REJECT ANTI-FREE SPEECH BUFFER ZONES IN THE NYS LEGISLATURE

I am concerned about the state legislature’s proposed “buffer zone” bill (S8599 Sutton / A9335 Lasher) and the similar proposal in the Executive Budget Article VII Language PPGG Park K. It Amends New York’s existing interference with health care services and religious worship law (Penal Law §§ 240.70-.7 to create a 25-foot complete buffer zone outside of reproductive health care facilities and places of religious worship, wherein two or more people are prohibited from “demonstrating or preparing to demonstrate.” Health care facilities are very broadly defined as “a hospital, clinic, physician's office, or other facility that provides reproductive health services, and includes the building or structure in which the facility is located and shall include the drive, entrance, entryway, or exit and any public way or sidewalk that touches such places.” Criminal interference with health care services or access to a place of religious worship in the first degree is a class E felony. A class E felony can result in a sentence of 1 to 4 years of prison.  The existing statute already prevents people from using force, physical obstruction, and violence, as well as covers any property damage.  THESE BILLS TARGET PRO-PALESTINIAN SPEECH AND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST. The bills clearly embody the Palestine exception to free speech: they were not raised in a content-neutral manner and have been invoked explicitly to target pro-Palestine protests in NYC. The proposal is intended to deliberately derail scrutiny around the city’s protection of illegal sales of stolen Palestinian land. It will prevent First Amendment-protected speech and protest. Their intended effect is to stifle free speech in the most public forum — the streets. It could prohibit and criminalize countless demonstrations, even if a protest is merely passing by. Places of worship and health facilities are everywhere. Most of the state would be off-limits to all protest. The proposal accelerates the escalating national criminalization of dissent, and mirror the FACE Act (Federal Access to Clinic Entrances Act), which the Trump administration is now weaponizing to prosecute anti-ICE and pro-Palestine protesters and even journalists like Don Lemon. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH & JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS BROADLY OPPOSE THE BILLS. Reproductive freedom has been defended and expanded for decades through protest, direct action, and collective pressure. Protest at places of worship whose leaders have tried to control public policy and bodily autonomy has been essential to repro health and queer activism (see ACT UP and WHAM!’s “Stop the Church!” protest). This tradition of protest is based on the principles that no institution is exempt from public accountability, and that free speech protections cannot be selectively applied, both of which are threatened by the proposed legislation. THESE BILLS WOULD RESULT IN INCREASED POLICE PRESENCE & BRUTALITY. Buffer zones would dramatically increase police presence at places of worship and healthcare facilities. The legislation would become another tool for surveillance, mass arrests, and selective enforcement, especially against communities of color and the movements challenging entrenched power already disproportionately targeted by law enforcement. There is already documented and widespread use of excessive force by law enforcement against protesters, particularly by the NYPD’s violent Strategic Response Group (https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/nypds-strategic-response-group-must-be-disbanded) (SRG). I am requesting you advocate that this proposal is not included in the one-house budgets and reject this dangerous proposal. We need our legislature to stand for New Yorkers’ freedom of speech and assembly.