Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Associated Press reports:
Demonstrators expressing solidarity with the thousands of Cubans who waged a rare weekend of protests around their island nation shut down a stretch of a major South Florida expressway Tuesday.
The large group gathered at a busy Miami intersection chanting support for the Cubans, who had taken to the streets of several communities around the communist nation Sunday to air grievances about poor economic conditions, among other complaints.
News helicopter footage from broadcaster WTVJ showed demonstrators marching to Miami’s Palmetto Expressway, where several of them sat down in the roadway. Traffic was eventually blocked in both directions, and police weren’t immediately moving demonstrators.
From the Miami Herald editorial board:
Here’s what the governor said when he signed the blatantly un-American bill into law: “Just think about it, you’re driving home from work and, all of a sudden, you have people out there shutting down a highway, and we worked hard to make sure that didn’t happen in Florida.”
But it did happen in Florida, Gov. DeSantis. Demonstrators shut down State Road 826 in both directions Tuesday in solidarity with their counterparts in Cuba. Police obliged and redirected traffic. Mercifully, no one roared through the crowd in a vehicle.
Everything was as it should be in a country that has a high tolerance for free expression. But, unfortunately, for the governor, the reporter’s question trapped him in the hypocrisy of his law, likely to be arbitrarily enforced.
Honestly, we would have been more impressed if he had just responded: “Nah, the Miami-Dade demonstrators seeking human rights in Cuba have nothing to fear from my anti-riot law. We created it to subdue Black folks seeking human rights in the United States.”
DeSantis’ anti-riot law didn’t apply as Cuba protesters shut down a Miami-Dade road. Hmmm . . .
The latest in opinion from the Herald Editorial Board https://t.co/j9RM26edgv
— Miami Herald Opinion (@HeraldOpEd) July 13, 2021
Reminder that Ron Desantis signed a law that explicitly prohibits this and gives drivers the ability to run protestors over while escaping civil liability. I don’t want this enforced on ANYONE but Desantis selectively chooses who to enforce it on based on political convenience. https://t.co/COpsKblWVm
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) July 13, 2021
Reminder: @GovRonDeSantis recently signed a law that could subject these protestors to felony charges, a prison sentence, losing their right to vote, and the kicker — they could be run over be a car and the driver would be granted civil immunity. https://t.co/nasO5lxXuu
— Ben Sharpe (@iamsharpe) July 13, 2021
DeSantis asked about protesters in Miami blocking off streets. He shifts to talk about protesters in Cuba, who are “not necessarily designed to be peaceful” because they’re revolting. “People understand the difference betwern peacefully assembling… and tackling down people.”
— Bianca Padró Ocasio (@BiancaJoanie) July 13, 2021