Florida legislative panel backs protest bill after fierce debate

“I was recently asked, how can we make this bill better? You can shred it,” one Democrat said.


An effort to enhance penalties associated with violent protests, create new crimes when mobs attack property or police and make it difficult for cities to trim law-enforcement spending had a rocky legislative debut Wednesday, drawing heated criticism from opponents.

The measure is backed by the state’s three most-powerful Republican leaders but was decried as unnecessary and divisive by Democrats and other critics — many of them young or Black — who unsuccessfully urged the House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Subcommittee to reject the proposal.

“I was recently asked, how can we make this bill better? You can shred it,” state Rep. Mike Grieco, a Miami Beach Democrat who is a former prosecutor, said before the Republican-controlled panel voted along party lines in favor of the measure.

But House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, issued a statement after the vote pointing to the “passionate, vocal speech and debate” about the bill (HB 1).

Read more: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2021/01/28/florida-legislative-panel-backs-protest-bill-after-fierce-debate/4288475001/