2023-09-15 18:36:06
At least 42 people who protested the construction of an 85-acre, $90 million police training center in Atlanta, Georgia, have been charged with domestic terrorism. While protesters still fear being criminalized for exercising their constitutional right to organize demonstrations, being accused of domestic terrorism has a particularly deterrent effect. The decision to charge the protesters with domestic terrorism comes months after a protester, Manuel Paez Terán (who called himself Tortuguita), was killed by police.
Across the United States, we are seeing a proliferation of laws aimed at stifling and criminalizing protests. Since 2017, North Dakota has considered a series of anti-protest laws, including one that allows the state’s attorney general to bring in police from out of town to respond to protests. In South Dakota, a law allows the state to ban protests of 20 or more people in certain circumstances. In 2021, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a bill protecting motorists who hit protesters. Lawmakers in Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota and Tennessee have also considered legislation protecting motorists who hit protesters. While many of these measures have failed, the fact that some lawmakers think it is acceptable for drivers to hit people with their cars simply for exercising their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble is ridiculous.
These are not the only states that have considered or passed laws criminalizing protests. Since January 2017, 45 states have considered 267 bills restricting the right to protest, according to the International Center for Nonprofit Law. Currently, at least 39 laws restrict the right to protest, including laws that limit where people can protest, laws that grant immunity to motorists who harm protesters, laws that issue penalties for nearby protests oil and gas pipelines and other critical infrastructure, laws to hold organizers who plan protests financially responsible for the costs of protests, laws that overly broad definitions of a riot, etc. It is not an error ; we are seeing a coordinated effort to silence dissent in every state, every city, and every jurisdiction.
We must be clear that anti-protest laws are not about security; they aim to silence dissent. They are specifically designed to silence poor people and people who are black or from other marginalized communities. If we do not resist these measures and do everything we can to stop them, we will see an escalation of campaigns aimed at silencing Black people, people of color, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups. Once this happens, our communities will have no way to challenge the laws that regulate many people to second-class status.
There’s a lot to discover on this topic, so let’s start here: why are people protesting in the first place? In the United States, we frequently see protests in response to violence perpetrated by white supremacists and police, as well as in response to efforts to disenfranchise women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and religious minorities of their rights. The country witnessed protests from coast to coast following the election of Donald Trump as president. Once he instituted the Muslim travel ban, blocking immigration to the United States for people from majority-Muslim countries, a new wave of protests took place. Certainly, a series of protests have occurred in response to fatal police shootings or other instances of violence perpetrated by police. The latter situation has occurred so frequently that black people find themselves constantly confronted, dealt with, and challenged by police shootings.
We are seeing a coordinated effort to silence dissent in every state, every city, and every jurisdiction.
When Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Florida in 2012, we saw a mob of young Dream Defenders take over the Florida state capitol. When Michael Brown was killed in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, we saw a series of uprisings across the country. When Freddie Gray was killed in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2015, the community resisted with protests. When Sandra Bland died in police custody in a Waller County, Texas, jail that same year, community members protested. When Alton Sterling was killed here in Louisiana, in Baton Rouge, in 2016, there were many protests. In New York’s Bronx, police responded with violence during protests in the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. The city will now pay $21,500 to each protester, and about 300 people participated in the demonstration.
Just as lawmakers are becoming more savvy about bills that restrict protests, justice organizers must be creative, determined, and relentless. If we do this, we will not only continue to win, but also to defend our victories.
We face threats to fundamental rights the likes of which we have not seen in decades. We know that if we can reach people, we can compel them to act. One of the remarkable advantages of social media is that it can ensure that millions of people – not just a handful of people – see a video recording within seconds. The video can also help build empathy among non-Black people to join the fight for justice.
For example, when the video circulated of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin snuffing out the life of Floyd, most people who watched it were outraged and heartbroken. The resulting protests were the largest, and probably the most diverse, in U.S. history. It was difficult for many to look away and people were demanding change.
The anti-protest bills are a direct result of the effectiveness of racial justice organizers and multiracial protests. We cannot lose sight of this fact. We must push local, state, and federal governments to not only protect the right to peacefully assemble, but also to address the reasons people are protesting in the first place. As my colleague Tameka Greer of Memphis Artists for Change said: “It’s a sad situation that the government is passing laws to prevent protests but not passing laws to prevent the killing of black people by police. »
If we do not resist such measures, we will see an escalation of campaigns aimed at silencing Black people, people of color, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups.
Criminalizing dissent is not a new tactic in the United States or abroad. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to resist. We must continue to organize; continue to identify ways for our communities to engage in resistance movements; and continue to educate the masses on why movements to restrict our rights to peaceful assembly harm all of us, not just Black people.
More than anything else, we cannot give in to fear. We cannot fear these efforts and allow lawmakers out of step with the people to do what they want. We must resist and speak out – today, tomorrow and forever.
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