The hate and fringe
conspiracy theories
pushed by the Tree of Life
shooting suspect have not gone away.
They are spreading are increasing.
One example,
The Washington
Post reports that hundreds of
anti-Semitic fliers were dropped
along the street from the Daytona,
across the street
I should say
from the Daytona 500
and they prompted
one of the suspected
gunman's online rants
at the same location
where neo-Nazis held up signs like this.
Henry Ford was right about the Jews.
That's what one read.
The sheriff
there isn't taking it anymore.
Sheriff Michael Chitwood is naming
and shaming
the people behind the hate speech
even though it's put
a target on his back.
Watch
Duane you trying to crush a radical group
of cowardly scumbags
Unity
and sunshine destroy it.
There's a lot of people in this room
and there's a lot of people around
this country of the Jewish faith who
are on their hit list.
They try to be smart.
Your characters,
they try to put death threats out
on you, threaten you and your family.
Well, I wear that as a badge of honor
because I to buy these clown group
want to shut my big mouth
and put a bullet in the back of my head.
Go for it.
That's my message to you.
Wow.
Saying go for it
did not fall on deaf ears, apparently.
Three men have now been arrested
for making online
threats against Chitwood.
One allegedly said to shoot Chitwood
in the head, murder him.
Another said.
I will kill you.
It would mark my words.
And another
I'm going to shoot Mike Chitwood.
So how is he responding to all of this?
He's greeting them at the airport.
Tyler Very.
County Sheriff Mike Chitwood,
welcome to Volusia County, Florida.
Thank you.
Enjoy your stay.
Well, Sheriff Chitwood joins us now.
Thank you for being here.
It's so astounding to us
sitting here
watching what you've faced,
I think to everyone watching to
how you respond.
Well, as I understand it,
this is not
just about the threats to you.
This is about threats to your family.
Right.
The people that didn't choose
to be in the position you're in.
Yeah, that's correct.
And I've been doing this for 34 years.
And good morning
and thank you for having me on.
My family, my daughters, my grandkids,
my parents didn't sign up for this.
But when you got a bunch of cowards
that hide
behind the anonymity of social media,
you know, they
they crank up their base through that.
Does the tactic work to name
and shame to greet them at the airport?
Right. Because you're
you obviously
want to bring this to light,
but I think you really want solutions.
You want this to stop.
Yeah, I want it to stop.
And I don't know if history's on my side
of being able to end the hate,
but what we can do
is when you turn the camera on to them
and you put up their arrest photos
and you put up their criminal histories
and really show the community
what a rogue's gallery of criminals
and thugs they are.
It kind of it kind of set
a different light
on who you're dealing with.
Yeah. You know,
we remember this press conference
that you held back in February,
and there were a lot of explicit
examples of what was going on
in the anti-Semitism in your community.
It's very hard to listen to,
but I think it's important
to we're going to play
just a short part of this
for people to sort of
wrap their heads around
leave our country, go back to Israel.
You know, where you from,
Palestinian kids,
where we find you stupid Jews.
$8 million a year.
Can you imagine?
I mean, you don't have to
because it's happening.
How common is stuff like that?
There
you know, it was in common,
and I think that's
what really set me off.
I feel like my community at home invasion
robbery occurred that
a segment of my
my population was targeted for
the religion.
I'm not going to stand
for people to be targeted
for their religion
or their race,
for their sexual orientation
or ethnic background notwithstanding for
you have supported a proposed law there
that would actually make
anti-Semitic incidents.
So things like we just saw a felony.
Talk to me about the law specifically.
Why support it and does it have a shot of
becoming law?
Yeah, it's House bill two 69, I think.
I expect that should be signed sometime
this week.
And it enhances penalties for what
you just saw.
If you go on private property,
which is what we're seeing,
and you drop off hateful literature
targeting someone for their religion,
it's a felony
if you use it
projector to shine hateful messages
on the side of a private property.
It's a felony
if you get up in somebody's
face with a bullhorn
and you start screaming anti-Semitic
remarks to them, it's a felony.
It's felony stalking.
So we're really looking forward to this.
You have previously been
a supporter
of former President Trump
and the number of hate groups surged.
55% under the beginning few years
of his presidency.
That's according to the southern Poverty
Law Center.
He is the GOP frontrunner for 20, 24.
I wonder if you have any message
to him on this front
or if you think he bears
any responsibility
Just from where I sit,
when Charlottesville happened
and the former president said
we're as good people on both sides
That was the whistle call
that it's okay to be an extremist.
And let me let me say about extremism,
whether you're burning police station
down, burnt a police car
or you're out there
trying to wipe out a race or religion.
That is extremism.
There is no such thing,
in my opinion, as left or right.
It's extremism
and it should never be tolerated
in American society.
So your message to him in this campaign
is you got you got to help us here, Mr.
President. You got to help us.
If you become the president,
you got to help us.
You cannot be coddling and cozying up
to the far extreme
groups that want to destroy America.
Thank you,
Sheriff, for not just for this,
but for what you do
for what you're standing up for.
Means a lot. Thank you.