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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL)

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RELEASE: Rep. Ilhan Omar Statement on Protest Bill Hearings Tomorrow

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

SAINT PAUL, MN – Today, State Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL – Minneapolis) issued a call to action in response to upcoming hearings for a bill [HF 390] that would criminalize non-violent protest in Minnesota communities:

“As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, I am forced to point out the extraordinary irony that House Republicans are attempting to silence voices and to criminalize the very type of non-violent protest that African Americans used to bring about the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960’s. Every Minnesotan has the right to peacefully assemble and to assert those rights until their elected leaders listen. Civil rights victories of the 1960’s were hard fought, and that hard fought struggle is no different that Minnesotans fighting for fair wages, police accountability, and better schools, transit, air and water in our communities today.

I won’t stand by as my Republican colleagues would have Minnesota throw people in jail for speaking out in the same way Dr. King did at Selma. Too many of us have fought too long for the right to be heard, to be silenced now. I hope Minnesotans will once again make their voices heard by attending and testifying at the Public Safety Committee hearing where this bill will be heard at 10:15am tomorrow [Wednesday, February 22, 2017] morning in Room 10 of the State Office Building [100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155]”

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