Barrington Salmon, Florida Phoenix

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Aug. 28, 1963

As galling as it has been to watch a Jacksonville sheriff’s deputy break a car window and punch a non-combative man in the face, the feeble justification from the sheriff and a determination from the state attorney that cops did nothing wrong is just as infuriating.

The Feb. 19 videotape of an encounter with William McNeil, Jr. and a posse of rogue officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and their brutal response, is a searing reminder of everything wrong with policing in America.

These officers appear to have forgotten that they are supposed to “protect and serve” the communities they police. Rather than being respectful in their dealings with members of the community, too many times, those in uniform operate as if the people work for them. Because of their mindset, they operate as an occupying force that has to subdue a hostile populace.

In a recent press conference held to react to a videotape that captured the police assault of McNeil, Sheriff T.K. Waters was defensive. He refused to condemn his officers’ egregious behavior and, in a move right out of the victim-blaming handbook, had the temerity to question why McNeil released the video five months after the incident and concluded that he intended to inflame the public.

Waters was probably embarrassed because his men look like neanderthals who escalated a situation for no reason other than to show who was in control. I’m glad that the confrontation did not end with McNeil shot, injured, maybe dying on the street, because a cop “feared for his life.” This happens much more frequently than we are willing to admit.

Troubled relationship

The relationship between African Americans and law enforcement has always been fraught with suspicion and hostility. America has never come to terms with policing’s slave origins and racially troubling past, their earlier role in controlling the movements of enslaved African Americans and the current role of monitoring the movements and activities of Black people, the poor, and working class.

The American Bar Association discusses the deep ties between chattel slavery and American law enforcement.

“American policing has deep historical roots in the system of slavery, with early forms of law enforcement in the Southern states, known as slave patrols, established to control enslaved populations and maintain the institution of slavery. These patrols were authorized to enforce slave codes, apprehend escaped slaves, and suppress potential revolts, using methods of terror and violence.

Waters claims there’s more to the story than the cellphone video that went viral. The sheriff warned against “a rush to judgment,” but McNeil’s lawyers, famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and Harry Daniels, said the video captures a clear and compelling case of police brutality.

“He didn’t do anything but suffered tremendously. He suffered very significant injuries, including memory loss and closed head injuries,” said Daniels. “We’re seeking justice and legal redress. We’re planning on filing a lawsuit and doing everything to achieve justice in this matter.

“The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is unhinged. We’re pursuing all actions to achieve accountability and responsibility for what these rogue cops did.”

Daniels told News4JAX that McNeil’s injuries included a chipped tooth and concussion, adding that he needed stitches.

“This is one of these days that we have echoed over and over that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is out of control. This is not a one-off. This is a systematic continuum of assault on folk in Jacksonville,”

‘Things we need to look at’

The police report of the traffic stop said McNeil was ‘verbally combative’ and reached towards a knife that was in the vehicle. Waters said McNeil was charged with resisting an officer without violence, driving on a suspended license, and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana.

When asked by a reporter about the first punch that a cop standing by the door threw, Waters said it wasn’t a sucker punch.

“I’m not excusing it administratively. There are things we need to look at. The context of this video should tell you everything you need to know. It is what it is,” Waters said during the press conference. The video “provides a lot of information to the public. You’re not allowed to resist a police officer when he’s doing his lawful duties. It’s necessary to get you under control and take you into custody.”

According to ABC News, “in the video, officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office say they pulled McNeil over because the vehicle’s headlights were not on. McNeil questioned the traffic stop because it wasn’t raining and it was still light outside.

“An officer, who cannot be seen in the video, is heard saying, ‘It doesn’t matter, you’re still required to have headlights on.’ An officer asks McNeil to step out of the car, and when McNeil asks for the officer’s supervisor, another officer punches the driver’s window until it shatters. The officer then punches McNeil in the head before unlocking the vehicle door, unbuckling his seatbelt and forcibly removing him from the driver’s seat.

“Once out of the vehicle, multiple officers then gather around McNeil. One officer is seen grabbing McNeil’s head and punching him in the chin before forcing him to the ground.

Unenviable task

Daniels wrote in a news release on Sunday that this incident is “only the latest in a long line of excessive force incidents involving the JSO.”

“In September 2023, the department was the focus of a national outcry after a video of JSO officers violently beating 24-year-old Le’Keian Woods while he was unarmed went viral,” Daniels explained. “In 2019, JSO officers faced a federal lawsuit for killing 22-year-old Jamee Johnson after pulling him over for an alleged seat belt violation,” the attorney said.

It’s clear that if there were no video, Sheriff Waters would have leaned on the fact that an internal “investigation” cleared the officers involved.

Waters explained that he was “aware of a video circulating on social media showing a traffic stop represented to be from February 19, 2025. … We have launched an internal investigation into it and the circumstances surrounding this incident. We hold our officers to the highest standards and are committed to thoroughly determining exactly what occurred.”

Yeah, right.

Waters, police brass, and civic leaders have the unenviable task of rebuilding public trust. But we shouldn’t hold our breaths because we’ve seen this before. There is a critical need for oversight by the public and civil society to investigate and prosecute cases of racial profiling and widespread abuses of power including use of excessive force, brutalizing protesters, bystanders, and others exercising their constitutional right to free speech and dissent.

But that is not happening.

Clear and present danger

Law enforcement in the 18,000 police departments and across history in America has proven to be a clear and present danger to African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and other non-white people. Given DeSantis’ his record, and past comments, Floridians shouldn’t be holding their breath for him to use the considerable power entrusted in him to attempt to level the playing field and hold law enforcement more accountable.

Asking law enforcement to police itself is like inviting wolves into the henhouse. It never ends well.

I interviewed retired Seattle Washington Police Chief Norm Stamper, a fierce critic of modern American policing, and he was clear about what’s needed.

