In addition to suppress-the-vote laws, state Republican lawmakers are introducing anti-protest laws in reaction to Black Lives Matter protests even though most of the protests have been peaceful. Some 29 states have introduced or passed laws that would restrict demonstrations, curb free speech rights with severe penalties for participating in violent protests including fines, jail time and withholding public employment, benefits and political office. (The Guardian, April 12, 2021, by Adam Gabbatt)
A anti-protest law rapidly advancing in the Florida legislature creates a “mob intimidation” crime that makes it unlawful “for a person, assembled with two or more other persons and acting with a common intent, to use force or threaten to use imminent force, to compel or induce, or attempt to compel or induce, another person to do or refrain from doing any act or to assume, abandon, or maintain a particular viewpoint against his or her will.” Many Black citizens oppose the law, seeing it as racist. (ABC7 WWSB, April 12, 2021 by News Service of Florida staff)