A Florida sheriff says he’s prepared to deputize “every lawful gun owner” in his county to help quash protests if demonstrators come to the area and bring “lawlessness.” Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels issued the warning in a three-minute video posted to Facebook and YouTube on Wednesday in which he is flanked by more than a dozen deputies as he cautions protesters against “tearing up” the area like he says they have other parts of the country. “If you threaten to come to Clay County and think for one second that we’ll bend our backs for you, you’re sadly mistaken,” said Daniels, who is Black. “If we can’t handle you, I’ll exercise the power and authority as the sheriff and I’ll make special deputies of every lawful gun owner in the county, and I’ll deputize them to this one purpose: to stand in the gap between lawlessness and civility,” he said. After stressing that police would protect peaceful protesters, he said that “the second you step out from up under the protection of the Constitution… you’ll have something waiting on you that you don’t want.”
