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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Activists Adapt To New Protest Zones

Credit: WAAY ABC Huntsville, AL
Duration: 0 shares 1 views

Activists Adapt To New Protest Zones
Activists Adapt To New Protest Zones

In response to being redirected to select protest zones, protestors in Florence are now opting for a silent protest as they continue calling for a confederate monument taken down.

Monument gone will meet here at the courthouse and hold a silent protest walking along sidewalks with their signs near busy restraunts.

It's silent because this solution is a way the activists believe they can skirt new protest zones created by florence police.

Take a look at your screen here this is a map of the designated protest zones where chanting and yelling can happen for both sides.

You can see protesting and yelling is now not okay in the business district.

Activist camille bennett said her group started what it calls occupy downtown florence protests in june.

<bennett- it's defiantly a violation of our first amendment rights but we decided to do silent protests.

Before this, they walked along busy sidewalks chanting messages in the business district on friday nights.

But florence police said with tensions rising it's limiting where protestors can demonstrate.

Bennett- we are going to continue to occupy downtown and make our presence known.

Bennett said the loophole around the designated areas are silent protests in the business district and so far it's worked.

Florence police were there last friday as the silent occupy downtown protests happened and no arrests were made.

Bennett- last week it went very well and it was an effective protest.

Bennett said her group is staying within the law and exercising their first amendement rights to express how they want this statue gone.

She said while they may be silently protesting no one can silence the movement.

Bennett- it's extremely effective because it exposes even more.

A lot of the complaints were that we were shouting and that it was an interruption but were still getting just as many complaints with the silent protest which helps us understand it's not our protests its our presence.

No protestors have been arrested and none of these protests have been violent compared to other cities.

Right now the decision to remove this confederate monument is still in limbo between the city and county commission.

Live in flo bt waay31.

A 20-17 law makes it illegal for cities or counties to remove monuments that have been in one place for more than 60-years.

The one in florence has been there for

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