was killed Sept. 10<\/a> during a speech at an outdoor rally at Utah Valley University. The 22-year-old suspect in his killing, Tyler Robinson, faces the death penalty if convicted, but there is conflicting evidence about his motive.<\/p>\nAt the hearing Tuesday, GOP lawmakers portrayed Kirk as a promoter of political debate and free discourse, and his killing as a threat to constitutionally protected rights to free speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis man was assassinated for exercising his First Amendment right. That fact alone should concern every American, regardless of party, race [or] religion,\u201d said Rep. Yvette Benarroch, a Marco Island Republican who sponsored the measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our business in this legislature to protect all and make sure our rights are protected, because when violence becomes an acceptable response to speech, then the First Amendment becomes meaningless,\u201d she added. The legislation \u201cdraws a clear constitutional line. It says in Florida, ideas are met with ideas, disagreement is answered with debate and in Florida \u2014 and in America \u2014 we debate, we do not assassinate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Nathan Boyles, R-Baker, said he didn\u2019t know Kirk well when the commentator was alive, but he appreciated Kirk\u2019s invitation to debate issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have to find ways to be able to engage each other directly and face to face, and engage in that civic discourse, and that the worst thing that we could do, and the way we\u2019ll build up walls and silos, is to not be able to vigorously engage into that face to face debate,\u201d Boyles said.<\/p>\n
Kathleen Murray, the state education director for Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative group, said opponents of the bill were suffering from \u201ccognitive dissonance.\u201d She said they were \u201crepeating lies\u201d but would not acknowledge it because it would mean they \u201clook like a liar and, frankly, not very intelligent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirk opposition<\/p>\n
But Democrats on the panel, along with several members of the public, questioned why Florida lawmakers would honor Kirk, who did not live in Florida and who made denigrating comments about the intellect of Black people. He also made several inflammatory comments about Muslims, the LGBTQ community and women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill, to members of my community, Black people,\u201d said Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, \u201cis like a bill brought straight by the KKK.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reaction to the bill, she said, \u201cillustrates why we should not memorialize this man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is causing hate, division, anger and frustration. It\u2019s blatantly just trying to sanitize what this guy was about,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I get it, right. Hate and cruelty is the point. It\u2019s OK in this legislative body to be anti-Black. It\u2019s OK in this legislative body to be anti-Muslim,\u201d Nixon said. \u201cIf you removed all of the stuff he said about Black people and made it about Jewish people, we wouldn\u2019t be here. We would not be here. We would label him antisemitic, and you\u2019d be saying he\u2019s saying things that are terroristic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Ashley Viola Gantt, D-Miami, questioned why Republicans wanted to honor Kirk as an exemplar of the First Amendment, when, she said, there were other people in Florida who worked hard to protect free speech.<\/p>\n
Gantt also disputed the notion that the legislation was about a nonpartisan concern for First Amendment rights, drafting an amendment to honor Assata Shakur, a Black Panther member who died two weeks after Kirk, as a replacement for Kirk in the legislation. Shakur had been convicted of first-degree murder in 1977 but escaped prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we as members of this body, as Black members of this body, are asked to disassociate with [Kirk\u2019s] racist comments with his free speech, then we should be able to disassociate Assata Shakur\u2019s allegations of her past with her continued advocacy for freedom for all,\u201d Gantt explained, before withdrawing her amendment.<\/p>\n
Gantt noted that other lawmakers tried to get teachers fired<\/a> for making comments about Kirk after his killing. \u201cThat\u2019s hypocrisy at its finest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nGantt also offered an amendment to change the thrust of the bill to one honoring the victims of notorious pedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein, noting that most of Epstein\u2019s victims were from the state of Florida. That amendment failed on a voice vote.<\/p>\n
Public speakers asked why the legislation highlighted Kirk for his First Amendment activities, but not Renee Good, a woman who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis last month, or Melissa Hortman, the former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, who was assassinated in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonoring a life and recognizing history does not require elevating it to a place of forced collective celebration,\u201d added Rep. Debra Tendrich, D-Lake Worth Beach. \u201cI believe a state-recognized day of remembrance should be something that brings people together. Much of the deep, ongoing hurt associated with much of Charlie Kirk\u2019s rhetoric, whether you believe it to be true or not, I don\u2019t believe that designation would unite the state. In fact, it causes a lot of pain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republicans on a Florida House committee advanced a measure Tuesday to honor murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk, over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-152248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}