Between Ron DeSantis scoring yet another victory against Woke Disney on Wednesday and the recent settlement on the Parental Rights in Education law where not a word of it was changed, it’s been a pretty good month for the Florida governor, who continues to walk the walk when it comes to delivering results for the Sunshine State.
The roll continued earlier as DeSantis signed into law a unanimously passed bill designed to combat so-called “squatters’ rights” and which puts the power back into the hands of law-abiding property owners and local law enforcement.
He posted a video teaser to the Twitter machine prior to the signing:
Commandeering a private residence through “squatting” is a scam that violates private property rights.
While some states are choosing to indulge this behavior, Florida is putting an end to it.
Stay tuned… pic.twitter.com/ESBuwgtFZH
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 27, 2024
At the signing presser, DeSantis declared that his state was “putting an end to the squatters scam”:
“We are putting an end to the squatters scam in Florida,” DeSantis said. “While other states are siding with the squatters, we are protecting property owners and punishing criminals looking to game the system.”
[…]
Under the law, a property owner can request law enforcement to immediately remove a squatter if the person has unlawfully entered, has refused to leave after being told by the homeowner to do so and is not a current or former tenant in a legal dispute.
The law also makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to make a false statement in writing or providing false documents conveying property rights, a second-degree felony for squatters who cause $1,000 or more in damages, and a first-degree felony for falsely advertising the sale or rent of a residential property without legal authority or ownership.
DESANTIS: “What passes muster in New York and California is not passing muster here. You are not gonna be able to commandeer someone’s property and expect to get away with it.”
“[We] are ending the squatter scam once and for all.” https://t.co/02Z73921rg pic.twitter.com/n6JdotQOdg
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) March 27, 2024
The Florida Legislature’s and DeSantis’ moves come at a time of increasing concern nationwide about the pervasiveness of squatters, particularly after a horrifying incident in New York City where a woman who returned to her late mother’s vacant apartment to get it ready for new tenants was murdered by alleged squatters who allegedly then stuffed her remains in a duffel bag:
Two squatters are being sought over the gruesome murder of a 52-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag inside her late mother’s upscale Manhattan apartment last week, police said Thursday.
The victim, Nadia Vitel, was savagely beaten by the two perps when she discovered them holed up inside the 19th-floor apartment on East 31st Street last week, according to cops.
Having just flown in from Spain, Vitel had gone to her late mom’s apartment — which had been vacant for roughly three to four months — to start prepping it so a family friend could move in.
Vitel’s 19-year-old son reportedly found her remains. Two teenagers, who fled to Pennsylvania after allegedly committing the crime, were arrested and taken into custody.
And as RedState reported, Venezuelan illegal immigrant Leonel Moreno, who is considered a “migrant influencer,” is now on the run from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the aftermath of a TikTok video of him advising illegals how to take over homes in the United States going viral.
In the midst of all of this, squatter apologists on the left like purported “journalist” Judd Legum and the leftist hacks at Media Matters have launched a new campaign (coordinated?) designed to make people believe that the squatter issue is nothing more than manufactured “hysteria” and “fearmongering”:
10. And the squatting hysteria is a distraction from the actual housing crisis, which a lack of affordable homes.https://t.co/J82cyb4qu6
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 26, 2024
Right-wing media are fearmongering about a supposed nationwide epidemic of migrants using squatters’ rights to steal Americans’ homes. The backbone of this theory is one man’s TikTok. https://t.co/ZRuISgalPa
— Media Matters (@mmfa) March 24, 2024
The gaslighting just never stops with these people. It never does.
Flashback: Ayanna Pressley Lets Mask Slip After Ron DeSantis Floats Sending Haitian Refugees to Martha’s Vineyard
