Florida bill would make some methods of spreading antisemitism illegal

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Guests of the Daytona Worldwide Speedway had been greeted Saturday by messages of hate, authorities stated. One of many antisemitic messages was projected onto the grandstand by somebody close by. 

“To the informal onlooker, it makes us seem like we’re a bunch of Neanderthal, Jew-hating human beings,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood stated Monday.

The group, which Daytona Seaside police labeled as First Modification Auditors, additionally used the pedestrian walkway to the observe to unfold their antisemitism by hanging a banner for everybody to see. 

“They’re only a bunch of punk, coward scumbags that act collectively in a bunch to attempt to put worry into sure people, specifically, of the Jewish religion,” Chitwood stated.

Neighborhoods close by weren’t spared. 

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An Ormond Seaside household discovered an antisemitic flyer that was tossed onto their driveway Sunday morning. The flyers had been additionally discovered outdoors properties in Daytona Seaside and Port Orange. 

“I used to be inside, and my daughter got here in, and he or she had this in her hand and stated, ‘Daddy, what’s this?’ So I needed to clarify to her what it was precisely,” Dana Micallef stated. “It is one thing six-year-olds needn’t study.”

Florida State Rep. Randy Wonderful, a Republican who represents a part of Brevard County, stated whereas the group’s hate speech could also be protected by the First Modification, how they share it’s not. 

“If you wish to have a march and carry an indication, you are allowed to try this. That is free speech. However actions and speech should not the identical, and we will say for those who break the regulation the implications can be extreme,” he stated.

A proposed invoice on this legislative session would, for instance, make it a misdemeanor to toss a flyer outdoors somebody’s dwelling or mission a picture onto one other constructing with out that property proprietor’s consent. It turns into a felony, and a hate crime, if the flyer or projected picture is antisemitic.

“This begins with banners and flyers, and it ends with somebody being killed, [like what happened] in South Florida yesterday, as a result of they’re Jewish,” Wonderful stated. “We have to take clear motion in opposition to these people, and I am decided to make that occur.

HB 269 is at the moment within the Prison Justice Subcommittee. Wonderful expects it would finally go to a full vote and cross. If that occurs, it could change into regulation on Oct. 1.