In an interview on Fox News about the looting in Florida in the wake of Hurricane Ian, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said that Floridians have a right to protect their homes, even if they have been damaged from the hurricane.
“People have a right to be safe in their homes. They have a right for their property to be safe, even when part of their home may be torn away and these looters, that’s unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable,” Judd said on Fox News during Friday morning’s “Fox & Friends.”
“I would highly suggest that if a looter breaks into your home, comes into your home while you’re there to steal stuff, that you take your gun and you shoot him. You shoot him so that he looks like grated cheese,” Judd added.
Polk County (FL) Sheriff Grady Judd: “I would highly suggest that if a looter breaks into your home… that you take your gun and you shoot him. You shoot him so that he looks like grated cheese.” pic.twitter.com/DLdSZz4Cq3
— Young Americans for Liberty (@YALiberty) October 7, 2022
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“Because you know what? That’s one looter that won’t break into anyone else’s home and take advantage of them when they’re the most vulnerable and the most weak,” Judd said.
There have been several arrests made in Florida as individuals have tried to loot the wreckage left behind by Ian.
In the Fort Myers area, which was where the hurricane hit hardest, deputies said they arrested five people Thursday when a business owner saw a man taking items from her store, WFLA News reported.
On Sunday, police also arrested two others in Bonita Springs when they were found inside unoccupied homes.
Would you shoot someone who tried to loot your property?
Lee County, where Fort Myers is located, even issued a curfew and a “zero tolerance” policy for looting last week, Fox News reported.
This came after reports of a break-in that police were not even able to respond to due to the weather.
“Earlier today, when law enforcement was unable to respond because of weather conditions … there was a break-in on Cleveland Avenue River,” Lee County Manager Roger Dejarlais said.
Some of the looters arrested in the Fort Myers area were illegal immigrants.
“These are people that are foreigners, they’re illegally in our country, but not only that, they try to loot and ransack in the aftermath of a natural disaster,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said, according to Florida Politics. “They should be prosecuted, but they need to be sent back to their home country.
“They should not be here at all,” he added.
But aside from the immigration issue, DeSantis has also strongly condemned looting, saying that he would not allow Florida to disregard law and order in the aftermath of a disaster.
“They boarded up all the businesses, and there are people that wrote on their plywood, ‘You loot, we shoot,’” DeSantis said. “At the end of the day, we are not going to allow lawlessness to take advantage of this situation.
“We are a law-and-order state, and this is a law-and-order community, so do not think that you’re going to go take advantage of people who’ve suffered misfortune,” he added.
