Politics
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Legalizes Running Over Protestors
A curious part of the governor’s new anti-riot law
It’s been a long time coming. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Combating Public Disorder Act into law, today, a law that was drafted on January 7th, 2021, in the wake of the Capitol riots in Washington D.C as Governor DeSantis denounced the events at the Capitol.
But the birth of the idea began long before that, in the late summer of 2020, as America faced nationwide protests in the wake of the alleged murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. And now, the threat of more protests looms overhead.
After a wave of protests swept the country, and some of those protests turned violent, notably in Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland, DeSantis began speaking out about the need for stiffer penalties for protests that turn violent.
The Governor has carefully walked the tightrope, here, a fine line where he both supports the right to peacefully protest, at least verbally, and stiffens the penalties severely for protestors who engage in violent behavior. Any violence conducted during a protest will now be a 2nd-degree felony under the law.
