Nikki Fried, Senate leader Book released from jail after abortion protest arrest

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book and nine others were released from jail after being arrested Monday night on trespassing charges for protesting a six-week abortion ban that’s poised to pass the Legislature.

“We know what we’re fighting for,” Fried said in an interview Tuesday. “If it takes us getting arrested to wake everybody up, then so be it.”

Fried and Book, along with several other state lawmakers, were among 40 or so demonstrators outside Tallahassee City Hall across the street from the Capitol after the Senate passed a six-week ban on most abortions earlier in the day. They chanted and sang songs for several hours until police arrested 11 protesters to enforce a recently imposed 8 p.m. curfew.

“I looked at Lauren and said, ‘Is this really happening?’” Fried said. “I was in shock that we were being arrested during a peaceful protest.”

Fried and Book were the first to be released just before midnight, and by 2:20 a.m., the others were also released on their own recognizance. They were charged with misdemeanor trespassing and have arraignments scheduled later this month and in May unless the Leon County state attorney’s office decides to drop the charges.

“This is unacceptable,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, who was at the demonstration but not arrested. “This is a Democratic mayor in a Democratic city and people are fighting for their abortion rights.”

Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey said the city commission is an ally in the fight for abortion rights. “Their fight is with the Legislature across the street, not the City of Tallahassee,” Dailey said.

But he called the actions by Fried “a political stunt” and said she showed up right at dusk with the intent to get arrested. “She’s already fundraising off it,” he said.

The city worked with organizers to accommodate them but balked when their ads told people to bring their camping gear to stay overnight in the parks. “We told them that wouldn’t work,’ Dailey said, since city ordinance prohibits camping out overnight in downtown parks.

The plaza outside of City Hall, which includes memorials and a walled-in grassy area on the side, is considered a park, he said.

City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow said he was shocked by the arrests.

“I don’t recognize Tallahassee anymore,” said the lifelong city resident. “This has always been a city that welcomed people and their constitutional right to protest.”

The groups involved had been working on the event in coordination with other abortion advocates around the state as a day of action, said Gena Casas, membership director for Jacksonville NOW.

Getting permission to demonstrate had been an ordeal for the organizers. They first received a permit to hold the demonstration on the grassy pitch of Kleman Plaza a block west of City Hall, but that permit was revoked. A second permit for the City Hall plaza was revoked hours before the planned protest, but the organizers went ahead anyway, Casas said.

City officials decided to put up police barricades around the plaza and impose an 8 p.m. curfew, anticipating a much larger crowd, Casas said.

They started rounding up the small circle of protesters shortly after 8 p.m. and pushed the rest of the crowd back with the wooden barricades, witnesses said.

“We must all take up the fight because this was never about life,” said Book, D-Plantation, during the debate Monday on the abortion bill, which passed 26-13. “It is and it always has been about control.”

The House isn’t expected to take up the bill until next week after Easter break.