Florida Gov Introduces Legislation To Defend Police

Image by Gage Skidmore

President Trump made a bold move as he designated his White House Director of the Office of Management to review and set out new guidelines for federal funding. In particular, Trump wants to withhold federal funding for anarchist cities that have misused taxpayer dollars while failing to keep their citizens safe. Monday, the Department of Justice deemed Seattle, Portland, and New York City as "anarchist jurisdictions."

But state governors are also moving to protect the police and hold local governments accountable for their failure to keep the peace. Governor DeSantis from Florida introduced what he calls "bold legislation" that will lead to serious repercussions for local governments that try to defund law enforcements from the pressure of activists.

In a tweet, DeSantis said, "Today I announced bold legislation that creates new criminal offenses and increases penalties for those who target law enforcement and participate in violent or disorderly assemblies. We will always stand with our men and women in uniform who keep our communities safe."

The legislation poses serious legal ramifications for those who riot. While cities like New York have been criticized by the president for allowing those caught rioting to get off without any legal charges, DeSantis is sending a clear message to those who live in Florida that that type of behavior will not be tolerated. For example, a third degree felony will now be charged when seven or more people are involved in an "assembly" that leads to property damage or an injury to another person. A second degree felony will be charged to any person who damages public property, and a first degree misdemeanor will be charged to a person involved in a "violent assembly" who harasses or intimidates a person "at a public accomodation" which includes a restaurant.

Furthermore, the legislation introduces jail time for any person who strikes a law enforcement officer "during a violent or disorderly assembly." The jail time is six months.

DeSantis also made a serious move to protect the police. The legislation will prohibit any state grants to local governments that move to defund the police in any measure. It also protects the local government from lawsuits from individuals who have participated in an "unlawful assembly." And if you participate in an "unlawful assembly," the individual will be stripped from an employment by state or local unemployment or government benefits. And finally, the legislation ensures that no bond or bail will be allowed for a crime related to "violent or disorderly conduct," while participating in an unlawful assembly.

The Republican governor's legislation is sending a clear message to all Floridians that the type of behavior tolerated in New York, Seattle, and Portland will not happen in his state. As Americans across the country worry about their safety in their neighborhoods, DeSantis is securing his state and laying out strict guidelines for what will happen if individuals try disrupt the peace through the means of a "peaceful protest."

Why this matters: DeSantis made a mark on the direction of Florida when he won his election, and the same state is one of the most crucial battlegrounds for 2020. Biden is spending big in Florida for November, but the governor, who is aligned with Trump, will play a crucial role in who his citizens vote for. Through his gesture of standing with law enforcement, he is standing with Trump's law and order message, and it will have an impact on all those who live in his state.

DOJ Designates NYC, Portland, And Seattle As "Anarchist Jurisdictions"

Image by Tedder

Liberal mayors let lawlessness prevail during the Spring and Summer following the death of George Floyd. Small businesses were destroyed, as riots masked as peaceful protests took over the streets. But while these mayors continued to move forward to defund the police, and told the police to stand down from arrests, there may be serious consequences for their cities.

The Department of Justice sent a clear message to these mayors on Monday: Clean your city up, or lose federal funding. These cities rely heavily on taxpayer dollars, and cutting their handouts will have a serious effect on their government programs. In a statement from Attorney General Bill Barr, he wrote, "When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest."

Barr said the DOJ cannot let taxpayer dollars be "wasted" when the citizens' safety "hangs in the balance."

And with the new label, he hopes these cities will change their direction. Barr said, "It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens."

New York City receives around $7 billion per year in federal aid. But the recent statistics in New York City paint a grave picture for its future. In July, shootings increased by 177% from the previous year, and in August they increased by 165%. Murders are also on the rise, jumping 59% in July and 50% in August.

In President Trump's September 2nd memo, he calls out Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo by name for their failure to enact the necessary law enforcement to keep the city safe. Trump wrote, "In light of this unconscionable rise in violence, I have offered to provide Federal law enforcement assistance, but both Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo have rejected my offer." Trump called on White House budget director Russ Vought to review and implement guidance to federal agencies on stopping funds to these cities.

But with the threat of losing funding, Mayor de Blasio seems unfazed. He called his new cities designation as a "jurisdiction of anarchy," "just another one of President Trump's games."

