DeSantis’ new ‘stand your ground’ would provoke the danger it professes to prevent
Criminalizing public protest and empowering armed vigilantes would create a dangerous, volatile mix, writes a Harvard professor.
Let’s begin by parsing the grammatically confounding title of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ aggressive legislative idea. He calls it the “Combating Violence, Disorder and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act.” That’s not what it would do. In reality, it would amplify the danger it professes to prevent.
Nor would it combat violence. Instead, it would expand the state’s stand your ground law. Neither would it stem disorder. Rather, it would limit the ability of citizens to demonstrate in the streets.
Among its “innovations” are enhanced immunities for police and civilian violence alongside tough financial penalties for localities trying to defund or reconfigure their police forces. It would outlaw forms of social protest that have long been protected as free speech, while criminalizing those who “obstruct or interfere with the regular flow of vehicular traffic.”
It gets better:
The timing of DeSantis' proposal speaks to this momentous national reckoning, where we can feel the “ground” in which our democracy is rooted shifting under our feet. If approved, the legislation would deputize armed citizens to defend property, while criminalizing those who dare to stand up to systemic violence and racism.
And:
Caroline Light teaches gender and ethnic studies at Harvard University. She is the author of Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense. She wrote this exclusively for the Tampa Bay Times.
