Democrat leaders’ mugshots hidden after arrests, Republicans call incident ‘performance art’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Florida Republicans reacted after Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried and Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book’s mugshots were not released following their arrests Monday evening for protesting the six-week abortion ban.

The Democrat leaders were arrested after receiving a warning to leave City Hall grounds before sunset, according to a press release from the Tallahassee Police Department.

According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office booking report, they were arrested for “trespass on property after warning.”

“The majority of the crowd left the property while 11 people refused to leave despite numerous requests. They were subsequently arrested for trespass after warning,” said the press release.

Video shows Fried and Book being put in handcuffs after sitting in a circle with protestors.

While the other protesters had their mugshots on the Leon County Sheriff’s office website, Fried’s and Book’s were excluded.

Next to Fried and Book’s name on the Leon County Sheriff’s office website, the office cites 119.071(4)(d), and said images are exempt from public release.

“How un-equitable for the Florida Democrat Party Boss and Democrat Florida State Senator to have their mugshots protected from release, while those who joined them for the political stunt and arrest, have their mugshots released,” Florida Republican Party Chair Christian Ziegler said in a statement to Florida’s Voice.

“In a show of equity, Fried and Book should authorize the release of their mugshots to the public,” Ziegler continued.

“Both Nikki Fried and Lauren Book choose to get arrested last night after repeated warnings. There is no reason that their mugshots should be hidden while those they encouraged to get arrested with them are not. I encourage both of them to voluntarily waive the protection if they truly want to stand side by side with those that were with them, otherwise it’s just more hypocrisy and performance art,” said Republican Party Vice Chair Evan Power.

Fried posted images of the arrest on Tuesday, tagging the police department and the photographer.

“Legalize women’s rights,” Fried tweeted.

“Today, we stood up, spoke out, and some of us were arrested for exercising our right to peaceful protest. This won’t deter us from working to protect our hard-fought freedoms and stop anti-abortion politicians from turning back the clock on health care, equality, and the freedom to control our bodies,” Amy Weintraub, Progress Florida Reproductive Freedom’s program director said in a statement.

The police department said the the city had been working with protest organizers for over a week, however, due to the size of the crowd they were expecting and their desire for overnight camping, they were informed last Friday of the City’s inability to accommodate them.

“Upon the group’s arrival to City Hall today, they were allowed to utilize the property during normal operating hours. After multiple warnings throughout the day, protestors acknowledged they understood that anyone refusing to leave the premises at sundown would be subject to arrest,” the police department’s statement said in part.

“TPD encourages individuals exercising their First Amendment right of peaceful assembly to do so in accordance with the law. TPD supports non-disruptive demonstrations and works diligently to protect and uphold the rights of citizens every day,” the statement said.

Prior to the protest, organizers with #OccupyTally said the news media is invited Monday “to witness any arrests that may happen.”

Following the arrests, the OccupyTally Twitter account said protesters “knew what was going to happen.”

“We knew what was going to happen. We made conscious choices to engage in civil disobedience to protect our rights to bodily autonomy,” the account said.

The Florida Senate approved the six-week abortion ban Monday, with exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking. The bill would still need approval from the House.

Florida Democrats posted a tweet and said, “Florida Democratic Party Chair @NikkiFried was arrested in Tallahassee for defending a woman’s right to choose.”

“Florida Democrats will not back down in our defense of abortion rights. Our Chair made that clear tonight,” the tweet said.

Florida Democratic Party did not immediately provide response after a Tuesday morning inquiry.