Stamper argues that what the United States needs is to “reimagine a public safety system that has armed professionals working with citizens.”

“There is a way of imagining and constructing a system with a commitment to genuine partners — the community and elected officials,” he said. “We need to see it as a 50-50 partnership. Others who have a stake would help create a new system with [police] unions ceding and sharing power.”

That reform includes bringing an end to racial profiling, excessive force, police brutality, corruption, and other law enforcement problems.

The epidemic of police violence in this country is not an issue of “bad apples.” Modern policing is rotten at its core. This must change now. Real change will come when we make meaningful changes to how police are funded.

Stamper, author of two books on good policing, has been a persistent and vocal critic of existing police tactics and the way departments interact with Black communities. “The entire criminal justice system and policing is broken,” he said.

‘Tainted and toxic’

Stamper describes America’s police departments as “tainted and toxic,” institution, saying the way officers act is a function not just of the culture, but also the power they wield, which makes them feel as if they can do what they want with no consequences. It is that attitude — and the deadly consequences particularly for African Americans — that has so angered protesters.

“It’s an arrogance that afflicts too many officers,” he said. “It causes them to believe that they’re above the law. What we’re facing from institutions in Seattle, San Diego, the NYPD, is an undercurrent of racism and abusive practices that lead to excessive force, lethal force, and sexual predation.”

Stamper said resistance from police unions and rank-and-file officers has hampered the radical restructuring of public safety.

“The public safety mechanism must be reliable, effective, and aligned constitutionally. I think that we must have the capacity to fight violent crimes, but we have to hold individuals accountable,” he said.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” – William Shakespeare

While the Occupant of the White House has wreaked havoc on the lives and fortunes of immigrant families in Los Angeles, New York, and other sanctuary cities, his MAGA partner in Florida has been working just as diligently to wage war on undocumented immigrants and foreign-born, brown-skinned U.S. citizens.

The DeSantis administration made it unlawful for anyone to transport undocumented immigrants, characterizing that act as human smuggling. Senate Bill 1718 also invalidated drivers licenses issued by other states to undocumented immigrants; orders that hospitals and clinics that accept Medicaid question patients about their immigration status and report these data (without personally identifiable information) to the state; and the law now requires undocumented individuals taken into custody by a law enforcement agency to submit a DNA sample when he or she is booked into a jail, correctional, or juvenile facility.

(The U.S.Supreme Court has for now upheld an injunction against the law pending a legal challenge.)

DeSantis announced in February that the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Florida State Guard had entered into agreements to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement round up migrants.

The latest piece of the anti-immigration dragnet occurred on Tuesday, July 1, when DeSantis officially opened a migrant detention center at little-used airport, deep in the Everglades, slated to house as many as 5,000 migrants awaiting deportation, DeSantis and Trump administration officials told CNN.

Meanwhile, the MAGA Republican Project 2025 blueprint in Florida and nationally is forcing people to choose between paying rent and buying medicines; between purchasing groceries and paying back their student loans. All these leaders are doing, per the authoritarian playbook, is stoking fear among Floridians and Americans about a fake enemy while pursuing health, environmental, and other policies that make people weaker and easier to dominate and oppress.

When President Donald Trump visited the detention center, he gave DeSantis the pat on the head the governor so deeply craves.

Consternation

Establishment of this concentration camp has caused consternation among critics including environmental activists, civil and human rights advocates, immigration supporters, and members of the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit before Florida officials opened the facility.

“This site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species,” Friends of the Everglades executive director Eve Samples said in a news release. “This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.”

The lawsuit names several federal and state agencies as defendants, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The two groups claim in the lawsuit that the division holds no independent authority to construct and manage a correctional facility and that attempting to do so exceeds the scope of authority granted by Florida law.

They also contend “the installation of housing units, construction of sanitation and food services system, industrial high-intensity lighting infrastructure, diesel power generators, substantial fill material altering the natural terrain, and provision of transportation logistics (including apparent planned use of the runway to receive and deport detainees) poses clear environmental impacts” to listed species, wetlands, and surface waters.

Melissa Abdo, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association Sun Coast, outlined the danger to the fragile wetlands:

“Building a bare-bones tented detention center on hot tarmac in the middle of the Everglades and exposing imprisoned immigrants to the elements is a cruel and absurd proposal,” she said. “The Everglades’ intense heat, humidity, and storms can be hazardous without proper precautions. This facility’s remote, harsh nature could leave people in very real danger, especially as Florida’s heat index skyrockets and hurricane season escalates.

“Development of this scale at this location would require massive changes to an ecologically delicate landscape, including running huge generators, trucking in massive amounts of food and water and trucking out waste. Endangered wildlife, iconic national parks, and Florida’s fresh drinking water supply would be at risk from this ill-conceived plan. Communities and villages that live in the area, as well as the people detained and working at this facility, could all be at serious risk if the need arose to quickly evacuate from a hurricane, using only a single two-lane highway that’s currently under construction.”

Grotesque acts of cruelty

DeSantis, Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and immigration arch-villain Steven Miller are positively gleeful as they orchestrate these grotesque acts of cruelty.

Just in case you’re unaware of the shamelessness we’re dealing with, consider that the Republican Party of Florida is selling “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise, hats, T-shirts, and other gear.

The White House is unconcerned about the dehumanization of human beings, the optics, or the fact that fewer than 10% of those who have been kidnapped by ICE have committed serious crimes. They love the “cartoonish imagery of a draconian outpost in a wilderness patrolled by razor-toothed reptiles and venomous snakes.”

“The only way out is a one-way flight. It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “When you have illegal murderers and rapists and heinous criminals in a detention facility surrounded by alligators, yes, I do think that’s a deterrent for them to try to escape.”

Of course, DeSantis’ spokesman said the governor plans to oppose the lawsuit in court.

