Orlando Florida. – Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood will speak about hate crime arrests in the county.
The arrests come amid reports of anti-Semitic messages in the county. It also comes after Chitwood condemned recent speeches and harassment against Jews in his jurisdiction and in Central Florida in recent days.
At the time, Chitwood told a press conference that “we stand with our Jewish neighbors… We’re not going to put up with this.”
The sheriff called the press conference following a series of incidents involving the neo-Nazi white supremacist hate group Goyim Defense League (GDL), which recently unleashed explicit hate propaganda in area neighborhoods and parking lots, placed banners on International Speedway Boulevard and projected messages at Daytona International Speedway.
The group has also recently used megaphones to shout hate speech and terrorize people outside the South Orlando Chabad.
HB 269, the measure that aims to condemn hate speech in Florida
In Florida Congress, lawmakers are discussing HB 269, which would seek to prohibit a person from distributing on residential/private property any material showing religious or ethnic animosity in order to intimidate or threaten the owner or resident.
It would also prohibit “a person from knowingly and maliciously harassing, threatening or intimidating another person based on the use or display of any indicia relating to religion or ethnicity; prohibits willful and malicious degradation, injury or damage to certain property; removes the minimum damages requirement per breach; prohibits the display or projection of images on buildings, structures or property without permission; prohibited from knowingly entering the campus of any state university or institution of the University System of Florida for the purpose of threatening or intimidating another person and from remaining there after being warned to leave” and to interfere with assemblies.
Additionally, the measure requires that certain violations be reported as hate crimes.