On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee gave a favorable report to a bill that would make it illegal for protestors to protest in a neighborhood at a private residence.
“This bill allows the locals to bring in whatever local ordinances they want which could be replaced with what the state bill does,” State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), the bill’s sponsor, said. “A lot of cities — they do have noise ordinances or you have to get a parade permit to march up and down the streets; but to go to someone’s house, and plant yourself, and stay on the sidewalks so you are not trespassing can really create a problem. The bill does not just apply to public elected officials. It could be anybody.”
“This is a bill we passed out of the Senate last year,” Orr said. “This came out of the protest around Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh’s house in 2022 and it seemed like a new era with going to people’s houses and having bullhorns with large amounts of people present. That is the reason I filed the bill last year. Here we are again. As we look at our society you have to think what is on the books?”
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“Imagine if you are at you are in your home and you’ve got 50, 75, or 100 people whatever it is who are mad at you,” Orr continued. “You don’t know them. You don’t know if they are going to shoot through the house or throw a Molotov cocktail. You’ve got children. You want to leave. What if somebody needs to go to the doctor. They are all crowded around your driveway. How are you going to get in or get out from your home?”
Travis Jackson with Black Lives Matter Grass Roots spoke in opposition to the bill as well.
“I am in opposition of SB57, because I believe that it is a destructive bill towards Black, indigenous, and people of color exercising their First Amendment rights,” said Jackson. “Many nonviolent protestors, in general have been, and still are, throughout American history are targeted criminally by law enforcement.”
“On numerous occasions I have witnessed how police officers have violently binded both nonviolent protestors hands and feet like dogs as they were exercising their rights,” Jackson claimed. “Prime example is Hoover police in the summer of 2020. Also in July 2020, I witnessed Hoover police armed with assault rifles as nonviolent protestors were exercising their First Amendment rights.”
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“SB57 is just as hypocritical as the police slogan ‘To protect and serve’,” Jackson concluded. “American history has proven for decades and centuries that White extremist groups like Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy, Three Percenters, and Patriot Front are the only ones protected by America’s justice system.”
Sen. Vivian Figures (D-Mobile) expressed concerns that the bill allows local governments to pass something even stricter than SB57.
“We don’t want to limit people’s freedom of speech,” said Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison (D-Birmingham). “Somebody could be picketing my house; but my neighbors I can see how that would be offensive to them. I want to be fair to them.”
The committee voted to give SB57 a favorable report. The bill could be considered by the full Senate as soon as Thursday. Thursday was day 9 of the 2024 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.
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