{"id":23626,"date":"2022-07-08T16:01:21","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T20:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=23626"},"modified":"2022-07-08T16:01:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T20:01:33","slug":"nikki-fried-florida-gubernatorial-candidate-rallies-in-lakeland-meets-teen-who-was-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/07\/08\/nikki-fried-florida-gubernatorial-candidate-rallies-in-lakeland-meets-teen-who-was-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikki Fried Florida gubernatorial candidate rallies in Lakeland meets Teen who was arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As\u00a0Nikki Fried\u00a0approached\u00a0Lillie Johnson\u00a0in the\u00a0parking lot, both faces, lit up with looks of recognition, though they were meeting for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">3 days ago, Rain stood up for injustice and was wrongfully arrested.<br><br>Today I stood with them. It\u2019s inspiring young leaders like Rain who give us all hope in Florida and America\u2019s future. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CH2TeH0ako\">pic.twitter.com\/CH2TeH0ako<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NikkiFried\/status\/1545166448452161537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 7, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fried, Florida\u2019s commissioner of agriculture, threw her arms around the 13-year-old, and they shared a long and affectionate embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou are awesome,\u201d Fried later said, as she stood and spoke with Lillie and the teen\u2019s mother, Lauren Johnson, at Southgate Shopping Center. She added, \u201cYou OK?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lillie, who also uses the name Rain, seemed to be doing fine. Fried, a&nbsp;Democratic candidate for governor,&nbsp;had figuratively embraced the teenager as a symbol of the struggle for abortion rights after seeing a video of Lillie being walked to a police car at a demonstration Monday in Munn Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"365\" height=\"385\" data-id=\"23627\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f2.png 365w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f2-284x300.png 284w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"621\" height=\"316\" data-id=\"23629\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f3.png 621w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f3-300x153.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"621\" height=\"344\" data-id=\"23630\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f5.png 621w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/f5-300x166.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"440\" height=\"305\" data-id=\"23628\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/fried.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/fried.png 440w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/fried-300x208.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fried came to Lakeland on Thursday to meet Lillie and to join the Johnsons and others in a rally for abortion rights. Asked why she considers Lillie an inspiration, Fried answered readily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBecause she&#8217;s a fighter, and during a time when democracy is on the line, and the governor (Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis) has put together an anti-protest piece of legislation a year and a half ago that was supposed to discourage people from standing up for their rights, and the fact that she was willing to be out here, and to protest, and then come back out and say, \u2018I&#8217;m not going to be stopped; I\u2019m supporting what I believe in,\u2019\u201d Fried said. \u201cThat is an inspiration and certainly is motivation for me to be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Fried gave media interviews, Lillie \u2014&nbsp;who identifies as non-binary \u2014&nbsp;stood nearby wearing cutoff denim overalls with rainbow suspenders, the word \u201cQueen\u201d stitched on the chest.&nbsp;Lillie also wore an LGBT pride flag as a cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland Police officers cited Lillie during the July 4 rally for using a bullhorn, a violation of a city ordinance. Lauren Johnson declined to discuss the legal situation, on the advice of the family\u2019s lawyer. David Haas, an Orlando attorney, is representing Lillie at no charge after seeing Fried\u2019s tweet about the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Fried chatted with Lillie and Lauren Johnson, the teen said, \u201cI\u2019m itching to get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The youngster soon joined the assembly on the sidewalk along South Florida Avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As\u00a0Nikki Fried\u00a0approached\u00a0Lillie Johnson\u00a0in the\u00a0parking lot, both faces, lit up with looks of recognition, though they were meeting for the first time. 3 days ago, Rain stood up for injustice and&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[3106],"class_list":["post-23626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-nikki-fried-florida-gubernatorial-candidate-rallies-in-lakeland-meets-teen-who-was-arrested"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}