Florida’s DeSantis Seeks Tough Penalties for Protesters

(Bloomberg) -- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and local lawmakers unveiled legislation Monday that targets participants in “violent or disorderly” protests, a move that may help rally law-and-order Republicans ahead of the presidential election in November.

Speaking Monday in Winter Haven, DeSantis called the plan the “boldest and most comprehensive” bill on violent protests. He said it would be a focal point of the Florida legislative session next year.

He said the proposal -- called the Combatting Violence, Disorder and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act -- would make disorderly assemblies a third-degree felony. Incapacitating a roadway would also be a felony.

Organizers could be held accountable for demonstrations that turn violent. Yet drivers would be off the hook if they hurt or kill a protester with their vehicles while fleeing from what the legislative outline described as a “mob.”

Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said the proposal was an attack on protesters calling for a stop to police brutality.

DeSantis “has chosen to respond to this moment by proposing an undemocratic and unconstitutional bill that would chill free speech and instill fear into people who have been fighting against injustice,” Kubic said in a statement.

Kubic said a plan to strip protesters of the right to bail until their first court appearance would eliminate “fundamental due process.”

DeSantis is a close ally of President Donald Trump, who has focused on violence and looting as a way of minimizing the many peaceful protests that swept across America this year against racial inequity and police violence toward Black people. Florida’s protests haven’t reached the size of many others around the country.

But Florida, America’s largest swing state, will be critical to winning the White House on Nov. 3.

In his remarks Monday, DeSantis characterized protesters arrested in Portland, Oregon, as “scraggly-looking Antifa types” and called people videotaped chanting at restaurant patrons as “crazed lunatics.” He said anyone arrested for hurting a police officer, including throwing an object such as a brick, would face a mandatory minimum sentence of six months.

“I look at what goes on in Portland, and they’ll have people, they’ll arrest them,” DeSantis said. “They get their mug shot taken, and then they get released.”

He also said those who participate in violent or disorderly assemblies could lose access to state unemployment benefits. The measure would also prohibit state grants to local governments that make deep cuts to law enforcement budgets.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.