Aldridge files legislation protecting protestors, unhoused

New laws necessary to protect civil liberties amidst rights violations

State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge (MHDC)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, pre-filed several bills during the first week of session to protect the civil rights and liberties of peoples who have recently come under greater political fire: peaceful protestors.

“The right to join with fellow citizens in peaceful assembly and engage in protest is paramount to a functioning democracy,” he said. “In Ferguson, peaceful protestors were met with military force and tear gas. House Bill 2260, also known as the ‘Protestor’s Bill of Rights,’ will guarantee that those practicing civil disobedience do not face violence for exercising their First Amendment rights.”

Aldridge added the right to protest has come under greater threat in the last year, both legislatively and publicly. Peaceful protestors, including Aldridge, were threatened at gunpoint by Mark and Patricia McCloskey in St. Louis last year. They later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and harassment, respectively. State Sen. Rick Brattin also filed a bill last year that would permit drivers to run protestors over.

In addition to the Protestors’ Bill of Rights, Aldridge filed House Bill 2269, the “Bill of Rights for the Homeless” to guarantee rights for unhoused Missourians who he says too often face legal discrimination and segregation for their lack of housing, and not for their behavior.

Aldridge also filed several other important pieces of legislation for the 2022 Legislative Session, designed to break cycles of poverty and stop putting continued burdens on those convicted of minor offenses:

• House Bill 2266, titled “Unlock the Vote,” removes provisions prohibiting persons on probation or parole after conviction of a felony from voting. Currently, over 60,000 Missourians on probation or parole cannot vote. “The people have served their punishment, and the state should not continue to infringe on their rights when they have paid their due to society,” Aldridge said.

• House Bill 2267 states no individual shall be incarcerated for failure to pay a child support obligation. Criminal non-support was the 10th most common offense for new prison sentences in 2020, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections, but most who cannot afford to pay child support are not deliberately evading responsibilities. Instead, they are simply punished for being poor, a wrong Aldridge intends to rectify with this legislation.

• House Bill 2233 eliminates cash bail in the state of Missouri, which Aldridge says criminalizes poverty. Missourians unable to afford bail remain detained while they wait weeks or months for a fair trial. The inequities caused by the cash bail system disproportionately affect communities of color, the poor, and working class.

• House Bill 2334 would abolish infraction and misdemeanor offenses of failure to appear in court, which can be issued on traffic tickets and other minor offenses. These stacking offenses can drive people further into debt or poverty and keep them tracked in a cycle of incarceration or facing larger fines for the simple crime of being unable to pay a small fine. Aldridge’s law would retain the offense of failure to appear for a felony warrant.