Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed a Department of Justice initiative that directed the FBI to assist school board members who are threatened by parents.
“Attorney General Garland is weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them through intimidation,” DeSantis said in a Tuesday tweet. “Florida will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent.”
DOJ DISPATCHES FBI TO ENSURE SCHOOL STAFF CAN ‘WORK WITHOUT FEAR’ AFTER MONTHS OF PROTESTS
Attorney General Garland is weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them through intimidation.
Florida will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 5, 2021
DeSantis’s office expanded on his tweet with a statement saying harassment is already a crime in the Sunshine State, and “Florida law enforcement is perfectly capable of responding to crimes in Florida, and we have never heard the FBI suggest otherwise.”
“However, disagreement is not harassment,” the statement continued. “Protest is not terrorism, unless it involves rioting, looting, and assault, like some of the left-wing protests of summer 2020. Again, all of those actions are crimes in Florida and will be prosecuted, regardless of political context.”
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The last year has seen parents push against mask mandates and critical race theory in schools, usually by taking their complaints to local school boards. The DOJ memo was responding to a letter from the National School Boards Association requesting “immediate assistance” to “protect our students, school board members, and educators who are susceptible to acts of violence.”
The governor blasted the NSBA’s letter for saying that “parents who criticize radical left-wing indoctrination or oppose the unscientific policy of muzzling schoolchildren are uniquely dangerous. The letter ignores the fact that liberal activists who support CRT and forced masking have been disrupting school board meetings, harassing elected officials they disagree with, and threatening conservative school board members.”