Congressman Introduces Bill To Stop Rioters From Receiving Unemployment Benefits

As Portland protestors have taken to the streets for more than three months, and as the nation watches hundreds continuously gather around the country for peaceful protests that many times turn violent, Americans are wondering: do these people have jobs?

And Republican Congressman Jim Banks clearly is thinking the same thing. As the nation has been shutdown since March, the CARES Acts provided a serious cushion in unemployment benefits, among other programs that made sure people could stay on their feet. But while protesting is encouraged in the United States, these protests have often led to the destruction of small businesses, looting, and thousands of dollars in damage. As Mnuchin and Meadows talk with Congressional leaders about a second COVID relief bill, Banks wants to make sure that those who are comings crimes associated with the protests cannot receive federal assistance. 

The Successful Peaceful Protest Act would block all assistance from the CARES Act to those arrested for rioting, looting, or other violent acts. In a press release, Banks said, “Antifa thugs are descending on suffering communities, disrupting peaceful protests and leaving violence, looting and vandalism in their wake. They turned Milwaukee, Seattle and Portland into warzones, and now they’re moving the chaos to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Who knows which community is next?”

Banks also connected the shutdown benefits with the rioting, stating, “Due to enhanced federal benefits, taxpayers are giving wages to jobless rioters that are destroying our communities. We need to cut them off from their funding and make them feel the full financial consequences of their actions.”

The bill also will require individuals convicted of a federal offense to pay restitutions to the appropriate federal law enforcement agency. 

A Tale Of Two Candidates

Image by VOA

There was a defining moment after the RNC speech by President Trump. It was not the words he said, but the protests that took place in DC outside the White House afterwards. Senator Rand Paul said he was confronted by angry protestors, and even Meghan McCain, a vocal anti-Trump Republican, said that could have been the defining moment that won President Trump the election. 

In Trump’s speech, he spoke about two different futures: one of law and order versus one of anarchy. And in New Hampshire today, President Trump was quick to remind his supporters just what happened that night, calling the protestors “thugs,” and that the DC Mayor Muriel Bowser gave the police “bad instructions.”

President Trump said, "The mayor should be ashamed for that kind of display of incompetence. It's happening all over when you have Democrat-run cities."

Trump said that the police “took tremendous abuse,” and credited the four officers for bringing Senator Rand Paul to his hotel safely. Trump, who said Biden is a “puppet of the left,” doesn’t even know what he stands for. After his speech, the protestors did exactly what Trump was talking about. Trump said, “Todays’ Democratic Party is filled with hate. Just look at Biden supporters screaming at people at the street with unhinged, manic rage.”

Protestors Turn On Portland Mayor

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Portland’s Mayor, Ted Wheeler, joined the protestors in his city to show solidarity against the federal law enforcement officers who were deployed to protect federal buildings from destruction.  Wheeler has been vocal in his opposition to Trumps decision to send in officers.  Trump, however, has defended this decision stating that if local and state leaders cannot bring peace to their cities, he will.  Major American cities like Seattle, Chicago, and New York are having similar situations, splitting America in two of how far the federal government should go to bring back law and order.

Mayor Wheeler did not receive the support he thought, and instead, received boos and calls for him to resign.  “Fuck Ted Wheeler,” was a chant used along with the usual "Black Lives Matter” chants.  When Wheeler tried to answer questions from protestors, he reportedly had a protestor drop police munitions used against the crowd at his feet.  

As Wheeler joined the crowd, received calls to resign, he was also tear gassed by federal agents protecting a federal court house.  Portland City Council passed a resolution that prohibits Portland’s police form interacting with federal law enforcement officers.  This means they cannot receive assistance from the federal officers, and also cannot share information with one another.  

Why this matters: While Mayor Wheeler said he knows he has limited powers to kick out federal officers from his city, he tried to join the protestors.  Instead, he was cajoled by the protestors, who want him to resign.  This image shows the split in America.  Wheeler is trying to take the side of the protestors, but they want him out.  He is stuck in no man’s land, as he rejects federal help, but is also not able to calm the mob.  Mayor’s across the country are facing a similar reality, which makes many Americans wonder when this unrest will end.  The protestors have a list of demands, which Wheeler is trying to meet, but falls short.  In response, the protests have become increasingly more violent.  Now the federal officers have added another layer, causing a split in response to state versus federal rights, and what should be done to protect the citizens while allowing protestors to express their first amendment rights.  His opponent in November, Sarah Iannarone, has attended the protests regularly.

