The language protecting drivers follows a wave of right-wing vehicle-ramming attacks against peaceful protesters this summer.
“It allows for vigilantes to justify their actions,” Denise Georges, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor who had handled “stand your ground” cases, told the Herald. “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.”
The legislation is in response to police-brutality protests that surged across Florida and the United States this summer, after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It also mirrors President Donald Trump’s attitudes toward the largely peaceful demonstrations.
In August, the president defended Kyle Rittenhouse — the 17-year-old Trump supporter who fatally shot two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin — after unrest erupted over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse was an armed vigilante from out of state who came to the Black Lives Matter protest with an assault-style rifle to “protect” property.