Sheriff Mike Chitwood fumed that it was an “honor” to be included on the “hit list” of an organization behind a string of disturbing antisemitic incidents. A week after a neo-Nazi hate group circulated throughout the Daytona Beach, Florida area displaying and distributing extremist propaganda, the county’s top cop has had enough. “These scumbags came to the wrong county… We are not going to tolerate this,” a seething Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said at a press conference on Monday. “This is not about free speech. This is about violence.” Chitwood identified the Goyim Defense League (GDL) as the organization behind the disturbing behavior, which included leaving antisemitic flyers on people’s doorsteps and hanging anti-Jewish banners from busy pedestrian bridges during Daytona 500 weekend. (…) Chitwood on Monday named GDL head Jon Minadeo as the ringleader, and noted he recently moved from his home state of California after his grandmother’s restaurant was almost run out of business due to his bigoted activities. The GDL was behind a swastika burning near Austin, Texas in 2021, just hours after a local synagogue was firebombed. (…) “Go for it… I’m honored to be on your hit list.” Sheriff Mike Chitwood says he’s honored to be targeted by the same group spreading antisemitic messages in Volusia County. Chitwood ran through a laundry list of arrests and charges the 15 or so GDLers seen in town had on their records. “Let’s take a look at these cowardly scumbags,” he said, before walking reporters through a rogue’s gallery of those suspected to have been involved. Their rap sheets included stalking, threatening a public official, aggravated assault, murder, terroristic threats, vandalism for defacing a memorial for victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre, and soliciting a 14 year-old for sex. Chitwood then told those gathered before him that a lot of people in the room—including himself—as well as Jews around the country, were on the GDL’s “hit list.” Chitwood called it a “badge of honor,” daring the GDL to come and “put a bullet in the back of my head.” “That’s my message to you: go for it,” he said. “You want to try to get into my computer and plant child porn in there with a group of people that have an IQ of 12? Go for it. I challenge you to go for it. You want to put surveillance on me 24 hours [a day]? Go for it. And the best of all: you’re going to dox me and make me unelectable? Go for it. You came to the wrong county. I stand with my Jewish friends and I’m honored to be on your hit list. It’s an honor to be sought after by a bunch of punk thugs like you.” The biggest concern, according to Chitwood, is that a group like the GDL will radicalize “the next active shooter.” “I don’t think they’ve got the guts to pull the trigger themselves, but they know there’s somebody out there that will do their bidding,” he said. (…) In an interview with The Daily Beast following Monday’s press conference, Chitwood had one thing to say to Minadeo and his group, calling their beliefs “grotesque.” “Excuse my French, but fuck you, motherfucker,” he said.
via daily beast: COWARDLY SCUMBAGS’ – #Florida #Sheriff Goes Nuclear on Neo-Nazi ‘Motherf*ckers’
siehe auch: Florida sheriff hurls expletives at neo-Nazi ‘scumbags’ invading his count.y Mike Chitwood, the sheriff of Volusia County, Florida, proclaimed he will be on the “hit list” of a neo-Nazi group after he identified them as the source of hate group activity in the Daytona Beach area — and he is not backing down, according to The Daily Beast on Monday. “Chitwood identified the Goyim Defense League (GDL) as the organization behind the disturbing behavior, which included leaving antisemitic flyers on people’s doorsteps and hanging anti-Jewish banners from busy pedestrian bridges during Daytona 500 weekend,” reported Justin Rohrlich. “On Feb. 17, the GDL held a demonstration outside Chabad of South Orlando, harassing pedestrians and motorists, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The next day, members hung signs at the Daytona International Speedway with sayings such as, ‘Henry Ford was right about the Jews.’ They later projected antisemitic slogans on the outside of the track, with one reading, ‘Hitler was right.'” At his press conference on the incident, Chitwood said, “These scumbags came to the wrong county… We are not going to tolerate this. This is not about free speech. This is about violence.”