Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at prayer vigils and in church, in frustration and exhaustion, to mourn yet another racist attack in America: this one the killing of three Black people in Florida at the hands of a white, 21-year-old man who authorities say left behind white supremacist ramblings that read like “the diary of a madman.”
Following services earlier in the day, about 200 people showed up at a Sunday evening vigil a block from the Dollar General store in Jacksonville where officials said Ryan Palmeter opened fire Saturday using guns he bought legally despite a past involuntary commitment for a mental health exam.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — who is running for the GOP nomination for president, who has loosened gun laws in Florida and who has antagonized civil rights leaders by deriding “wokeness " — was loudly booed as he addressed the vigil.
I also have no sympathy for him getting targeted for this, when all he had to do, after one of these attacks, is denounce the white supremacy that has taken root in Florida.
Just one little press speech: “I do not condone white supremacy in my state and they will find no safe harbor here.”
Instead, he hired a white supremacist for a campaign assistant, knowing his ties, gets a video posted with the “Black sun”, still does not call out white supremacy.
He reaps what he sows.