“Governor Ron DeSantis has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment,” said Bryan Griffin in an email. “We look forward to litigating this case.”

Author and MSNBC contributor Brian Tyler Cohen captured the absurdity in a recent Facebook post: “Alligator Alcatraz was built in eight days. It took just over a week to create a massive concentration camp. Remember that the next time those in power claim they can’t house the homeless, feed the starving or provide medical care for the poor. They can. They just don’t want to.”

DeSantis leveraged emergency powers to seize the land the concentration camp sits on and fast-tracked the project under the pretext of attempting to stem “a crisis of illegal immigration.” An executive order allowed the state to award no-bid contracts and begin construction despite the strenuous objections from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and local activists.

Amazingly, DeSantis has launched the project during hurricane season, planning on siphoning off $450 million in FEMA money that’s supposed to pay for assistance to residents and handle any potential damage caused by hurricanes during what experts expect to be a busy hurricane season. However, DHS has said in court papers that it neither funded nor authorized the detention center.

Trump has expressed his desire to open these camps around the country, while DeSantis official told CNN in a statement that another site at the Camp Blanding National Guard training center in northeast Florida is also in the works.

Lost in the lies and demonization is that the undocumented are often escaping poverty, political upheaval, gangs, and other challenges in their home countries. All they want is a chance to live their lives, take care of themselves and their families, and be left alone. Instead, they have become political footballs in the cynical political calculus of racist xenophobes like DeSantis, Trump, and Miller.

“When we talk about people as if they’re vermin … The location, the manner in which it’s done, the dehumanizing language … there’s nothing about this detention camp that is not cruel and inhumane,” said Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigration Coalition in a CNN interview.

The entire state of Florida should be declared an evacuation zone for human beings under 18. Not because ferocious hurricanes are bearing down, but because of the way its conservative “leaders” continue to endanger the youngest among us.

Florida is a crucible for casual violence foisted on children by egregious public policy which makes being a child or a young person in Florida dangerous.

This malign neglect directed towards children and teenagers is evident in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ continued pretense that there are no starving school-aged children, and that the state is more than capable of providing food and sustenance to them.

Organizations that provide food have long been raising the alarm about persistent hunger in the Sunshine State.

According to Feeding America, more than 2.3 million people endure hunger in Florida, with researchers estimating that between 613,000 and 800,000 of them are children.

However, DeSantis World ignores such realities because who knows better what we the people need than a petty, vindictive politician?

Child hunger in Florida has become nakedly partisan, as evidenced by DeSantis’ continued war against America’s poor, middle, and working classes. Twice in the past two years, the governor has refused about $500 million in federal monies for summer and school lunch programs. His people claim programs already operating in the state can more than handle the need.

In December 2023, Mallory McManus, deputy chief of staff of the Florida Department of Children and Families, told reporters: “We anticipate that our state’s full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached.”

‘We’re good’

Advocates on the ground strenuously disagreed.

“One of the statements we continue to hear is that Florida already offers summer meal programs and therefore we’re good, we don’t really need a program such as Sun Bucks [a federal food program]. I surely wish that were true,” said Sky Beard, Florida program director of No Kid Hungry.

“The work we and other partners do demonstrates that’s an inaccurate perception. Less than 10% of children who participate in free and reduced lunch during the school year are also able to get a summer meal.”

No Kid Hungry Florida issued a report in 2024 that detailed food insecurity’s effects on low-income and even middle-income Florida families and children as a result of the increasingly untenable cost of living. The report found that 72% of Floridians found it more difficult to afford groceries compared to the year before.

“This burden isn’t limited to lower-income households; 60% of middle-income families, earning between $50,000 to $99,000, are also feeling the pinch. Amidst a growing affordability crisis, putting nutritious meals on the table has become a daunting task for many,” the report says.

Meanwhile, DeSantis and his MAGA Republicans allies are steadfastly rejecting federal funds — on ideological grounds — to expand Medicaid for the working poor, the vulnerable, and those mired in poverty.

Discarding children

The organization ProtectOurCare detailed DeSantis’ longstanding antipathy towards providing access to healthcare via the Affordable Care Act.

“As governor, Ron DeSantis has prevented hundreds of thousands of Florida residents — disproportionately people of color — from receiving coverage by refusing the expand Medicaid,” the organization said in a fact sheet on its website.

“Florida Republicans, led by Ron DeSantis since 2019, have been blocking Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, preventing up to 726,000 Floridians from obtaining Medicaid coverage, remaining a ‘hard no’ on expanding Medicaid even as millions of residents faced hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Of the hundreds of thousands of currently uninsured residents that would become eligible for the program if DeSantis expanded Medicaid under the ACA, around 57% are people of color, with Black residents disproportionately shut out of coverage, comprising 28 percent of those in the coverage gap despite forming just 17% of Florida overall.”

This indecent, immoral behavior and the scripted discarding of children is perhaps seen most profoundly with DeSantis and Republicans’ cold-hearted disregard for the slaughter of the state’s children because of America’s obsession with guns and Republicans’ obeisance to the National Rifle Association and the formidable gun lobby.

Florida’s next generation is dying in alarming numbers and neither DeSantis nor any of his Republican MAGA allies has raised a hand to protect young people as people have endured school shootings and suicides.

In Florida, like the rest of the United States, guns account for the most deaths among children and teenagers. According to CNN, gun deaths continue to be the leading cause of death for young people since surpassing car accidents in 2020.

Preventable

Everytown, America’s largest gun violence-prevention organization, tells us that “mass shootings haunt our nation’s collective conscience. Each breaking-news alert floods the nation with grief, fear, and anger at the countless acts of preventable violence.”

