Florida isn’t afraid to pull the trigger, it’s a Second Amendment state. At least one sheriff’s office is behind Desantis. The attorney general posted a video of looters being arrested. Counties are announcing curfews. Looting commonly happens after a natural disaster. Homes are empty or destroyed and there’s human garbage that will come in and take things. It can happen multiple times and at all hours.
DeSantis talks tough
The state will back him up too. He pulled no punches at a press conference. “At the end of the day, we are not going to allow lawlessness to take advantage of this situation. We are a law-and-order state, and this is a law-and-order community, so do not think that you’re going to go take advantage of people who’ve suffered misfortune.”
DeSantis mentioned what people have done to secure their properties, “They boarded up all the businesses, and there are people that wrote on their plywood, ‘you loot, we shoot’”.
Southwest Florida is pretty conservative. Good luck to those who plan on looting tonight ???#hurricaneian #looting #florida pic.twitter.com/xBTs4k9FB7
— Mrgunsngear (@Mrgunsngear) September 30, 2022
Other Florida officials agreed
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno echoed, “We are not going to tolerate — and I mean zero tolerance — when we say anyone that thinks they’re going to thrive on the residents of this county or state when we just took a horrific hit, I can guarantee you that is not going to happen.”
At a later event DeSantis “told Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie that the state could provide support in the event of people bringing boats to try to ‘ransack’ homes on islands that have been isolated from the mainland.” He emphasized, “I can tell you, in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody’s home. I would not want to chance that if I were you, given that we’re a Second Amendment state.”
Florida will not tolerate looters taking advantage of #HurricaneIan to prey on vulnerable Floridians. They will be arrested and I have asked state attorneys to seek the longest pretrial detention possible to keep them locked up so they cannot commit new crimes. https://t.co/ORw0qJ1TbB
— AG Ashley Moody (@AGAshleyMoody) September 30, 2022
Videos backed up DeSantis
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody posted a video on Twitter of somebody being arrested for looting. “Florida will not tolerate looters taking advantage of #HurricaneIan to prey on vulnerable Floridians. They will be arrested and I have asked state attorneys to seek the longest pretrial detention possible to keep them locked up so they cannot commit new crimes.”
One county announced a curfew. “After a massive storm surge struck Naples well before the storm made landfall, Naples became the first city in Southwest Florida to issue a daytime curfew. Collier County issued a countywide curfew running from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice. All nonessential Collier County services, including transit service, remain closed. In Charlotte County, a curfew runs from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m.”
