A racially motivated shooting happened in Jacksonville, Florida, over the weekend. The shooter, 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter, left what appears to be a manifesto where his hatred for black people was explicitly detailed before his rampage. Palmeter appears to have targeted Edward Waters University, a private black Christian college but was chased away by a campus police officer. He later committed his attack at a local Dollar General, where he killed three people before killing himself.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared for a local vigil, where he was heckled. Of course, the liberal media will blame the governor for this senseless tragedy. He’s the most-hated governor in liberal circles because he’s effective. His policies have been erroneously reported, which was evident when attendees said his administration’s policies were to blame. Mr. Palmeter hated black people long before he pulled the trigger. It also should be noted that the media will harp on Ron getting torched by the crowd but will blithely ignore Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman, a black Democrat, coming to the defense of the governor, saying it wasn’t the time to devolve into partisan blood sports.
WATCH! Governor DeSantis visits Jacksonville after racially motivated murders.
— Chris Nelson 🇺🇸 🏝 (@ReOpenChris) August 27, 2023
DeSantis had to know he would face heckling at this press conference but went anyway.
A Councilwoman asks the hecklers to put party aside.
pic.twitter.com/qyLCEylrmT
“A bullet don't know a party,” she told the crowd, trying to calm them down as DeSantis spoke (via NBC News):
Florida’s Black community and beyond have been vocally opposed to the DeSantis administration’s focus on wiping out higher education diversity programs, the teaching of institutional racism to public school students, scrutinizing African American history courses and drawing a redistricting map that erased northern Florida’s only Black-performing congressional seat, which included the city of Jacksonville.
In May, the NAACP even issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida, over DeSantis' "aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion programs."
“How much can we allow the governor to keep his foot on our neck and not say anything?” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Miami Democrat who is Black. “This is the result of that stuff. It’s not only the result, but it gives individuals who committed this act a hall pass to make it seem like it’s OK.”
[…]
Issues of race and education are part of a broader culture war agenda that has defined DeSantis' time in office and been a hallmark of his 2024 presidential campaign. The agenda regularly has him at odds with civil rights leaders who say his “war on wokeness” is a thinly veiled attempt to go after people of color and other marginalized communities in the state.
“He has had an all-out attack on the Black community with his anti-woke policies, which we know very well was nothing more than a dog whistle to get folks riled up in a way it just happened yesterday,” state Rep. Angie Nixon, a Black Democrat who represents Jacksonville, told MSNBC on Sunday.
DeSantis on Sunday said he would step away from his presidential campaign to return to Florida to focus on the response to Tropical Storm Idalia, which is expected to turn into a hurricane over the next 24 hours.
[…]
On Monday, DeSantis pledged $1.1 million to help beef up campus security at Edward Waters University, a historically Black institution near where the shooting took place.
“We are not going to allow our HBCUs [historically Black colleges and universities] to be targets for hateful scumbags,” DeSantis said. “I have directed my administration to use every resource available to ensure the Edward Waters campus is safe following this shooting and to help the impacted families as they mourn their loved ones.”
And, of course, the loudmouths in this community weren’t impressed with DeSantis showing up at the vigil. That’s not the point; it’s part of the job description, even if he knows he’s entering territory where he’s not welcome. As governor, it’s what you must do. It’s something Joe Biden seems to forget when disaster strikes under his watch, going on two vacations while the deadliest wildfire in over a century ravaged Maui. He has yet to visit the beleaguered residents of East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic train crash.
The narrative here is that DeSantis’ anti-woke agenda is to blame for this shooting and that DeSantis is indirectly responsible for it. It’s predictable and won’t resonate, especially when more details about the shooter are released. The local sheriff had a more sensible response to this shooting, which I’m sure he’ll catch hell for because it didn’t follow the liberal script.
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