Folks on the left couldn’t even wait for the bodies to get cold before blaming the mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida on Gov. Ron DeSantis. As usual, progressives are exploiting black victims of what law enforcement described as racially motivated murders.
Instead of looking for solutions and using the tragedy as an opportunity to find common cause, some of these people decided it was better to weaponize the corpses of those who perished in the attack.
It began shortly after the news broke about the shooting:
A gunman carried out a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday, killing three people before committing suicide. The shooting is believed to have been motivated by racial animus, according to local law enforcement and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
A white man fatally shot three people inside a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store on Saturday in a predominately Black neighborhood in an attack that the local sheriff called “racially motivated.” The shooter then killed himself.
“He hated black people,” Sheriff T.K. Waters told a news conference. “There is absolutely no evidence the shooter is part of any larger group.”
Waters said the shooter, who was in his 20s, used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with at least one of the firearms painted with a swastika. He left behind writings that led investigators to believe that he committed the shooting because it was the fifth anniversary of when another gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.
The shooting happened just before 2 p.m. at a Dollar General near Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university.
Sheriff Waters gave more details on the motivation behind the shooting:
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters reports on the mass shooting:
— Jeff Charles, An Awful Pundit🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) August 27, 2023
""Plaintly put, the shooting was racially motivated, and he hated black people. He wanted to kill n*ggers."" pic.twitter.com/GpKCjGvY63
Gov. DeSantis condemned the gunman while speaking with reporters:
Gov. Ron DeSantis comments on the shooting at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Fl:
— Jeff Charles, An Awful Pundit🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) August 26, 2023
"This shooting based on the manifesto that they've discovered from the scumbag that did this was racially motivated. He was targeting people based on their race. That is totally unacceptable." pic.twitter.com/3m3g1y1IjS
As news of the atrocity spread, high-profile leftists took full advantage of the massacre, using it to attack Gov. DeSantis for his stance against DEI and other “woke” causes.
Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Florida Senate candidate, sought to tie DeSantis to Nazis because the shooter reportedly had swastikas painted on the rifle he used to carry out the shooting:
Ron DeSantis repeatedly refused to condemn numerous Nazis rallys across Florida. Some even flew DeSantis flags alongside swastikas.
The Jacksonville gunman killed three Black Floridians using an AR style rifle with swastikas painted on it.
Ron DeSantis repeatedly refused to condemn numerous Nazis rallys across Florida. Some even flew DeSantis flags alongside swastikas.
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) August 27, 2023
The Jacksonville gunman killed three Black Floridians using an AR style rifle with swastikas painted on it. https://t.co/VMMfL7XZO0
Not to be outdone, Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon also rushed to exploit the deaths in Jacksonville:
It’s kinda hard to believe @RonDeSantis and his “condemnation” of the shooter, when he continually pushes anti-Black policies. A white man in his early twenties specifically went to kill BLACK PEOPLE. The governor of our state of Florida has created an environment ripe for this.
It’s kinda hard to believe @RonDeSantis and his “condemnation” of the shooter, when he continually pushes anti-Black policies. A white man in his early twenties specifically went to kill BLACK PEOPLE. The governor of our state of Florida has created an environment ripe for this.
— State Rep. Angie Nixon (@AngieNixon) August 26, 2023
Alleged journalist Natasha S. Alford blamed DeSantis for adding “fuel to the fire of anti-Black hatred.”
Ron DeSantis says he condemns the racially-motivated Jacksonville shooting, timidly calling it “totally unacceptable.” This is the same governor who unapologetically banned DEI initiatives in public colleges, calling diversity education “indoctrination.”
Who waged a war on “WOKE.”
Who tampered with Black history.
Who suspended the only Black female state attorney in FL.
His actions added fuel to the fire of anti-Black hatred.
Condolences won’t change that.
PocketCast News, a far-left outlet, slammed the governor for signing a Constitutional Carry bill into law, claiming that DeSantis “has blood on his hands.”
Three people were killed in a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida today.
Last month Ron DeSantis’ law allowing a person to carry a gun without a permit or training in Florida took effect.
Governor DeSantis has blood on his hands.
Three people were killed in a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida today.
— PocketCast News (@PocketCastNews) August 26, 2023
Last month Ron DeSantis’ law allowing a person to carry a gun without a permit or training in Florida took effect.
Governor DeSantis has blood on his hands. pic.twitter.com/43D9mPqjwk
Of course, there is absolutely no evidence that refraining from signing the bill would have stopped this shooting. But, as usual, facts like these don’t interest folks seeking to leverage black deaths to convince people that restricting the right to keep and bear arms will somehow make them safer.
As for those pretending that DeSantis’ anti-wokeness somehow caused this shooting, this is par for the course for them, is it not? Instead of trying to find solutions, their knee-jerk reaction is to virtue signal by using the tragedy to score cheap points against political opponents.
I’m not a fan of some of the policies DeSantis has pushed. In general, much of the anti-woke stuff has gone too far, even if the actual objective has some merit. But the notion that the governor is somehow responsible for the Jacksonville shooting is about as absurd as it gets, and the people pushing this narrative are reprehensible. To them, it is more important to push a political agenda than it is to address the actual root of these senseless killings.
Unfortunately, for some on the left, politics is more important than humanity.
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