Florida Resists Defund Police Movement

Crime is skyrocketing across the country — but not in Florida. After the Covid-19 pandemic started and the George Floyd killing led to riots in one city after another, many local officials embraced “Defund the Police” and other soft-on-crime approaches, with disastrous results. But in Florida, Democrats and Republicans alike realized that personal safety is an overriding human need. And they delivered. That is another reason that residents of other states are voting with their feet and moving to the Free State of Florida.

The “Defund the Police” movement began in 2020 with self-designated “autonomous zones,” where police were barred from parts of Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis. Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan welcomed the officially sponsored anarchy as a “summer of love.” Shootings and murders proliferated along with allegations of sexual assault, and a quickly brewing mental-health crisis was being reported, but there was no one to investigate. The experiment was an utter failure, as each zone logged record crime rates. The inmates were running the asylum.

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About the Author

Marc Sarnoff

Marc Sarnoff, a partner at Shutts & Bowen LLP, is a former vice chairman of the Florida International University Board of Trustees.

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Crime is skyrocketing across the country — but not in Florida. After the Covid-19 pandemic started and the George Floyd killing led to riots in one city after another, many local officials embraced “Defund the Police” and other soft-on-crime approaches, with disastrous results. But in Florida, Democrats and Republicans alike realized that personal safety is an overriding human need. And they delivered. That is another reason that residents of other states are voting with their feet and moving to the Free State of Florida.

The “Defund the Police” movement began in 2020 with self-designated “autonomous zones,” where police were barred from parts of Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis. Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan welcomed the officially sponsored anarchy as a “summer of love.” Shootings and murders proliferated along with allegations of sexual assault, and a quickly brewing mental-health crisis was being reported, but there was no one to investigate. The experiment was an utter failure, as each zone logged record crime rates. The inmates were running the asylum.