Hillsborough Prosecutors Won't Charge 67 Arrested Protesters

TAMPA, FLA. – Hillsborough County prosecutors will not press charges against 67 people who were recently arrested during protests following George Floyd’s death, officials announced on Monday.

State Attorney Andrew Warren told reporters at a news conference that his office would not prosecute those who were arrested on charges of unlawful assembly. Warren told reporters that of the 67 cases, evidence shows that each of the people taken into custody were protesting peacefully on June 2 after Floyd was killed while in the custody of white Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.

“Prosecuting people for exercising their First Amendment rights doesn’t solve problems, it creates them,” Warren said Monday, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Warren’s decision follows that of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who declined to charge those arrested for violating curfew. Prosecutors in Pasco and Pinellas counties are still evaluating whether they will move ahead with charges of protesters arrested in those jurisdictions.

Tampa has experienced its share of protests since Floyd’s death. City police arrested 60 people in protests on June 3. Demonstrations have turned violent in North Tampa and, in one case, the Tampa Bay Times reported that protesters threw objects at police and set fires to area businesses.

The ACLU of Greater Tampa recently called on local officials to develop a peaceful protest plan after receiving complaints of officers using excessive force on protesters during rallies.

"The right of citizens to protest, and the right of journalists to freely report, are fundamental rights under our Constitution, which police officers are sworn to protect," the ACLU said. "We do understand that some individuals have capitalized upon the current national upheaval to engage in criminal acts that are unconnected to protests, but TPD must not allow for citizens' and journalists' fundamental rights to be eroded by conflating their Constitutionally protected activities with the actions of these unconnected individuals."