Top Democrat leaders arrested during abortion ban protest
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried and Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book were arrested, along with others, during a peaceful abortion protest Monday night.
The Democrat leaders were arrested after receiving a warning to leave City Hall before sunset, according to a press release from the Tallahassee Police Department.
Earlier in the day, the Florida Senate had approved the six-week abortion ban that includes exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking. The bill would still need approval from the House.
Video shows Fried and Book being put in handcuffs after sitting in a circle with protestors.
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.
“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.
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.
Florida Democrats said on Twitter, “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,” they said.
Democrat leaders’ mugshots hidden after arrests, Republicans call incident ‘performance art’
Republican leaders hammered the two Democrats after their mugshots were not released during the protest, while other protesters’ mugshots were shown to the public.
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.
