Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, Democrat, is going a bit power-mad down in the Sunshine state.
Castor has been making headlines in recent days, telling residents of her city on Tuesday to get out immediately or they will die.
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“If you choose to stay … you are going to die,” Mayor Jane Castor bluntly said on CNN while talking about the dangers of Milton, a “literally catastrophic” Category 5 hurricane that’s barreling toward the Sunshine State.
Castor later warned citizens that their houses would become their coffins:
“Individuals that are in these, say you’re in a single-story home … 2 feet is above that house,” she said in an address to residents on Tuesday night. “So, if you’re in it, you know, basically that’s the coffin you’re in.”
The urgency of her warnings was understandable, as Hurricane Milton was predicted to make landfall in or near Tampa, bringing his devastating winds and storm surges with him.
One local man, who goes by the name of Lieutenant Dan in honor of the Forrest Gump character, has gone viral for refusing to evacuate in favor of riding out the storm on his boat moored in Tampa Bay. He told a local TikToker who visited him at his boat:
“I’m not going anywhere because the safest place to be is on a boat in a flood. We learned that with Noah.”
Local officials had managed earlier Wednesday to get Dan into a shelter, but he left and opted to instead stay with his boat, which is also his home.
In chatting with a CNN reporter Wednesday, Castor addressed the Lt. Dan predicament.
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CNN: What would you say to individuals like that who do not evacuate from zones A and B?
Castor: Well, that would probably take you right back to that statement I made to Kaitlan [Collins] the other day. And we have tried so many times with that individual to get him off of that boat, and the officers will eventually just take him into custody for his own good. Because he’s not going to survive in a sailboat in the bay with anywhere from eight to ten feet of storm surge.
CNN: Are you saying he would be arrested:
Castor: Well, or Baker Act for his own protective custody.
Here’s the video:
Wait, what was that? They will Baker Act residents who choose not to leave? What is this, the Soviet Union?
Tampa issued mandatory evacuation zones earlier in the week, with residents being warned that they’d be on their own if they chose to stay. That is clearly the choice Lt. Dan made, but now the city thinks it has the power to Baker Act people like him? Who is to say he’s making the wrong choice? Also, what happened to the Democrat mantra of “my body, my choice?”
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Here’s a little more about the Baker Act:
The Baker Act is a Florida law that enables families and loved ones to provide emergency mental health services and temporary detention for people who are impaired because of their mental illness, and who are unable to determine their needs for treatment.
Last time I checked, the government is neither family nor a loved one. Look, Dan is probably making a bad choice here, but it is his and his alone to make. Maybe Mayor Castor really cares about Dan’s well-being and the well-being of others who opt to stay put. but it’s certainly not for her or the government to decide what others do with their lives.
The government invoking the Baker Act would set a really scary precedent; let’s hope she doesn’t follow through with her rather sinister threat. And let’s hope that Dan, and all Floridians, come through Milton safe and sound.