How Florida’s term-limited governor is creating a ‘police state’ as his legacy

Slew of bills in veto-proof Republican state legislature harm individual rights and concentrate power, rights groups sayRon DeSantis, Florida’s Republican hard-right governor, will be termed out of office in barely 10 months’ time. Civil rights groups watching a slew of new restrictive laws passing through the state’s legislature say his bequest will be a “police state”, where government officials dictate what residents can do, say or believe.They point in particular to two House bills they say restrict free speech, and which have already found favor with Florida’s veto-proof Republican majority: would give a handful of state officials unprecedented power to designate as a “terrorist group” any organization whose aims and policies they do not like, including non-profits operating for religious, charitable and social justice purposes. creates a “counterintelligence and counterterrorism” unit within the Florida department of law enforcement that critics say will be used to spy on groups or individuals whose “actions, views, or opinions” are deemed “a threat or are inimical to the interests of this state”.