Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd affirms he’s all for peaceful protests, and he has simple, straightforward advice for citizens when a demonstration turns violent and threatens their homes.
“The people of Polk County like guns. They have guns. I encourage them to own guns,” he said at a news conference on June 1. “They’re going to be in their homes tonight, with guns loaded, and if you try to break into their homes to steal, to set fires, I’m highly recommending they blow you back out of their house with the guns.”
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Protesters have a right to express themselves, he said, and they’re expected “to do that in a peaceful manner.”
For others, he wanted to make sure his message was clear.
“Let there me no misunderstanding at all. If you come here to riot, to loot, to injure people, we’re going to lock you in the county jail,” he said.
The sheriff has a reputation for blunt speaking.
Among other things, he said at a previous news conference, “there’s nothing that warms our heart more than filing additional criminal charges.”
He said a “hound dog in hunting season” has nothing on his deputies for tracking criminals.
“We will chase you to the ends of the earth,” he said.
When the suspect is caught?
“We do the happy dance every time we arrest one of these,” he said.
He reacted to a woman shooting and killing a man who was trying to break into her home last Saturday.
“She has the right to protect [herself] from home invaders, armed burglars. He was armed with a tire iron and she stopped him,” he said. “She stopped him permanently.”
