A controversial new proposal currently before the Florida State Senate would give defenders of Confederate monuments and other historic assets the power to sue for the removal or destruction of ‘lost history’. “.
The Republican-majority Community Affairs Committee backed invoice SB 1096 in a 6-2 vote to the party line on April 5, pushing back against growing public disillusionment with the symbolic glorification of slavery and the forces that promoted it in the United States. The proposed legislation extends to plaques, banners, flags and statues that are considered “dedicated to a historical person, entity, event or series of events and which honor or chronicle the military service of any military past or present.” or of the public past or present”. service of a resident of the geographical area”.
The bill, titled the “Historic Landmarks and Protection Act,” would allow civilians to sue three times the value of reparations for monuments moved, a system known as “triple damages,” again placing Florida at the vanguard of America’s culture wars. .
State Senator Lori Berman, one of two senators to vote against the bill during the Community Affairs hearing, said Hyperallergic“I think this bill is absolutely a response to removing the Confederate statues, no doubt.”
Even though Florida cities love Jacksonville voted for to withdraw these monuments following the 2020 national movement to tear down Confederate Monuments, opponents have called for their safeguarding, often arguing that they represent “cultural heritage”. While most legal attempts to block the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials have been struck down, Florida’s proposed bill would circumvent bureaucratic bureaucracy by allowing private citizens to sue local government.
The bill’s sponsor, Jonathan Martin, a Republican senator representing Fort Myers, told the Miami Herald; “What I love about these memorials in public places is that everyone has the opportunity to see who we were… The older the monument, the more important it is because it provides a point of departure for what our country started, who led our country. .
“We don’t build monuments around the sins of individuals, we build them because of something great they did,” Martin added. “I want to teach my kids that despite your imperfections, you can still do something great.”
Fort Lauderdale State Senator Rosalind Osgood, a black woman, disagreed, pointing out that many Confederate monuments were actually erected in the 1950s and 1960s in response to the civil rights movement. “People who really look like me are offended by a lot of Confederate monuments,” she told the Herald.
Current proposal must be approved by the Rules Committee in order to reach the Senate floor; a version of the bill in the Florida House of Representatives has so far authorized the subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law and Government Operations.
