‘It’s been festering in Florida’: DeSantis
accused of hypocrisy over response to racist shooting
Democrats criticize governor’s comments after shooting
that left three Black people dead and say ‘this type of hatred isn’t random’
Richard
Luscombe in Miami
@richlusc
Tue 29 Aug
2023 11.00 BST
The booing
that greeted Ron DeSantis as he showed up to a vigil in Jacksonville on Sunday
for three Black people murdered by a white supremacist told quite a story.
Nobody contradicted the Republican governor and presidential hopeful’s
assertion that the killer was “a scumbag”, or that the racist killings were
“totally unacceptable”.
Yet his
comments raised eyebrows because of DeSantis’s previous attitude – indifference
in the minds of many – to Nazis in the state rallying in his name; and his
promotion of a succession of legislation designed to disenfranchise Black
voters, and recast Florida’s racial history to teach forced labor as beneficial
to the enslaved.
“Your
policies caused this!” one protester shouted at DeSantis as he prepared to take
the microphone at the memorial. The Dollar General shooter, a 21-year-old white
man who left behind several “manifestos of hate”, had earlier been turned away
from Jacksonville’s historically Black college, Edward Waters University.
The city,
Florida’s largest, had become a hotbed of anti-semitism with the city’s
commission forced to act in January to outlaw projections on buildings after a
rash of swastikas and other hateful messages appeared.
Long-term
observers of DeSantis were not surprised to see the governor at the event,
despite his reluctance to speak out following a number of rallies staged by
Nazi groups across Florida this year and last, some featuring flags with
swastikas and “DeSantis country” messaging.
“The
reality is that this type of hatred isn’t random. It’s been festering in
Florida, which has provided a friendly breeding ground for Nazis to feel at
home,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democratic former state representative
and candidate for a state senate seat in next year’s elections.
“Nazis were
rallying in Jacksonville, in Orlando, at Disney, [and] many of them flew
DeSantis flags alongside swastikas. What politician from any party wouldn’t
immediately condemn Nazis rallying in their name? Ron DeSantis was that
politician.”
Florida
governor Ron DeSantis attends a prayer vigil, where he was booed, a day after a
white man killed three Black people at a Dollar General store.
Florida
governor Ron DeSantis attends a prayer vigil, where he was booed, a day after a
white man killed three Black people at a Dollar General store. Photograph:
Malcolm Jackson/Reuters
DeSantis
has attempted to portray those participating in the rallies as part of a
Democratic smear campaign against him, and that they weren’t really his
backers.
“When
they’re doing that, understand those are not true supporters of mine, that is
an operation to try to link me to something,” he told New Hampshire TV station
WMUR earlier this month. The governor’s office, preparing for the imminent
arrival of major storm Idalia in Florida, did not respond to a request from the
Guardian for comment.
But Smith
said DeSantis’s “scumbag” comment on Sunday, and assertion that racist violence
would not be tolerated in Florida, was “too little, too late”.
“[He] has
failed to call it what it is: racist, anti-Black, white supremacy. That type of
vile hatred has been allowed to fester. These extremists feel welcome here. It
doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why,” he said.
“I’m not
surprised he was booed. He needs to come face to face with constituents who
have been negatively impacted by his agenda. He pushed for congressional maps
intended to weaken Black voting power in Jacksonville. He censored AP
African-American studies in the state of Florida. He declared a war on woke and
made it harder for teachers to teach honest history in our public schools. So
yeah, he got booed in Jacksonville.”
In 2021,
DeSantis signed a law that could designate a gathering of three or more people
a riot, and awarded civil immunity to anybody who drove a car into protesters.
Critics said it could have offered a defense to a Nazi sympathizer who ran over
and killed a protester at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville,
Virginia, in 2017.
Florida
Democratic state representative Angie Nixon, who was present at Sunday’s
memorial, said the Jacksonville murders were “a stark reminder of the dangerous
consequences of unchecked racism”.
“While
DeSantis may feign concern now, his track record speaks louder than words,” she
said in a tweet.
Referring
to his pledge of $1m in state funds to improve security at Edward Waters
University, and his comments at the vigil, she added: “I urge the governor to
do more than make empty gestures and call folks names.
“No amount
of money can erase the pain caused by marginalization and oppression. It’s time
for him to truly reckon with the damage he has caused, the harm he has
inflicted, and to actively work towards undoing the racist system he’s helped
uphold and grow.”
DeSantis’s
critics, such as the Anti Defamation League, which has chronicled a growth of
white supremacist groups in Florida, point to other questionable episodes in
his past with racial connotations.
They
include telling Florida voters not to “monkey this up” in his 2018 election for
governor against Democrat Andrew Gillum, who is Black; and the firing of a
presidential campaign aide last month after he was exposed for including Nazi
symbolism in a DeSantis campaign video.
Smith, also
a senior policy adviser for Equality Florida, accused DeSantis of hypocrisy for
promising funding for the Edward Waters University three months after signing a
bill ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public state
colleges, and his veto of mental health funding for survivors of the 2016 Pulse
gay nightclub shooting after promising the LGBTQ+ community on the third
anniversary of the 49 murders that he would always support them.
“Unfortunately,
the governor has an ugly history of showing up to communities that have been
gripped with gun violence in order to be politically expedient, and he’s made
promises in those spaces that he violated almost immediately,” Smith said.
“When
someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário