Anti-Protest Laws Sweep Across America in statehouses as a rebuke of last summer’s wave of protests. And with new incidents of police brutality, this is going to come to a head. Political psychologist Dr. Bart Rossi discusses.
This is quickly becoming a national discussion. Certainly, the protests this past summer became a national outcry for police reform to quell police brutality as many unarmed black men were killed by police. From the Million Man March led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to the protests about the Vietnam War, and the Compton Riots, protests in America are nothing new. But they were relit in the wake of Charlottesville, and the death of George Floyd.
After Charlottesville, Donald Trump, who claims to love America, found it difficult to denounce the racial hatred of the protesters, instead of saying there were very fine people, ‘on both sides.’After his press conference about Charlottesville, white supremacy groups were encouraged. Trump in an interview during his candidacy pretended he didn’t know who David Duke was.
But this summer in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, a fuse was lit. People came out in the millions across the country calling for police reforms. Some suggested sensitivity training. Others called for defunding the police.
Now, all across America, statehouses are introducing anti-protest laws. Some claim it quells violence, 150 organizations claim it goes too far. PWE said that:
Many of the statehouse proposals target specific acts of protest that were popular among Black Lives Matter participants and that echo activism during the civil rights movement, when protesters marched through streets or sat down at Whites-only lunch counters, taking up physical space in acts of civil disobedience.
Most would agree that there was a smaller percentage of those that weren’t protesting, they were opportunists looking to cause harm and loot. That is true. There were some. But these bills look to disproportionally detain, arrest, and dissuade those that were not.
Clearly, this will — along with voter suppression laws — will be the big conversation facing America in 2021. Follow the ACLU for updates on your civil rights.
Anti-Protest Laws Sweep Across America
In this episode, Dr. Rossi discusses the new legislation and its pros and cons.
