The scene has been replayed countless times in 2020 across America: a mob marches through a neighborhood chanting, demanding that terrified residents submit to their cause.
Now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is proposing legislation to hold those who engage in such behavior accountable.
It would make it a third-degree felony to block traffic. It would give immunity to drivers who accidentally injure or kill protesters involved in blocking traffic, and allow for lethal defensive actions in response to riots and burglaries.
It's an expansion of the "stand-your-ground" law, which allows lethal defensive actions when victims are faced with criminals.
NBC News reports the governor is targeting those accused of illegal acts during riots and looting.
Other states have similar provisions in their laws.
DeSantis' plan, however, is drawing opposition.
The CBS affiliate in Miami referred to it as "so-called anti-mob legislation."
"Those who oppose it say expanding the law could give armed people the legal right to shoot suspected looters or anyone damaging a business," the report said.
The Miami Herald reported the law specifies that any burglary within 500 feet of a "violent or disorderly assembly" could be addressed with lethal force.
A critic of the plan, former Miami-Dade County prosecutor Denise Georges, said it "allows for vigilantes to justify their actions."
"It also allows for death to be the punishment for a property crime — and that is cruel and unusual punishment. We cannot live in a lawless society where taking a life is done so casually and recklessly."
Mark and Patricia McCloskey defending their St. Louis home June 28, 2020 (Video screenshot)
In St. Louis last summer, a threatening group of protesters confronted Mark and Patricia McCloskey at their home. A St. Louis grand jury, prodded by a far-left prosecutor who refused to pursue charges against the marchers, later indicted the McCloskeys for pointing an AR-15 rifle at protesters and wielding a semiautomatic handgun that was said to have made the protesters fearful of injury.
The McCloskeys said the protesters broke through an iron gate marked "No Trespassing" and "Private Street" and that some were violently threatening them.
See the incident:
In a video posted to social media, peaceful protesters in St. Louis calling for police reforms walked past a couple brandishing firearms as they were ordered to stay away from the couple’s home https://t.co/bYl06iAiTo pic.twitter.com/wOZ1Wr3yac
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 29, 2020
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