Perhaps most heartbreaking is that the vast majority of these deaths are preventable. Among children and teens:

• Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens.
• More than 2,800 children and teens die by gun homicide every year. For children under the age of 13, these gun homicides most frequently occur in the home and are often connected to domestic or family violence.
• Black children and teens in the U.S. are more than 18 times more likely than white children and teens of the same age to die by gun homicide.
• Firearms accounted for 18% of childhood deaths (ages 1 to 18) in 2023, the most recent year for which data are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 3,500 children died in gun-related incidents that year. That’s about five children lost for every 100,000 children in the United States. In no other comparable country are firearms within the top four causes of mortality among children, according to a KFF analysis.

This weak response has been profoundly influenced by the National Rifle Association and America’s gun lobby. All victims and communities get from DeSantis, Republicans, and the NRA are “thoughts and prayers,” and legislation to bolster school security and promote mental health services. Their prescriptions fall far short of dealing with this national nightmare.

Backtracking

Unbelievably, Gov. DeSantis has said he supports repealing the existing age requirements that prohibits 18-20-year-olds from buying rifles, shotguns, and other long guns from licensed gun dealers and handguns from private owners. He also advocates repealing red-flag laws and wants to allow Floridians to open-carry weapons.

Meanwhile, DeSantis on May 28 signed into law HB 6025, which eliminates restrictions on firearm and ammunition sales during locally declared emergencies.

The effects of gun violence are incalculable in terms of the loss of life, injuries, psychological damage, and economic fallout.

“Mass shootings in the U.S. have significant consequences for mental health, the economy, and community well-being,” according to a recent INFORMS Marketing Science Journal study. “They can lead to long-term mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and PTSD, not only for direct victims but also for those exposed to the events or living in affected communities … .”

Where is the anger; where is the outrage? Where are the voluminous public protests and demands that our “leaders” do their damn jobs. Are we to believe that the majority of Florida’s parents are cool with what our political leaders have done, are doing?

When it comes to stamping out violent crime, these people refuse to restrict unlawful gun purchases; implement universal background checks; safety training; safe and secure gun storage; implementing stricter provisions on gun owners carrying firearms in public spaces; concealed carry permit requirements and limitations; or limits on the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which can cause extensive harm.

Theologian and activist Traci Blackmon captures the barbarism in which the MAGA Republican minority is so completely immersed:

“Who is this ‘god’ they worship? This god of guns but not of grace? This god of greed but not generosity? This god of the womb but not of the woman?”

And the children suffer.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and his minions have perfected the art of bending and/or dispensing with the rule of law and long-held democratic norms in ways that have enabled Republicans to keep control of the state’s political levers.

During just about every news cycle, especially during legislative sessions, we see our high-handed chief executive belittling critics, sneering at perceived enemies, and rewarding his friends.

In their quest for unbridled power, Florida Republicans have wielded their immense political power in a multiplicity of ways to subvert the will of the people.

For example, Florida voters have long been able to use the citizens’ initiative process to bypass the Republican-dominated Legislature and advance progressive policies such as raising the minimum wage, legalizing medical marijuana, and restoring the voting rights of people with felony convictions.

Senate Bill 7050, which became law in 2023, illustrates DeSantis’ political tactics, using voter suppression to discourage Democratic and primarily Black and brown voters from being able to fully participate in the electoral process. Not doing this would leave them vulnerable to voters who would likely chase them out of office.

As the Florida Phoenix’s Michael Moline noted in a 2023 story imagining a handbook for autocracy: “… Republican-run states these days are experimenting with ways to disenfranchise Democratic constituencies, stack the courts against progressive initiatives, and cement their control over this country one state at a time. The dust cover could feature the smiling mug of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, the Republican presidential candidate who since the Black Lives Matter summer three years ago has pushed an ever-more-reactionary campaign against marginalized communities, not least at the voting booth.”

A representative of the Elias Law Group pointed to the damage from the 2023 restrictions on third-party voter registration campaigns.

“Third-party voter registration organizations play a critical role in ensuring that every eligible Floridian has an opportunity to vote, especially Black and Brown Floridians,” said partner Abha Khanna. “These organizations have helped register roughly a quarter of a million Florida voters since 2018, yet they now find their important work under assault by Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature. SB 7050 threatens to disrupt and discourage these organizations from helping marginalized Floridians register to vote.”

However, the federal judge in Tallahassee recently allowed the state to enforce most of the law’s provisions pending completion of the litigation.

After observing the success of that law, DeSantis and Republicans set their sights on defanging that citizen initiative petition-gathering process, imposing a slew of burdensome constraints and penalties for organizations doing that work.

Lawmakers argue the petition restrictions are needed to reform a process they claim has been tainted by fraud. The Legislature pushed HB 1205 through months after Florida voters supported ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana, although the measures fell short of the 60% needed to pass. The governor signed the bill into law on May 5.

Gum up the process

This year’s HB 1205 contains a raft of requirements that gum up the petition process. For example, those gathering signatures, whether paid or volunteer, must be registered with the Division of Elections beginning July 1. Petition circulators must be Florida residents and U.S. citizens. Convicted felons are barred from doing that job unless their right to vote has been restored.

In addition, the law prohibits anyone who has “not registered as a petition circulator from possessing more than 25 signed petition forms in addition to his or her own signed form or one belonging to an immediate family member.”

Other provisions in HB 1205 include the demand that voters signing the form must provide a “current or valid Florida driver license and valid Florida identification card number, plus the last four digits of his or her social security number.” The signer must affirm that he/she has not been convicted of a felony, or, if they have, they have had their right to vote restored. Lastly, the applicant must affirm that he or she is a U.S. citizen and a Florida resident.”

The law imposes fines for petitions delivered to a supervisor of elections after the deadline. Fines increase from a $50 fee for each late petition form to $50 for each day it’s late, up to a total fine of up to $2,500 for each tardy petition form. If the sponsor or petition circulator acted willfully, the bill increases the penalty from $250 for each petition form to $2,500.

