Thread by @igorvolsky

1/ Florida's @GovRonDeSantis has drafted legislation that would, in effect, empower armed white vigilantes to kill black people. 

DeSantis wants to *expand* FL's Stand Your Ground law to allow armed citizens to shoot anyone engaged in “criminal mischief” that disrupts business

@GovRonDeSantis 2/ @GovRonDeSantis' proposal would even offer immunity to drivers *who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic* miamiherald.com/news/politics-…

@GovRonDeSantis 3/ Stand Your Ground laws -in place in 27 states- have *consistently been invoked as a defense for killing Black people.*

3 best known examples: 

Trayvon Martin
Jordan Davis
Ahmaud Arbery

~30 ppl die EACH MONTH in a SYG-related incident in states with these laws enacted

@GovRonDeSantis 4/ A study found monthly gun homicide rate ⬆️ 31% in FL & overall homicide rate ⬆️ 24% in the 10yrs after SYG

SYG is also not evenly enforced: in incidents where the victim was not white, the “stand your ground” defense was more likely to succeed

americanprogress.org/issues/guns-cr…

@GovRonDeSantis 5/ Under DeSantis' plan, Floridians involved in “violent or disorderly assemblies” would face stiffer penalties.

Blocking traffic during a protest would be a third-degree felony.

FL would withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets

@GovRonDeSantis 6/ “violent or disorderly assemblies” = gatherings of 7+ ppl that “substantially obstruct” govt functions, create “immediate danger of damage to property or injury to persons,” & deprive any person of “legal right or disturbs any person in the enjoyment of a legal right”

@GovRonDeSantis 7/ The language prohibits anyone charged with crimes related to such assemblies from being released on bail or bond.

@GovRonDeSantis 8/ Former homicide prosecutor:

"You could have people who are peacefully assembling who go in and out of a store & a store owner or even a passerby could get nervous & misinterpret something and think they have the right to use unnecessary physical force — or even deadly force"

@GovRonDeSantis 9/ “It dangerously gives armed private citizens power to kill as they subjectively determine what constitutes ‘criminal mischief’ that interferes with a business... Someone graffitiing ‘Black Lives Matter’ on a wall? Urinating behind a dumpster? Blocking an entrance?”