{"id":1609,"date":"2021-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-prod.greenpeace.org\/usa\/campaign-updates\/1609\/police-take-their-grievances-to-the-first-amendment\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:43:10","slug":"police-take-their-grievances-to-the-first-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/police-take-their-grievances-to-the-first-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Take Their Grievances to the First Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class='p4descriptive_paragraph'>Law enforcement has a long tradition of violently upholding racial capitalism, new analysis shows how they are trying to undermine your protest rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class='wp-block-image size-large p4featured_image'><img src='https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/4578f9ac-gp1stz82_web_size_with_credit_line.jpg' alt='Reaction to the Murder of George Floyd in Washington DC' \/><figcaption class='wp-element-caption'>Activists march on the streets of Washington D.C. and rally on Capitol Hill following the murder of George Floyd.  On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. During an arrest, Derek Chauvin, a white American police officer, kept his knee on the side of Floyd&#8217;s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down. During the last three minutes, Floyd was motionless.  After Floyd&#8217;s death, demonstrations and protests against racism and police brutality were held across the US and the world, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the movement and gathering restrictions put in place by governments to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our opponents haven\u2019t missed a beat. Continuing a dangerous trend, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">state legislatures<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are introducing anti-protest legislation at a rapid pace this year. The bills would increase criminal penalties for vague offenses like unlawful assembly, trespass, and obstruction. Many seek to redefine what constitutes a riot, often by expanding what conduct amounts to a felony. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently enacted laws in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/2021\/04\/ron-desantis-anti-riot-bill\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Florida<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2021\/4\/25\/22367019\/gop-laws-oklahoma-iowa-florida-floyd-blm-protests-police\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> even shield drivers from liability for hitting protesters with their cars.\u00a0<\/span>These bills are designed to chill the speech of activists, by frightening people from attending the next protest\u2014a warning accomplished by their mere introduction, whether or not the bills ultimately become law.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who is behind this assault on our democratic right to free speech? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/grassrootbeer.substack.com\/p\/police-lobbying-anti-protest-laws-2021\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">investigative report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> following a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/research\/dollars-vs-democracy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new Greenpeace USA report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>major corporations are lobbying for these bills behind the scenes, and handing out <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1ObpEECGjgqF_H6Jr_4F-4XkSIgi4_TZ39JCsqEacrkw\/edit?usp=sharing\"><b>campaign contributions<\/b><\/a><b> to local lawmakers who introduce them.<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>These bills are designed to chill the speech of activists, by frightening people from attending the next protest\u2014a warning accomplished by their mere introduction, whether or not the bills ultimately become law.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But another interest group is close behind: law enforcement, the people who are paid to uphold the law and its constitutional protections. Police associations, like state chapters of the Fraternal Order of Police, lobbied for anti-protest legislation in at least 14 states, since June 1, 2020. The data also shows that police-turned-lawmakers sponsored these bills in at least 19 states.\u00a0<\/span><strong>Campaign finance disclosures show that bill sponsors received a disturbing <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1ObpEECGjgqF_H6Jr_4F-4XkSIgi4_TZ39JCsqEacrkw\/edit?usp=sharing\">$343,602<\/a> from police association PACs (political action committees) during the 2019-2020 election cycle.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what are these police associations anyways? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes these groups represent law enforcement in collective bargaining, and thus receive the moniker of \u201cpolice union.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State employees, like police, are generally prohibited from striking or negotiating wages. But they can negotiate over workplace conditions and restrictions on employment termination. So when a police officer kills someone, the \u201cunion\u201d often steps in to protect their interests. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/aflcio.org\/reports\/public-safety-blueprint-change\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AFL-CIO just put out a report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> looking to reform those practices, but <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/afl-cio-police-reform-unions-black-lives-matter\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">many advocates<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> say the report doesn\u2019t go far enough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that\u2019s because <\/span><b>police have historically been the enforcers of corporate interests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the goons who break strikes and beat picketers. In the US labor movement\u2019s early stages, workers organized for safe working conditions and fair wages. Unions help workers leverage their collective power against their employer. But those entities were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ourdocuments.gov\/doc.php?flash=false&amp;doc=67\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">illegal up until 1935<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and police enforced those laws, often brutally. The purpose of law enforcement hasn\u2019t changed since then; <\/span><b>while police no longer have legal authority to break strikes, they remain the foot soldiers of property interests today, protecting white supremacy, politicians, and <a href=\"http:\/\/bostonreview.net\/race\/robin-d-g-kelley-what-did-cedric-robinson-mean-racial-capitalism\">racial capitalism<\/a> generally from attack and critique.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-84178\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/c3737c12-gp1stzcg_web_size_with_credit_line.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"736\" height=\"968\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the southeast US, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/12\/opinion\/sunday\/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0modern policing started through slave patrols<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Which police association sent the most campaign contributions to legislators sponsoring anti-protest legislation? The Southern States Police Benevolent Association, an organization bound geographically by the former Confederacy. We are hardly the first organization to recognize the long, pervasive connection between law enforcement and white supremacist ideology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before 1935, employers fought workers\u2019 organizations with private security firms too. Most infamous was the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teenvogue.com\/story\/who-were-the-pinkertons\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pinkerton Agency<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a private spy outfit during the Civil War that evolved into a private police agency. <\/span><b>When workers outnumbered local law enforcement, owners would hire them to break strikes.