Padraig Martin (@PadraigMartin)

HB 269 / SB 269 - aka "The Antisemitism Bill" - WILL pass in Florida: What is in it and what is it not... In the Fall of 2022, Florida Republican Representative, Mike Caruso, asked for a bill that would effectively criminalize "antisemitism." Of course, the implications were outrageous and concerning. The idea that anyone in Florida who made antisemitic statements might be arrested and charged on hate crime charges was concerning to any dissident - including me. I have been accused of being too soft on Jews AND antisemitic. As a Florida resident, the way the original law was promoted, about twenty-five percent of my posts would qualify me for additional prison time. Thankfully, the bill was changed multiple times in committee and the end result effectively makes the antifa's tactics illegal in Florida. Here is the actual bill's breakdown. 1. The bill will be called some variation of an "anti-hate speech bill." 2. Hate speech has been redefined by the bill itself to include any form of "anti-religious bigotry" and a new concept - "bigotry against political creed." What happened: The bill does not allow you to go onto private property and demean or ridicule an individual's religious beliefs. In essence, you cannot walk into a synagogue and say you hate Jews. The bill expands the protections to all faiths. Therefore, you cannot go into a Catholic church, institution, or some other faith-based grounds and target them for their beliefs. In other words, if you are a pro-abortion activist who targets a Catholic pro-life center, that is now a hate crime. You are further forbidden from projecting imagery onto a private property. The bill also protects the expression of political beliefs upon public grounds regardless of the political beliefs. Anyone who attempts to shut down the political beliefs of a speaker on public grounds will now be charged with a hate crime. Let me put this in perspective: The new language would allow David Duke to give a speech on the University of Florida campus - provided a qualifying university organization invited him to speak (such as the Young Republicans). Any attempt by the antifa to shut him down would mean a hate crime charge AGAINST THE ANTIFA on the grounds that it violated Dr. Duke's right to express his political conscience. I suspect this was done to protect DeSantis et al during 2023/2024 from having the same kind of assaults levered against them/their supporters as that which happened to Trump supporters in 2016/2020. Assaults of conservative speakers by transgender radicals - like that which happened in San Francisco against a biologically female athlete - would now be illegal and subject to a hate crime arrest/prosecution of the transgender protesters. They can still protest, but if they continue to "shut down" or "silence" the speaker after they are asked to leave, that is now a hate crime. In other words, broadening the definition of "hate speech" and "hate crimes" has now created a catch-all mechanism for the antifa's favorite tactic - shouting out speech they do not like on university campuses while watering down the victimhood status of Florida's Jewish community. Of course, because it is called an "antisemitism bill,"no one is actually reading the bill. They are just voting "Yea" without reading the bill itself. The democrats are enthusiastically supporting the bill despite the fact that those idiots are essentially signing the arrest warrants for their favorite constituents - the antifa. DeSantis will sign an "antisemitism bill" that does NOT address sop-called antisemitism but does address black bloc tactics. To recap: you can yell anything you want from wherever you want, as long as you do not do so on someone else's private property... attacks on Christian conservative institutions of any kind are now included as MANDATORY hate crime prosecutions in Florida... any attempt to stop a legally permitted rally by a far-right activist on ANY public grounds (library, university, park, etc) are now included as MANDATORY hate crime prosecutions in Florida... The way the bill entered the legislature: all members of the Dissident Right would be subject to arrest. The way the bill exited after committees: every single member of the antifa would who attempted to stop the legally permitted Unite the Right Rally at Charlottesville would be arrested on hate crime charges if that same rally were held in Florida. You can read the language of the bill - SB 269 - for yourselves at the Florida Legislature's own webpage.