ST. AUGUSTINE, FL—At a bill signing supporting law enforcement officers, Governor Ron DeSantis slammed the media for driving "narratives for clicks" in a Chicago police shooting case.
"[The media] is trying to cause division in society, they're trying to create a narrative, they know what they're doing," DeSantis said at a Saint Augustine press conference Friday morning. He referred to a national story in which police officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Chicago resident Dexter Reed.
This was after Reed fired on law enforcement first.
"They not only have a right to respond in kind, they have a duty to respond in kind when someone is using lethal force against them," DeSantis continued, criticizing news sites for not clearly mentioning that Reed opened fire first.
"Whether you did the right thing is not what some of these folks in the media care about. The media cares about whether they can contort that in a way that is going to cause titillation, that's gonna get more clicks, that's gonna drive more viewership, that's gonna cause more controversy," DeSantis, who struggled with mainstream media relations during his failed presidential campaign, said.
"They're perfectly willing to use a faithful law enforcement officer who's done it by the book to throw that person under the bus if they think it can further the narrative. The facts don't matter to these folks."
The press conference, meanwhile, was held for the signing of two pro-law enforcement bills. The first bill, SB 184, prohibits a person from harassing a first responder or officer after being given a verbal warning. If the person continues to cause this "emotional distress", and steps within 25 feet of the responder, they will be hit with a second-degree misdemeanor.
The other bill, HB 601, abolishes civilian police review boards created after the murder of George Floyd, a Minnesota black man killed by a white officer.
"HB 601 puts the kibosh on these extrajudicial investigations against law enforcement," Desantis said. "They'll stack it with activists...we view that as a political weapon."
Additionally, DeSantis announced an additional $17 million in funding for law enforcement bonuses through a Legislature-approved budget item.
"By the end of this month, we will have hit 5000 officers who have qualified for our $5,000 bonus program...that's after taxes," DeSantis said. Under his leadership, a total of $32 million has been allocated to the bonus program.
Florida's crime rate, he says, is at a 50-year low with overall crime "down nearly 10 percent year over year, murder down 14 percent, burglary down 15 percent, and robbery down 17 percent."
