movement leading our overdue national reckoning.
A police officer holds down a protester while another, rear, sprays pepper spray during a Black Lives Matter protest in Boston on May 29.Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images file
April 21, 2021, 1:31 AM PDT
By Dorian Warren, co-president of Community Change and Seft Hunter, director of Black-led organizing at Community Change
On Tuesday, a jury in Minnesota found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three charges in the death of George Floyd: second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. As the verdict was read, communities across the country came together — as they have for the past year — to demonstrate against police violence and for racial justice.
The fact that Chauvin will probably be going to jail may provide some solace to Floyd’s family. But true justice remains elusive.
The fact that Chauvin will probably be going to jail may provide some solace to Floyd's family. But true justice remains elusive. Consider the dozens
of states that are gearing up to pass sweeping crackdowns on our First Amendment right to protest peacefully.
Protests are vital in America. Protests put pressure on Minnesota authorities to charge Chauvin, on city and state officials to evaluate their police budgets (to mixed success) and on Congress to draft bills like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House but will need bipartisan support to pass the Senate.
This is the kind of power these lawmakers are trying to curb.
Our right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances is embedded in our Constitution, and it forms the bedrock of who we are — and aspire to be — as a democracy. But once again, some politicians are doing what they do best: trying to take away the rights (especially) of Black and brown people to show our discontent and blame us for speaking out against the brutality we face every day.
In Minnesota, the center of last year's demonstrations, the Legislature is considering a bill that would make anyone convicted of a crime at a protest ineligible for state loans, grants or assistance, including student loans, food stamps, rental assistance and unemployment benefits.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping law just this week that imposes new penalties for people arrested at demonstrations and offers more immunity for people who hit protesters with vehicles....
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