Community advocate worries anti-riot law could bring division if not enforced equallyProtesters fighting for Cuba in Fort Myers blocked I-75 on Tuesday night.
In Miami, they blocked the Palmetto Expressway.
Both are illegal under Florida’s new anti-riot law but law enforcement stood down. One important section of the anti-riot law grants immunity to people who drive through protesters blocking a road.
Only two people were arrested in Tampa for participating in the protests.
Retired police officer David Thomas, a professor of forensic studies at FGCU and criminal justice expert, said it all comes down to discretion and orders from higher up.
“Every officer has discretion and any arrest he or she makes,” Thomas said. “What you’re going to find out throughout the state is that each chief or sheriff is going to mandate something different from their people.”
In Southwest Florida, the Fort Myers Police Department released a Facebook post reminding people that blocking highways is against the law.
Under the anti-riot law blocking traffic could warrant as little as a citation or as much as a second-degree felony.
Gov. Ron DeSantis asked the legislature to pass the anti-riot bill after protests broke out due to the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
But now, DeSantis doesn’t think the law should apply to protesters blocking streets for change in Cuba.
“That is fundamentally different than what we saw last summer,” DeSantis said during a recent round table on the crisis in Cuba............
https://www.winknews.com/2021/07/14/community-advocate-worries-anti-riot-law-could-bring-division-if-not-enforced-equally/
