The freshly appointed State Attorney for Hillsborough County, Florida, didn’t waste any time announcing that, contrary to the policies of her liberal predecessor, she will be enforcing the laws. All the laws, not just the ones she agrees with.
Florida supports law and order
Governor Ron DeSantis took a lot of heat for firing a left-leaning prosecutor. Andrew Warren will be challenging that decision in the court, he promises. In the meantime, his replacement has the citizens of Florida sleeping a whole lot better at night.
Attorney Susan S. Lopez informed her staff on Monday, August 8, that “she will reverse some of the policies enacted by her predecessor, Andrew Warren, who was removed from office last week by Governor Ron DeSantis.”
The memo she typed up was addressed to the “amazing dedicated public servants” of the State Attorney’s Office. She knows who really runs the place. That’s a very good sign.
They’ll be relieved to know that “she would immediately rescind policies enacted by Warren.” Not all of his policies, only the ones which called for “presumptive non-enforcement” of certain laws. In Florida, a law gets enforced, popular or not. Take all complaints to the ones who wrote them.
The action, Florida based local media reports, “appears aimed at policies cited in the executive order DeSantis issued last week, which ousted Warren, the county’s elected prosecutor.” Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
“It is my intention to get this agency back to basics,” Lopez wrote. “The legislature makes the law and we, as prosecutors, enforce it.” She’s “proud to be your state attorney and help lead this agency back to basics.”
Ignoring his duty
Andrew Warren can kick and scream all he wants, DeSantis counters. He flatly ignored his duty to enforce Florida state laws. That’s exactly why he included copies of “letters Warren signed in June” as exhibits attached to his executive order. Warren’s correspondence “with dozens of other elected prosecutors” sealed his fate.
In it, he pledged “not to prosecute people who seek or provide abortions and condemning the ‘criminalization’ of transgender people.”
As a Florida public servant, he swore an oath to uphold the law. The way liberals see it, oaths of office are nothing but a formality. Like the way the Vice President is supposed to rubber stamp whoever gets selected, instead of following the safety procedures written into the Electoral Count Act.
Those letters were all provided to the Governor by Just Prosecution, “an organization that encourages progressive criminal justice reforms.” They can encourage them someplace else, Ms. Lopez declares.
Surprisingly, the word abortion wasn’t even mentioned in the memo Lopez dropped on her staff. It does however, “cite policies against prosecutions that arise from police stops of bicyclists and pedestrians, policies of non-prosecution for certain misdemeanors, and decisions not to seek mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes.” That doesn’t mean she’s going to throw the book at every jaywalker.
The plan is a “return to the basic principle of prosecutorial discretion.” That means deciding which cases to take to trial on the merits of the case alone. “We will not surrender our ethical and legal duties to think tanks or advocacy groups. We will be prosecutors who partner with law enforcement, advocate for crime victims, and follow the law.“