The law also creates a new fine for forms collected before the Feb. 1 deadline but submitted after that date. Each form received by a supervisor after the deadline results in a $100 fine for each day late, up to $5,000, and if the sponsor or petition circulator acted willfully, $5,000 for each late form.

Meanwhile, the deadline for submitting petitions has been shortened from 30 days to 10 days.

Longer, costlier

Groups involved in gathering petitions point to the deleterious effects the law has already had since DeSantis signed it into law on May 2. Florida Decides Healthcare says circulation has dropped 88% since then, and Smart and Safe Florida, a group advocating for the legalization of marijuana, says costs of securing petitions have ratcheted up 370% while signature gathering has plummeted from 78,000 a week to 12,000.

A representative from the Elias Law Group pointed to the damage from the 2023 restrictions on third-party voter registration campaigns.

Many of the affected organizations are devising ways around the new provisions, while other groups, like Smart & Safe Florida, are doubling down on their efforts to get enough signatures to put issues of concern to the public on the ballot.

They are busy working to get another measure on the ballot in 2026. In a court filing, Smart & Safe Florida officials characterized the new restrictions as “legislative gaslighting,” designed not to block fraud but to “effectively destroy the people’s right to invoke the citizen initiative.”

Critics contend that the new hurdles would make it prohibitively expensive and effectively impossible for grassroots campaigners to place measures on the ballot.

“This bill is not about improving the ballot initiative process. It attacks the fundamental freedom of Floridians to participate in their own democracy,” said Florida Decides Executive Director Mitch Emerson. “It is a calculated and cowardly attempt by politicians in Tallahassee to rewrite the rules — not to serve the people, but to protect their own power.”

Emerson estimates the new law will mean millions of dollars in additional costs for his campaign in complying with new requirements and hiring more paid circulators to make up for volunteers who back out for fear of legal liability.

“Volunteers are second-guessing whether they can legally help. Communities are confused. And that’s exactly what the law was designed to do: to sow confusion and try to shut down engagement before it starts,” he said.

Emerson said Florida Decides had collected about 100,000 signatures to date in its push to bank 880,000 verified petitions ahead of a Feb. 1 deadline.

Obama-appointee Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker will determine whether DeSantis has unfairly manipulated the ability of Floridians seeking to continue to have access to direct democracy.

No one should be surprised by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ announcement that the state DOGE taskforce intends to dig into the finances of Florida’s public colleges and universities, pore over years of research, and decide what is kosher and what needs to be jettisoned.

It’s the beginning of a new round of aggression by DeSantis, designed to mortally wound universities as we have known them and rid the state of these supposed hotbeds of liberalism.

The arrogance is stunning. This man, who admits he knew nothing about DEI until a couple of years ago, and who has never shown a glimpse of intellectual discernment, is now the self-appointed curator of Florida’s higher education.

“There’s certain state policies that have been implemented, such as the abolition of DEI, which I know on a superficial level the universities went and applied with,” DeSantis said.

“But as we’ve seen, you know, you kind of burrow in and rename, do what you want. And there is some sense in some quarters that whatever the law in the state of Florida is, it just is not obligatory on them, and they can kind of do their own little fiefdom. That’s not going to fly here.”

DeSantis has it in for these institutions, as have many extremist conservatives who despise education and the educated, harboring a deep loathing of learning any ideas of which they disapprove.

Although he pretends otherwise, DeSantis, conservative ideologue Christopher Rufo, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and others know that education has always been an antidote to authoritarianism, which is why they are fighting so hard. They are resisting the diversity that the Civil Rights movement, the women’s movement, and LGBTQ-rights movement engendered.

‘The professors are the enemy’

The DeSantis blitzkrieg through higher education has include book bans and removing women’s studies, African American history, and critical race theory from university curricula. He hijacked New College of Florida, purged it’s courses of “liberal” topics, forced dissenters to flee or be silent, and tossed books into dumpsters.

As a part of his audit, DeSantis is demanding that universities provide information about researchers — including names, job titles, salaries, and details of their work, Newsweek reports.

He says the state seeks to “identify, review, and report on unnecessary spending, programs, courses, staff, and any other inefficiencies.”

DeSantis isn’t operating in a vacuum. The assault on universities and institutions of higher learning has been carefully choreographed by the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Party, archconservatives, and MAGA.

Vice President J.D. Vance captures the animus Republicans in general have towards education and educational institutions. Vance said during a speech: “There is a wisdom in what Richard Nixon said approximately 40 to 50 years ago. He said, and I quote, ‘The professors are the enemy.'”

DeSantis, by his actions, is no different. His war on academia has so far only been checked by the courts.

Republicans’ aggressive approach is an effort to reshape education in consequential and permanent ways. They want to shift the ideological tilt of a higher education system which they regard as profoundly hostile to conservatives. The Trump administration has several universities in its crosshairs, threatening billions of dollars in federal contracts and grants. They include the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Cornell University, and Northwestern, stripping them of federal contracts and research grants; demanding control over hiring and the authority to oversee university operations.

DJ Spang, a student from Tallahassee Community College, joined a walkout at Florida State University to protest various policies for higher education from the DeSantis Administration. Feb. 23, 2023. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Florida Phoenix)

Harvard’s example

Floridians could look to the example of Harvard University in refusing to obey Trump’s directives and moves toward a mutual defense compact being organized among faculty at 18 Big Ten universities.

Yi-Li Wu, associate professor of History and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan said during a recent faculty meeting that the United States is on the cusp of authoritarianism and that everyone must look at themselves in the mirror and determine what they will do as democratic institutions like higher education are attacked.

Neither silence nor compliance are survival strategies, Wu added, noting that Columbia University, which has hundreds of millions of dollars pulled and several pro-Palestinian students arrested, is a prime example of the reality that compromising on core values will not save schools from Trump’s wrath.

