If the chaos and violence from the protests and riots happening across the country weren’t enough, we now have a Florida sheriff who’s threatening to kill any demonstrators who get too rowdy. Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey declared in a public speech, “If you throw a brick, a firebomb or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains because we will kill you, graveyard dead.” As morbid as this sounds, a massive number of online users are ecstatic to hear an authority incite death on demonstrators.
“Florida around and find out!” quips a Facebook user, with plenty more quoting the phrase, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” Others took this opportunity to poke fun at the LA riots. “Well said, Florida doesn’t mess around like wimpy California,” laughed another user. “Florida is freaking the best place to live,” one cheers. “It’s about time someone stands up in law enforcement!!!!!!!!!!!!” a TikTok user wrote, garnering over 30K with their comment.
Everything else up to the “we will kill you” point made sense in the Florida sheriff’s speech. He warned protesters that breaking traffic laws or disobeying an officer’s authority would result in them ending up in jail. As the speech progressed, so did his threats. Spit on or hit a cop, and they have the right to send you to the hospital, Ivey states before moving on to the threat of lethal action. Despite the overwhelming support that online users gave the sheriff’s spiel, there were some who disagreed with being told that they would die if they resorted to violence during a protest.
“That’s literally insane. The people have a right to exercise their first amendment right to protest. Protesting wasn’t an issue Jan. 6 tho 😒,” remarks a TikTok user. “Welcome to the United States of Russia and North Korea!” jokes another. “Another reason to be ashamed of living in Florida. Sheriffs who don’t understand their role is to protect people’s rights,” adds a third. “This was actually disgusting that he think leveraging violence is a good way to stop any disorder,” chimes in fourth.
Ideally, protests should be non-violent and peaceful, but that’s not the way things often go in today’s age — on the demonstrator’ or the police’s side. The sheriff’s right; officers being attacked deserve to defend themselves. But doing so at the cost of a protestor’s life is certainly debatable. Not to mention, the fact that so many online users are praising and craving the deaths of anti-ICE demonstrators is rather disturbing.
