EXCLUSIVE: Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to kick off a pro-police tour starting in New York City to speak with law enforcement officers in blue-led cities who feel unsupported.
DeSantis will begin the tour Monday morning by speaking with police officers and law enforcement union officials at a diner in red-leaning borough of Staten Island. The governor will then head to Fort Washington, a Philadelphia suburb, and Elmhurst, Illinois, near Chicago, where he will meet with sheriffs, chiefs of police and other local law enforcement officials, his political team told Fox News Digital.
DeSantis’ team said hundreds of law enforcement officers are expected to attend each event.
Paul DiGiacomo, president of New York City’s Detectives’ Endowment Association, will be in attendance at Monday’s event. He told Fox News Digital that New York’s bail reform law that ended cash bail requirements for many criminal charges has endangered law enforcement.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference proposing anti-crime legislation at the Police Benevolent Association in Miami on Jan. 26, 2023. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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“It’s a law enforcement rally to send a message back to some of our elected officials that the laws that they have enacted in the state of New York are not working – specifically the bail reform laws – and it’s putting my members, detectives and cops in danger, as well as the public,” he said. “It’s gone too far to the left over the last couple of years.”
DeSantis is expected to tout his efforts to support law enforcement and reduce crime in Florida, where he recently proposed legislation to strengthen bail laws, toughen penalties for sex criminals and other anti-crime measures.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7, known as the Stop Woke bill, in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on April 22, 2022. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
According to the governor’s office, DeSantis implemented the largest recruitment package for law enforcement officers in state history last year, awarding $5,000 signing bonuses to officers willing to relocate to Florida from blue states.
News of DeSantis’ upcoming trip to Chicago caused a backlash last week, prompting Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker to condemn the Florida governor as “homophobic.”
“Well he doesn’t represent the values of the people in Illinois,” Pritzker told WGN 9. “In fact, he is the antithesis of that. He’s demonstrated that he’s homophobic, that he has tendencies to promote racism.”
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DeSantis has been discussed as a potential GOP nominee to run for the presidency in 2024 although he’s made no official announcement.
