Yesterday we told you about a proposed draconian new law in the Georgia legislature (SB 469) that could make union picketing a felony. Now, the sheriff of Georgia’s biggest county says the bill would put him in the job of policing free speech and today, a group of union, community and faith activists spoke out against the bill.

In a letter to SB 469’s sponsor, state Sen. Don Balfour, Fulton County Sheriff Theodore “Ted"‘Jackson says the bill would turn  law enforcement’s role "into a political one, where we would have to determine what protests do and do not fall under the definition of unlawful picketing under the bill.”

The role of law enforcement should not be to police free speech. But the intent of the bill seems to be just that. By targeting only protests dealing with labor disputes, you are putting police officers in the difficult position of silencing the voices of  Georgians and, in the process setting us up to face potential lawsuits that would ultimately be a paid for by taxpayers.

Jackson also says the bill would, “divert badly needed resources away from protecting Fulton County’s residents.”      

At a press conference this morning, representatives from more than two dozen, civil rights, community, faith, environmental and labor organizations slammed the bill.

Rev. Timothy McDonald III, pastor of Atlanta’s the First Iconium Baptist Church, called bill:

an assault on working class people in America…the epitome of hypocrisy.  It violates our freedom to assemble, our freedom of speech.

Martin Luther King III told reporters that if the law had been enacted during his father Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s era, it would have devastated the civil rights movement.

Georgia State AFL-CIO President Charlie Flemming said SB 469 would be an “unenforceable law” with hidden consequences and would increase the strain on public safety resources that are already stretched thin by budget cuts.