FL gov drafts anti-mob law to allow self-defense against mobs

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has drafted “anti-mob” legislation to expand the state’s Stand Your Ground.

DeSantis’ newest legislation comes in response to months of protesting that frequently lead to rioting this summer in Florida and across the U.S.

The legislation is an attempt to prevent “violent and disorderly assemblies” by permitting violence against anyone involved in the “interruption or impairment” of a business, reportedly described in the draft as being a burglary within 500 feet of “violent or disorderly assembly,” according to reporting by the Miami Herald Tuesday.

In other words, people can defend themselves and their businesses.

OBJECTIONS RAISED

“It allows for vigilantes to justify their actions,” a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor, Denise Georges, who has worked with Stand Your Ground cases, told the Miami publication. “It also allows for death to be the punishment for a property crime — and that is cruel and unusual punishment. We cannot live in a lawless society where taking a life is done so casually and recklessly.”

Her comment is a point of contention. If violent rioters can hurt people and destroy their businesses, that is lawless. If they’re destroying one’s property, there is usually a threat to the person as well. Violent looters and rioters, who are free to loot and burn, do hurt, and kill people.

Is self-defense now vigilantism? Vigilantism is law enforcement undertaken without legal authority by a self-appointed group of people. Self-Defense is the defense of one’s person or interests, especially through physical force, which is permitted in certain cases as an answer to a charge of violent crime.

Definitions are important.

The draft legislation also includes measures that would make protesting, which disrupts the public by blocking traffic, a third-degree felony.

The law would also reportedly grant immunity to drivers who unintentionally killed or injured protesters who were blocking traffic.

Additionally, the law would allow the state to withhold funds from local governments that cut police budgets.

Sad that he has to pass a law to allow this.

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