Prof. Jason Stanley, a former Yale University philosophy professor, says the war on universities is straight out of an authoritarian playbook. Throughout history, he said, the rise of authoritarian regimes has coincided with attacks on intellectuals — and efforts to discredit the institutions they’re associated with — in concert with the scapegoating of marginalized groups.

Authoritarians view universities — vital centers of critical thought and free expression — as an innate threat to their desire for complete subservience, Stanley said.

“The universities, not because of ideological indoctrination but because they contain a lot of young smart people called students, have always been the source of resistance against authoritarianism and unjust war,” he said.

The “leaders” of Florida’s colleges and universities have shown no backbone or a willingness to resist DeSantis’ bullying. But those concerned about his onslaughts must fight back fiercely.

Boycott

Resisting should be a slam dunk.

Florida’s colleges and universities should be protecting their cherished traditions, as well as their diverse student populations, from these ideological thugs. And if they are content to cower in the corner, the people must take the fight to DeSantis and the rest of them.

They hope that by instilling fear in people, they won’t fight back. But there is too much at stake not to oppose these people at every turn.

Journalist and author Joy Ann Reid told Dr. Christina Greer, a political scientist, during a recent Zoom discussion organized by Fair Fight Georgia, that education triggers rebellion, adding that a grassroots political uprising is necessary to fight against what she described as “a toxic, noxious, lawless political party.”

“Well, you know, as a university professor, the university is a space for intellectual ideas and debates. We cannot have a space where it’s filled with fear and silence.” Greer told Juan Gonzalez on ‘Democracy Now.’

“I think universities have to band together. This is the — what is the point of an endowment if during hard times you’re not going to use it?

“We know that there are some universities that are larger, more powerful than others. If they stick together — collective action, which is what I talk about in all of my books — you can actually get a lot more than sort of being picked off one by one … time and time in America, if you know your history. You know, as you target one group, many groups don’t ever think that they’ll be targeted. And it’s like, your day will come.”

Reid agreed.

“A generation from now, you won’t have enough people aware of history to fight back. Don’t be like Columbia and get on your knees,” she warned. “Join a compact, send your children to a state where they are protecting people. Don’t go to states like Florida.”

Economic boycotts are effective tools, Reid said. “Don’t buy from stores who gave to Trump. Reward people who are fighting back, unsubscribe from newspapers, don’t buy Tesla.”

Given Gov. Ron DeSantis’ penchant for political theater, full embrace of a far-right extremist agenda, and need for attention, it’s not surprising that he would attach himself to the Trump-Musk DOGE project.

Despite the utter chaos the project has created at the federal level, DeSantis recently announced the creation of a Florida version of the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force, which he claims will target and eliminate “waste” in state government, save taxpayers money, and “ensure accountability” in Florida.

The Florida DOGE task force will work similarly to the “department” created by President Donald Trump and led by Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who is unelected and unaccountable to the American people. Musk and his minions have orchestrated the slashing of agency budgets since Trump came back into office on Jan. 20.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried’s response to the announcement captures the absurdity of DeSantis’ action.

Florida Democrat Chair Nikki Fried speaks at a press conference involving Occupy Tally on April 4, 2023. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Florida Phoenix)

“Republicans have been in total control of Florida’s government for nearly 30 years, and he wants to talk about government waste?” she said.

“Ron has consistently passed the largest state budgets in Florida’s history, illegally spent millions of taxpayer dollars to run political campaigns to take down Amendments 3 & 4, and just allocated $250 million to fund his political stunt on immigration. Don’t lecture us on wasting taxpayer dollars.”

Fried argues everyone knows “this isn’t about reigning in spending — it’s about Trump endorsing Byron Donalds instead of Casey DeSantis. Maybe Ron should have considered the political consequences before he decided to run against the leader of his party for president.”

DeSantis said the DOGE team will likely shutter 70 boards and commissions this year to cut costs. Meanwhile, the task force will review 900 positions in state agencies to ascertain whether they should be cut.

His intention to have the task force “identify potential wasteful spending in college and university operations” should be viewed as dubious after he signed legislation last year that banned public colleges and universities from using taxpayer money to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Institutional memory

The governor’s hostility towards Black Floridians and his crusade to eradicate any programs to level the social, political, economic, and business playing fields continue unabated. It’s likely that DOGE will be just another tool to eviscerate any entity deemed a threat to DeSantis’ implementation of an arch-conservative imprimatur on Florida.

There is also the fear that Florida will lose experienced civil servants who not only carry out critical government functions but also carry with them critical institutional memory. As it has played out nationally, the DOGE carousel will distract state employees from focusing on the people’s work.

If past is prologue, this political power move will increase fear among employees that they may lose their jobs, inducing paralysis among the ranks.

Most of all, Florida government’s best employees may seek greener pastures to the detriment to the state’s people.

DeSantis said the task force will use artificial intelligence to reduce “bureaucratic bloat.” He said the DOGE team will be a continuation of the cost-cutting measures he has overseen during his six years in office. The governor boasted that Florida saved $3.8 billion in last year’s budget and has paid down 41% of state debt since 2019.

DeSantis’ plan comes even though Florida has the lowest number of government employees per capita of any state and $14.6 billion in cash reserves. Yet DeSantis is looking to slash 740 full-time jobs and scrap as many as 900 more related “off-the-books” positions.

Democrats pushed back by noting that Florida already has in place a voter-approved government efficiency task force created in 2006 that carried “an almost identical mandate;” Florida DOGE therefore itself is an example of unnecessary spending. The effort is really an attempt to flatter Trump and Musk to restore DeSantis to his party’s good graces.

GOP pushback

If Floridians are lucky, the significant pushback verbalized by the leaders of both of Florida’s Republican-supermajority legislative chambers may end up with DeSantis’ cockamamie plan being tossed to the trash pile.

