A Florida sheriff issued a stark message to protesters planning to demonstrate this weekend against increasing ICE arrests nationwide.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey warned in a press conference Thursday that if any protesters “throw a brick, a firebomb, or point a gun,” they will be killed.
“If you block an intersection or a roadway in Brevard County, you are going to jail. If you flee arrest, you’re going to go to jail tired because we are going to run you down and put you in jail,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said.
“If you try to mob rule a car in Brevard County, gathering around it, refusing to let the driver leave in our county, you’re most likely going to get run over and dragged across the street.”
Protests against the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown have been popping up across the nation after they first erupted in Los Angeles on Friday.
They are expected to continue through the weekend, in alignment with the president’s birthday parade.
Brevard County is home to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Palm Beach.
“If you spit on us, you’re going to the hospital and then jail,” he continued. “If you hit one of us, you’re going to the hospital and jail, and most likely get bitten by one of our big, beautiful dogs we have here.
“If you throw a brick, a firebomb, or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains, because we will kill you, graveyard dead.
“We’re not going to play,” he said.
Ivey previously made headlines for his elaborate press conferences.
When his officers seized 700 pounds of cannabis in 2021, the sheriff said: “If you happened to have lost or misplaced approximately 770 pounds of high grade marijuana and would like to have your property returned, please contact our Narcotics Agents and we will be more than happy to reunite you with your lost property!!”
His tongue-in-cheek message was caveated by the reality that Florida issues jail sentences for those who own cannabis.
“Possession of more than 20 grams of cannabis is a felony punishable by a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $5,000,” according to Marijuana Project Policy. This organisation pushes for federal reforms of cannabis.
In 2023, Ivey landed himself in hot water when a man filed a lawsuit against him, after claiming his life was uprooted because the sheriff included him in a weekly “Wheel of Fugitive” video on social media.
The man, who claimed he lost his prospective job at the time, said he was wrongly included in the ironic video, in which his name and image appeared several times in 2021.
The sheriff’s warning came as Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in California was allowed to continue after the administration successfully appealed U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer’s ruling.
