Felony Rioting Charges Are How Florida Stops the Next Teen Takeover

as well as electing James Fishback

James Fishback Drops the Euphemism and Picks Up the Statute Book

Tampa police helicopters circled Curtis Hixon Park while 22 teenagers trashed the waterfront and attacked each other in the street.

That was three weeks ago – and Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback just showed up in Tampa with a question the media couldn't answer. He asked them about January 6.

Fishback traveled to Tampa after the May 8 riot and said out loud what law enforcement was too nervous to say.

"It's quite fitting that members of the media, including some here today, had no issue calling the events of January 6th a violent insurrection when in fact no one was charged with insurrection," he told reporters at a press conference surrounded by microphones. "But they're reluctant to call young black teens armed with weapons, carrying illegal drugs, rioting at this place on Friday night something as simple as a 'teen takeover.'"

The reporters didn't have an answer.

Fishback then named the statute – Florida 870.01 – and announced that any participant in a so-called teen takeover would be charged under it as a third-degree felony the moment he takes office.

Under Florida law, rioting carries up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

He didn't stop there--He announced a social media youth disruption unit inside the Florida Department of Law Enforcement – tasked with monitoring incitement on TikTok and Instagram, shutting down coordination before a single teenager shows up, and triggering National Guard deployment when intelligence warrants it.

And he committed to a 90-day task force of law enforcement, business leaders, and church pastors to examine root causes and deliver a report directly to his desk.

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