Sen. Ben Albritton via Florida Senate Speaker Daniel Perez via Florida House

“Let’s focus on what matters. Let’s pass actual reforms rather than symbolic gestures,” Daniel Perez, the Florida House speaker, told members on the legislative session’s opening day. “Let’s repeal government programs instead of reshuffling them. Let’s swing for the fences and not just try to get on base.”

Perez turned the knife a little deeper when he said that “DeSantis, a self-styled fiscal conservative, benefited from a 70% budget increase for the executive office of the governor over his six years in office.”

Senate President Ben Albritton, a member of the existing efficiency taskforce, said in remarks to the Senate that he was proud that Florida already “has a great framework for accountability,” and that he and other lawmakers had made a substantive number of recommendations “to improve flexibility [and] simplify processes.”

“The fact is we are a state and nation of laws that should be created by elected officials accountable to the people who elected them, not appointed professional staff,” he said.

None of this may matter though, because DeSantis has his eyes firmly set on running for the White House in 2028, which necessitates rebuilding the frayed ties with Trump and his loyal supporters, as well as positioning his wife Casey to run for governor when he sets down in 2027.

The misshapen world that Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Leonard Leo, and other MAGA extremists are attempting to cement into every aspect of American life is deeply rooted in racism, sexism, and ethnonationalism.

As governor, DeSantis has arrogantly manipulated the instruments of political and legislative power not just to deride and disparage African Americans, but also to disassemble Florida’s relationship with the Black population while propagating lies about white European victimhood.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLU) notes that “throughout his tenure, this governor has used the power of his office to subjugate and control the lives of Black people in Florida. The administration of Gov. DeSantis has demonstrated a disdain for Black people and their lives in Florida. His actions as governor demonstrate that under his governance, the lives of Black people are expendable.”

DeSantis sows distrust of Black people in ways not seen so blatantly since the Jim Crow era. As the ACLU’s Joey Francilus explains: “Black people in Florida are endangered by the whims of this same governor who, using the levers of his power, greatly diminished the last citizen-led Amendment 4 campaign to expand voting rights to nearly a million formerly incarcerated Floridians. This is the same governor who chilled Black protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.”

Francilus adds that DeSantis is “the same governor who used his power to eliminate a Black-access congressional district in North Florida. This is the same governor who removed the only Black woman state prosecutor from office, replacing her with an acolyte. This is the same governor who sought to censor Black history in classrooms and called slavery ‘beneficial’ for Black people.”

African American school building in Leon County, 1957. (Photo via State Library and Archives of Florida)

Racial hierarchy

DeSantis has waged his war on Black people for several reasons, including to bolster his cred when he ran for president and because it’s a central feature of the far-right wing Republican Party’s culture wars. DeSantis isn’t alone, with Republican leaders of at least 18 states hopping on the retrenchment bandwagon.

The governor, and those who share his viewpoint, are “fixated on returning the country’s social order to its antebellum racial hierarchy” and seeks “to reimagine slavery as a benign institution, Francilus argues.

Issues of race percolate into every aspect of our lives — in schools, businesses, in our homes, communities, and neighborhoods. In the past, as now. DeSantis seeks to use race to bludgeon African Americans into compliance.

Florida has a repugnant history of harm against its Black residents as they sought to live their lives, working to block their attempt to exercise their legal and democratic right to vote, live where they want, pursue a quality education and good jobs.

For about 20 years, I lived, worked, and earned degrees in community college and university settings in Miami and Tallahassee. I saw the racial damage and trauma on individuals and systems up close.

I grew up in the U.K. and Jamaica but learned a great deal about Florida and Southern history from my African American friends, historians, griots, politicians, and close watchers of the state’s and region’s social, economic, and political storylines. It has never been easy to be a Black person in places where just below the surface racism festers.

African Americans and other Black residents faced barriers to employment, health care, quality education, and continuing problems with law enforcement.

Despite certifiable social, legal, and economic progress by Black people, the shadow of the confederacy and depraved racism continues to hang heavily over Florida. Men, women, and children endured ghastly behavior from defenders of the American apartheid system. Folks were murdered, raped, debased, spat upon, and brutalized merely for the color of their skin.

Unaccountable

Female friends shared stories of their childhood in the South and having to always keep an eye out for random white men and boys who routinely kidnapped and raped young girls, teens, and women. One friend spoke of barely escaping predators who attempted to snatch her off the street several times.

Rarely, if ever, were these brutes ever held accountable for their crimes. Black people were unprotected and knew not to look to the vast majority of sheriffs, police, or judges for protection or justice because they stood squarely on the side of the transgressors.

African American homes in Tampa, 1927, during the Jim Crow era. (Photo via State Library and Archives of Florida)

Redlining and other measures ensured that Black people lived in segregated communities where local and state governments routinely under-investigated anti-Black crime. Often, Black residents in these communities couldn’t obtain credit or loans; they were forced to accept substandard jobs for considerably less wages and salaries; and their schools couldn’t compete with those in white communities because of the withholding of financial support because of in lower property taxes in their school districts, which resulted in inferior schools.

Examples of redlining can be found in several financial services, including mortgages, student loans, credit cards, and insurance. Although the Community Reinvestment Act was passed in 1977 to help prevent redlining, critics say discrimination continues to occur.

Targeting African Americans in the present is a noxious game that DeSantis, MAGA, and far-right elements of what used to be the Republican Party have weaponized. It is part of their putrid narrative of white victimhood and pervasive gaslighting.

No different

One of the ironies of life as a Black person in America is that, if asked, they would tell you that, at the end of the day, they are no different from any other American. They want to be treated like human beings and desire the same things to which others here aspire — freedom from police occupation of their neighborhoods, brutality and murder; access to decent, well-paying jobs; a quality education; affordable housing and health care.

