The election is over, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expanding the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law to allow citizens to shoot looters and rioters.
DeSantis has drafted “anti-mob” legislation that expands Florida’s Stand Your Ground law to allow armed citizens to gun down people causing property destruction and “criminal mischief” that disrupts a business, according to The Miami Herald.
Lawyers expressed alarm about the proposed legislation which they called unjustified vigilantism.
“It allows for vigilantes to justify their actions,” said former Miami-Dade County prosecutor Denise Georges who handled Stand Your Ground cases.
Georges said citizens taking the law into their own hands and putting a slug in a looter’s back is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“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.”
Under the proposed law, prosecutors must prove by “clear and convincing” evidence that someone was not acting in self-defense” when they shoot a rioter or looter.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said Republican lawmakers like DeSantis are eager to be the next Donald Trump.
“It’s clear that the Trump beauty pageant is still going on with governors and senators, who all want to be the next Trump. And the governor is clearly a very good contestant.”
