A 13-year-old child draped in a bisexual flag was arrested at a pro-choice protest in Florida on July 4 after using a bullhorn.
At the protest in Lakeland, a city east of Tampa, police charged Lillie “Rain” Johnson with a second-degree misdemeanor for a noise ordinance violation, which is supposedly related to a recently enacted noise ordinance law in Florida, according to NBC Miami. But according to a “storytime” video posted by Johnson’s mother, Lauren Johnson, the police decided that they were going to “make her their target and arrest her.”
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“She immediately started screaming that she was 13,” Johnson said in the video. “I was very close behind her, it was very evident that I was her parent. […] Instead, they chose to terrorize a 13-year-old.”
At the time of the arrest, Johnson was attending a rally protesting the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that led to Florida’s anti-abortion “trigger laws” to take effect. Florida’s law barred people seeking abortions from having them after 15 weeks of prengancy. Though a judge temporarily halted the law, a court order has put the ban back into effect as of Tuesday.
In a separate TikTok documenting the arrest itself, two policemen are shown grabbing the child by their arms and escorting them to a police car, with one officer also carrying a seemingly confiscated rainbow flag under his arm. Johnson can be heard yelling “Just don’t resist, it’s okay, I got you, mom’s right behind you,” as she follows the officers. Others in the crowd asked the officers why Rain was being arrested and what their names were; the police did not respond.
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In her storytime video, Johnson shared that she was not allowed to be with her child while they were being held at the police station for over an hour. According to NBC Miami, Rain was questioned without their mother present, which Johnson said is a violation of her rights. Eventually, Rain was released with a summons to appear in court on August 9.
Despite this, Johnson shared that as soon as Rain was freed, they were already planning on attending another protest “with a new bullhorn,” as their bullhorn was confiscated by the police.
