Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is cracking down on a "lawlessness" problem that doesn't exist in the Sunshine State.
The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that the governor has drafted "anti-mob" legislation that would expand Florida's Stand Your Ground law to allow armed citizens to shoot looters or anyone engaged in "criminal mischief."
This gives vigilantes, hotheads and the simply mistaken too much leeway to open fire.
Critics say this draft bill is in response to police-brutality protests that erupted in Florida, and the United States, this summer.
But the fact is that Florida does not need to expand this already-controversial and lethal law.
Demonstrations in South Florida were nothing compared to those in other major cities, though Republican leaders tried mightily to link them. Looters did hit Bayside Marketplace in downtown Miami one night. They should be arrested and tried.
THE RIGHT TO SHOOT
However, there certainly was no widespread lawlessness in South Florida or the rest of the state, for that matter. But the governor continues to push the spin that cities will be overtaken by hoodlums who want to defund the police. The governor's legislation is a shot across the bow of Black Lives Matter and other social justice demonstrators.
He is telling them: Anyone has the right to shoot you, even kill you, if they think you're misbehaving. DeSantis is gunning to give anyone the right to shoot, whether they are personally threatened or not. Is that really the rep he wants for Florida?
We are not by any means defending looters, but we're talking property crimes here, not threats to life and limb. We sense the governor has gone into campaign mode with this hard-line and, possibly, deadly tactic. State legislators should reject it outright, rather than enable the governor.
The draft legislation expands DeSantis' pledge in September to crack down on "violent and disorderly assemblies" following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
A BAD IDEA
DeSantis' proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in "violent or disorderly assemblies," make it a third-degree felony to block traffic during a protest, offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic, and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets, the Herald reported.
Former Miami-Dade prosecutor Aubrey Webb told the Herald the proposed expansion of the state's Stand Your Ground law is a bad idea.
"It dangerously gives armed private citizens power to kill as they subjectively determine what constitutes 'criminal mischief' that interferes with a business," Webb said. "Someone graffitiing 'Black Lives Matter' on a wall? Urinating behind a dumpster? Blocking an entrance?" Exactly.
For now, the governor's office has sent the draft bill to the House Judiciary Committee. As of Tuesday, the proposal remained a draft. No bills have been filed in either the House or Senate. The Legislature convenes March 2. Committees begin meeting in January.
This is one more disturbing instance in which the governor is content to play with Floridians' lives. His miserable management of the coronavirus pandemic, it seems, wasn't a fluke. His push to let killers off the hook needs to be shot down, immediately.
