“We will kill them”: the message of the Florida sheriff and the violence of the capitalist state
By Isabelino Montes
Tensions continue to rise in the United States under Trump’s repressive government—a government with fascist leanings that deploys its police and military machinery against anyone who dares to protest. The repression no longer hides: it is exercised in broad daylight with explicit threats of extermination. Mass arrests, raids on factories and working-class neighborhoods, deportations without due process, and tariffs that make life more expensive for millions are not enough. Now, the order is to kill.
Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Florida, publicly warned that his officers will use lethal force against protesters. In a press conference, he stated:
“If you throw a brick, set something on fire, point a weapon—one of our deputies will let your family know where to collect the remains because we will kill you.”
This threat, wrapped in “law and order” rhetoric, is not an isolated outburst but a clear directive from those in power. This “green light” to execute protesters aligns perfectly with the path Trump’s regime and its deeply violent state have taken. To many, it may seem like a legitimate response to “violent” protests. But where does the violence truly begin?
Protest does not arise out of whim or chaos. It is a direct response to the systematic violence of a government that arrests immigrant workers, supports genocides, violates human rights, and is led by a convicted criminal. The empty call to protest “peacefully” under such conditions is nothing but mockery.
And let’s not forget who is saying this. Sheriff Wayne Ivey is far from a model of civility. Between 2021 and 2023, he promoted a media spectacle called Wheel of Fugitive, where he broadcasted images of supposed fugitives, regardless of whether they actually were. David Gay, one of the affected individuals, sued him for defamation after being falsely featured in these videos while on probation or already in prison. The damage was real: he lost job opportunities.
But it doesn’t end there. In 2019, under Ivey’s jurisdiction, Timothy Chambliss was brutally assaulted by an officer after an arrest for alleged marijuana possession. Officer Tyler Harrell, according to the lawsuit, tackled him and then struck him on the back of the neck with a prosthetic arm. The case went to trial under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. And this is the man who wants to lecture us on civility and pacifism?
To compare the state’s arsenal—rifles, armored vehicles, armed forces, and unlimited resources—with the stones, signs, or bottles of the protesters is an obscene exercise in cynicism. Protesters act in self-defense. How is the working class supposed to defend itself against a government that tramples due process, deports without hearings, and violates fundamental rights? With flowers and hugs?
Violence does not begin in the streets—it begins in the offices of power, in the repressive and ideological apparatus of the bourgeois state. And when that state rots, the stench quickly rises to the surface. Let’s remember: during the election campaign, incendiary speeches, attacks, and threats multiplied. Now we see the consequences. The political assassination of Congresswoman Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the attack that left State Senator John Hoffman and his wife gravely injured, are part of that rot. The attacker, disguised as a police officer, carried a manifesto with dozens of names. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz did not hesitate to call it what it is: a political crime.
In this context of state violence, they ask us for “pacifism.” They ask us to endure. They ask us to follow the rules—rules imposed by those who repress, deport, exploit, and kill us. But the working class is under no obligation to obey those rules. We have the right—and the need—to organize to resist.
Our defense cannot be improvised or merely instinctive. It must be conscious, organized, political. It is time to build workers’ committees, independent political bodies that define tactics, prepare collective responses, and challenge the bourgeois offensive. Only in this way can we push back the raids, murders, and open threats like those of Sheriff Ivey. The best way to overwhelm the capitalist state is to organize working-class power against the parties of the bourgeoisie: both Democrat and Republican.
We don’t need Walmart or the Democrats to organize marches for us like last Saturday’s “No Kings” rally. Our marches must reflect our courage, our demand for justice, our need to build a better world. Let’s not allow those who order the repression to dictate how we protest.
