Gov. Ron DeSantis was born and raised in Florida, and spent much of his adult life in the state. Yet in all his 45 years on the planet, he says he never met someone who was mugged on the street, drawing a dramatic contrast to California.
“My wife and I were in Southern California. We’re doing different events while we’re out there and we ran into about six or seven people that had been mugged within the last year. And I’m thinking to myself, I’ve been going to events for how long, I’ve never met anybody in Florida who had been mugged,” DeSantis said.
“I’m not saying there’s no crime, but it’s almost like a common occurrence that this is happening. You know why it keeps happening,” he added. “Because the perpetrators aren’t put in jail where they belong.”
DeSantis went on to say that “in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles, these people that are getting mugged, a lot of times the perpetrator isn’t prosecuted,” and then goes on to commit “a really, really heinous crime.”
The Governor has discussed California muggings frequently of late.
“I met six or seven people just last week out there who had reported being mugged in the last year in southern California. Forget about San Francisco and some of the places in Northern California,” he said Wednesday.
The Governor made the comments at an event in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which was hosted by his Never Back Down super PAC. They weren’t the first time DeSantis advanced the dread specter of California muggers though.
During remarks in Long Beach, California, Ron DeSantis depicted a public safety crisis in the Golden State, saying Californians are leery of wearing jewels while shopping because they could get stolen.
“Just being in Southern California over these last few days, my wife and I have run into four or five people that reported that they’ve been mugged in the last year in different parts of Southern California,” DeSantis said.
He also worked it in during the Republican presidential debate, when he said he and the First Lady and he had “met three people, people who have been mugged on the street and that would have never happened 10 or 20 years ago.”
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