\u00a0<\/b><b>Fossil fuel companies are doing the same thing today. <\/b>They regularly retain private security firms, often composed of off-duty law enforcement, to disrupt and arrest pipeline protesters.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, Energy Transfer did this in Louisiana, and so did Kinder-Morgan in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2015\/05\/26\/kinder-morgan-maybe-change-huge-oil-pipeline-company-something-hired-duty-cops-deter-protests-pennsylvania-pipeline\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pennsylvania<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Louisiana protesters ended up arrested, with the ignominious distinction of being the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/08\/22\/recent-arrests-under-new-anti-protest-law-spotlight-risks-that-off-duty-cops-pose-to-pipeline-opponents\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">first arrestees under a new anti-protest law<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> enacted in 2017.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/reports\/fossil-fuel-racism\/\">Greenpeace report lays\u00a0out how fossil fuel infrastructure is often built in or alongside communities of color<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, creating a disproportionate impact of fossil fuel industry pollution. In many communities, those impacts are reinforced by ties between big polluters and local or state law enforcement. Like toxic pollution, that relationship doesn&#8217;t stop at the company&#8217;s fence: big polluters often hire off-duty law enforcement to protect their property. This arrangement allows polluters to intimidate and suffocate local organizing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-84179\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/cff23bbf-gp0stqamc_web_size_with_credit_line.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"743\" height=\"265\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Potential conflicts of interest involving lawmakers who might personally benefit from anti-protest legislation they sponsor or vote for is another key area of concern. In Ohio, Sen. Frank Hoagland (R) was the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislature.ohio.gov\/legislation\/legislation-summary?id=GA133-SB-33\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">primary sponsor of S.B. 33<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a new \u201ccritical infrastructure\u201d or anti-pipeline protest bill that was passed and signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine (R) in January 2021. Hoagland runs a private security firm that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/ohio-fossil-fuel_n_5fdb862cc5b6f24ae35e61ba?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000603\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">consults for oil and gas companies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And we know Hoagland <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/drillednews.com\/ohio-passes-fossil-fuel-backed-anti-protest-legislation\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">met with<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a lobbyist retained by fossil fuel behemoth Koch Industries to discuss \u201ccritical infrastructure\u201d in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At least one police department understands the contradictions posed between these new laws and their constitutional duties. The Broward County Sheriff&#8217;s Office in Florida decided, on its own, to limit enforcement of one the most restrictive anti-protest laws passed under this new legislative trend. The Department <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/sheriff-office-leery-using-anti-172400839.html\">directed its officers against making arrests without first consulting up the chain of command<\/a>. But even that small acknowledgement lacks concreteness\u2014their understandable wariness stops short of refusing to enforce these unconstitutional laws at all.\u00a0<\/span>To some, the financial records supporting this new wave of anti-protest legislation confirms what we already knew:<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>police are agents of repression and act on those interests at the legislative level.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But for others, this information should be downright shocking. The same people paid to protect your right to protest are acting in legislatures across the country to limit your right to do it.\u00a0<\/span><b>That\u2019s why groups across the country are organizing to stop these bills. Greenpeace is working in coalition with dozens of other organizations, including churches, Indigenous groups, and labor, to urge our movement allies to contact their state legislators and ask them to vote against these bills.<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>To some, the financial records supporting this new wave of anti-protest legislation confirms what we already knew:\u00a0police are agents of repression and act on those interests at the legislative level.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are running out of time if we are to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. That means activism opposing new fossil fuel infrastructure is more necessary than ever\u2014the clock won\u2019t stop ticking unless we act. Even pro-industry groups like the International Energy Agency have <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/priceofoil.org\/2021\/05\/18\/iea-bolsters-call-no-new-fossil-fuel\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">finally recognized<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that there is \u201cno need for investment in new fossil fuel supply,\u201d in order to limit global warming to 1.5<\/span><b>\u00ba<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>When government laws fail to act within the bounds of planetary limits, movements will resist and demand action. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The duty of the police may be to enforce the law, but the politician\u2019s duty is to prevent existential threats, like climate catastrophe. And it is the duty of activists to defend future generations by preventing the problem at its source. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/volunteer-platform\/\">Join Greenpeace<\/a> in doing everything you can to preserve your rights to resist and put an end to the era of fossil fuels.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our opponents haven\u2019t missed a beat. Continuing a dangerous trend, state legislatures are introducing anti-protest legislation at a rapid pace this year. The bills would increase criminal penalties for vague&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":6776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[212],"tags":[161,164,169],"p4-page-type":[31],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democracy-campaign","tag-protest","tag-racial-justice","tag-right-to-protest","p4-page-type-campaign-updates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Police Take Their Grievances to the First Amendment - Greenpeace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/police-take-their-grievances-to-the-first-amendment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police Take Their Grievances to the First Amendment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our opponents haven\u2019t missed a beat. Continuing a dangerous trend, state legislatures are introducing anti-protest legislation at a rapid pace this year. 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