DeSantis cracks down on drug dealers, takes aim at ‘pro-crime’ judges
Brady Knox
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed two bills ushering in a harsher stance on crime amid his wider campaign against liberal crime laws.
House Bill 1627 establishes stricter pretrial detention practices, while House Bill 1359 boosts penalties for the sale, manufacture, and delivery of fentanyl and similar drugs, particularly “rainbow fentanyl,” which is seen as marketed toward children.
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DeSantis and his backers said the measures were needed to ensure that Floridians are safe and to make the state a model for others to follow.
DeSantis said that HB 1627 is meant to protect “Floridians from the disastrous ‘bail reforms’ being pushed by liberal politicians and prosecutors in high-crime jurisdictions throughout the country,” Florida Politics reported. DeSantis added that liberal cash bail policies were “one of the worst things done in the country.”
“You have police officers having to go out and arrest these people again,” he continued.
The bill requires the state’s Supreme Court to set a uniform bail bond schedule, mandates that certain arrested people remain in detention until their first appearance, requires that a court detain certain people before trial, and puts into law certain requirements for detention hearings. It includes several other related measures. DUI manslaughter, fentanyl trafficking, written threats to kill, and extortion are added under crimes that are eligible for pretrial detention, and those charged with committing a violent crime are banned from pretrial release.
The main purpose of the law is to disallow “pro-crime” judges from setting a bond lower than the state statute.
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DeSantis said that HB 1359 was needed because “the amount of increase we’ve seen [with rainbow fentanyl] in the last five or six years has been astronomical … [dealers] need to be treated like murderers because they are murdering people.”
Traffickers of the drugs are hit particularly hard under the new law; they would be fined a minimum of $1 million for each count and mandated a 25-year minimum prison sentence. They would be subject to life sentences.