A coalition of 16 Florida civil rights groups have sent a letter to state prosecutors urging them to reconsider last week’s decision to drop all charges against an 18-year-old Donald Trump supporter accused of threatening two Kamala Harris voters with a large machete.
Neptune Beach Police Chief Michael Key Jr. told reporters that 18-year-old Caleb Williams and seven other teen friends drove to a suburban Jacksonville library last October determined “to protest and antagonize the opposing political side.” Holding Trump flags, the young Republicans began taunting a group of Harris supporters. Tensions flared.
Williams’ Trump flag was attached to a large knife, which police said he used to intimidate two women, ages 71 and 54, by “brandishing the machete in an aggressive, threatening posture over his head.” A witness captured the scene in a photograph showing Williams smiling as he waves the machete over his head in front of the two Harris supporters who told police they feared for their safety.
“I‘m extremely angry at this,” Key said during a news conference in October. “It’s one thing to exercise your First Amendment right, which we so dearly take as a sacred right, but the moment you move to violence, that goes out the window. To say I’m disturbed is an understatement. I’m mad.”
The restaurant busboy was arrested and charged with voter intimidation, improper exhibition of a firearm and felony aggravated assault on persons 65 or older. Those charges disappeared last week after a last-minute decision by state prosecutors not to prosecute Williams, who was being held on a $55,000 bond at Duval County Jail.
“Your office’s dismissal of this case undermines public confidence in the justice system
and fails in its duty to protect Florida voters,” the coalition — which includes representatives from the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Lives Matter, and the League of Women Voters of Florida — wrote in their letter to Jacksonville State Attorney Melissa Nelson and Assistant State Attorney Octavius Holliday Jr.
“This decision sends a dangerous message that voter intimidation—an outright crime under Florida law—is tolerated rather than prosecuted,” the letter continued.
The coalition listed several statutes clearly violated by Williams.
The facts of the case as publicly reported appear very compelling,” they wrote. “The victims, two women ages 71 and 54, were subjected to an act of intimidation that no one at a polling location should ever have to endure. Your office’s dismissal of this case undermines public confidence in the justice system and fails in its duty to protect Florida voters.”
Refusing to hold Williams accountable sets a troubling precedent, “one that could embolden others to engage in similar acts of intimidation in future elections,” the letter states.
“Every eligible voter in Florida has the right to cast their ballot free from threats, coercion, or fear of violence,” it continues. “Your decision not to pursue justice in this case directly contradicts that principle. Failing to prosecute voter intimidation weakens our democracy and puts all Floridians in danger.”
The coalition’s request that prosecutors revisit their decision fell on deaf ears. Holliday wrote in a disposition that both police and the victims “concur” that dropping the prosecution was the right thing to do.
“The magatocracy is in full swing…” wrote one online commenter, sharing a complaint held by many that violence is permissible as long as it comes in defense of Trump. “White privilege on full display,” another person wrote.
Another Trump critic noted this incident brings back bad memories.
“Armed white men intimidating voters in the south,” he wrote. “Where have I heard this story before?”