Ilhan Omar Calls For the Dismantlement of American System

Image by Lorie Shaull

While politicians, such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have called for the dismantlement of the police, her colleague in the House wants to go much further.  Representative Ilhan Omar laid out a much different America while at a press conference in Minnesota on Tuesday, as she piggy backed off calls for police reform to something much more drastic.

At the conference, Omar said, “We can’t stop at criminal justice reform or policing reform.  We are not merely fighting to tear down the systems of oppression in the criminal justice system.  We are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, and in the air we breathe.”  Part of her plan includes providing “homes for all,” because house ownership is more likely for a White family than for a Black family.  She continued, “As long as our economy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality.” Omar advocated for the passage of the Green New Deal, stating that environmental racism is a real thing.  She was supported in her statements by her fellow “squad” member, Representative Rashida Tlaib, who wrote on Twitter, “My sister @IlhanMN said it best: We must begin with dismantling the whole system of oppression wherever we find it.  Pass it on.”

What has been viewed as a call for communism in the United States has sparked fierce backlash from politicians.  Senator Blackburn, in particular, called on Omar to resign.  In a tweet, she said, “Ilhan Omar took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution, not shred it.  Omar and her Marxist comrades are a threat to our Democracy.  Omar should resign.”

Ilhan Omar has come under scrutiny this week for paying her husband’s consulting firm more than $878,000 since 2018.  Omar’s Congressional campaign is her husband’s biggest client.  While the Congressman wants to dismantle the system, ironically, she is directly benefiting from it economically. 

Trump Signs Executive Order On Policing

Trump Signs Executive Order On Policing
Cops or Robocops?
photo by GorillaWarfare

Today President Donald Trump, acknowledging failed Leftist policies and dishonest rhetoric have aggravated a racial divide in the United States, signed an executive order to reform police practices while maintaining “law and order.”

The EO is set against a backdrop of widespread protests/riots which were organized and executed by Antifa and criminal elements in the Black Lives Matter organization. The catalyst for the terrible mob violence was the apparent murder of Afro-American George Floyd at the knee of Minneapolis dirty cop Derek Chauvin. The staged act of racial injustice and the subsequent rioting, looting and violence organized by subversive organizations working in a concerted operation with big city Mayors and their “Progressive” Police Chiefs are designed to hurt Trump’s Nov. 3 reelection chances.

President Trump expressed sympathy to the families who fall victim to police violence and promised to fight for justice in the name of George Floyd and others. He pointed out that a key element of administering that justice is a speedy return to “law and order” including the punishment of thieves and opportunists who vandalize in the name of the dead.

“Americans want law and order, they demand law and order,” Trump said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. To that end the EO encourages police departments to adhere to highest standards for use of force and adding social workers to response calls to non-violent cases focused on drug addiction and homelessness. The President also seeks to establish better information sharing between local police departments to expose the poor records of police who attempt to get hired in a new city or town.

The order bans chokeholds unless the officer’s life is threatened by a violent and derange perpetrator. More money from the federal government will go to police departments that get certified by outside independent organizations approved by the DOJ. This will provide the federal authorities an unbiased accounting of systemic disjunction inside the opaque world of urban police departments. There will be a significant push to use weapons like stun guns and more modern tools to disable and constrain a criminal.

Trump strongly opposes the popular chant to “defund the police” and he pointed out that his executive order is the only action taken by the federal government to solve what is essentially a local problem mismanaged by liberal Democrats who have run the cities for the past 50 years. The House and Senate are currently working on separate Bills which will probably never reconcile and make it to the President’s desk so this EO might be the best America’s rioting protesters get.

Trump made the point that previous administrations and Congressional classes had failed miserably.to act on the problem and the big city leadership, including Mayors, City Council, Police Chiefs and Judiciary, had made the problem worse. Democrat leaders, civil rights groups and the #FakeNews claim the executive order is “inadequate” but it is more than anything they’ve done over the past 30 years.

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