But it’s specifically because they are Black that they continue to incur wrath from DeSantis, Donald Trump, and a society that has been fed a steady diet of damaging lies, stereotypes, distortions, and half-truths. The wider society is told Black people are criminals; lazy; uneducated; simple-minded; oversexed; savage; in need of white sympathy, pity, and guidance.

DeSantis, attorney and talk show host Dean Obeidallah explains, is a purveyor of toxic white-identity politics. He and his MAGA supporters are crusaders for racial domination by the proportionately shrinking white population in the United States.

Since DeSantis ran for president, the country has supposedly moved further to the right and, with Project 2025 and Elon Musk, white nationalist extremists have launched all-out, multipronged assaults on Black history, civil rights, DEI, EEOC, affirmative action, and other programs, policies, and initiatives, all with the intention of dragging the country back to the Jim Crow era.

As Obeidallah notes, despite intense criticism, lawsuits, and protests, DeSantis’ primary concerns are to position himself to run for president again in 2028 by showing white people that he’s standing up for them and their interests.

Unfortunately, we will continue to be lectured about morality and patriotism by a man who possesses neither. The state will have to continue to endure the rantings of a menace and a bully. Past is prologue: There’s no commitment to fairness, no obligation to redress past ills, and no acknowledgement of the theft of Black lives, jobs, and resources as a direct result of white racism and bigotry.

Expect little or nothing to change. Florida’s Black residents be damned.

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin

Whatever policies Republicans conjure up nationally under Donald Trump, they will be building on the work of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans, who have burnished the vehicles of petty revenge and retribution.

Since DeSantis took office in 2019, far-right Republicans have been bludgeoning their opponents and perceived enemies using laws, policies, and subterfuge. Florida is where political plans hatched in GOP laboratories by Leonard Leo, the Heritage Foundation, the Koch network, and other extremists augur what lies in store for America.

Anyone paying attention to Ron DeSantis’ tenure as governor will see comparisons between his attempts to reshape Florida politically and imprint an extreme conservative stamp on the Sunshine State and what his fellow ideologues elsewhere seek to do.

As he told the Florida Legislature in 2023, Florida is on “the front lines in the battle for freedom,” adding that “we have the opportunity and indeed the responsibility to swing for the fences so that we can ensure Florida remains number one.”

Being No. 1 in DeSantis’ eyes translates to the imposition of far-right conservative pet projects, including loosening gun control and boosting access to weapons; imprinting conservative dogma on elementary, high school, and college education; expanding school vouchers; and dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

DeSantis and his allies have delighted in torturing their enemies, real and perceived. They have targeted, tried to bully, and harassed African Americans, undocumented immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ+ community including transgender individuals using laws, fines, and other sanctions.

The Southern Poverty Law Center details DeSantis’ abuses of power and his willful disregard for segments of the population he purports to serve. To push his extreme agenda, DeSantis promoted right-wing policy in the state and fought for his self-created culture war in court, the report said. He has also created and employs a state militia and police force in attempts to intimidate and cow opponents into submission.

“Ron DeSantis has used his power as Florida governor to intimidate voters, influence elections, threaten immigrants and attack those that advocate for causes he opposes, such as LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance. He even picked a fight with Disney World. He has also positioned himself as the standard bearer for the right wing’s ‘war on woke,’ which is the concept of having an awareness of social injustices and fighting for equity,” the organization says.

Right-wind playbooks

Donald Trump, DeSantis, and other political leaders have employed playbooks created by the Heritage Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Koch network, and others, using legislation, the courts, sleight-of-hand, disinformation, and blunt force to get their way.

Given the success of all these strategies, Trump, Vance and their lackeys will feel free to enact these measures on a large scale.

The election, and Republican control of all three branches of government, has given the extremist wing of the GOP the ability to impose neo-conservative, MAGA policies — encompassed in Project 2025 — but we can expect considerable resistance inside and outside of the body from all those opposed to tyranny by the minority.

In the first week of the new Trump administration, we’ve seen Project 2025’s fingerprints all over Trump’s executive orders, proclamations, and statements. This includes:

U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and a refusal to limit carbon emissions that cause climate change.Denying a pending U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service request to recognize an indigenous sacred site within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Giving all executive branch departments and agencies 60 days to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, including all “chief diversity officer” jobs, “equity action plans,” and “environmental justice” positions.Mandating that all federal civil rights law and labor law be interpreted and enforced with the understanding that “‘sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’”And dissolving the White House Gender Policy Council and repealing Department of Education guidelines on Title IX concerning transgender rights and various documents advising schools on how to support and protect LGBTQ persons.

DeSantis and his underlings and sycophants are now emboldened to continue to slash and burn programs and policies they despise. Women of childbearing age, undocumented immigrants, African Americans, Caribbean and other Africans in America, transgender individuals, Democrats, and anyone who objects to their lies and bullying are now at risk.

Haunted

The 2024 presidential election will haunt America for a long time.

But hey, the people have spoken.

If we learned nothing else on Nov. 5, we now fully understand that America as a bright and shining city on a hill is fiction. That American exceptionalism is a fallacy. The boisterous declarations of DeSantis, his supporters in Florida, and almost half of America are empty.

What comes next will be ugly.

Continuing with the school bully analogy, for the next four years or longer, the other students will be persecuted, harassed, and beaten up by idiots bent on cruelty, spite, and revenge. Innocents will tremble; others will be afraid. They will worry about the cost of standing up, apprehensive, trying to defend themselves, looking for someone to rescue them.

But no one is coming to help them or us, except us.

In practical terms, as Americans United for Separation of Church and State observes, conservative zealots will roll back LGBTQ+ rights; erase marriage equality; ban the most accessible forms of abortion and limit reproductive health care; create impediments to racial justice; eliminate the U.S. Department of Education; fund private religious schools with taxpayer money; and use religious freedom to discriminate against the majority.

This is the situation in which America and Florida find themselves.