Downtown Orlando rally protests DeSantis’ removal of State Attorney Worrell

More than 100 people gathered Thursday evening in downtown Orlando to protest the suspension of Monique Worrell, the former Orange-Osceola state attorney who was ousted from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis a day earlier.

Traffic had slowed down in the city on the school year’s first day of class when a crowd joined together on the steps of City Hall and raised signs that read: “I voted for Monique Worrell, NOT Andrew Bain,” and “Ron DeSantis is a weak dictator!”

Around 7 p.m., local leaders and community organizers addressed the crowd, including U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, Bishop Derrick McRae, president of the African American Council of Christian Clergy, Chev Lovett with Florida Rising and Dr. Vibert White with the Orange County NAACP.

“We are here because democracy is under attack,” Frost told those who gathered. “It’s under attack across the entire country, but right here in Florida, this is the epicenter of the anti-democratic measures we’re seeing across the country.”

State Rep. Anna Eskamani criticized DeSantis’ move, calling it “ridiculous” at the rally. She argued the decision harmed democracy by undermining the will of the voters.

“When you lean on culture wars to divide communities to distract us and make our lives harder, our ability to achieve economic mobility is stripped away from us,” she said.

After a long lineup of speakers, the former Orange-Osceola state attorney told the crowd that today is not about her, it’s about democracy.

“I’m so glad to hear all of these other individuals talking about all of the issues, because I am but one of them,” Worrell said. “There are so many reasons why we need to assemble and gather here and there are so many people absent from this conversation.”

She added: “And, as I look across these steps, the absence concerns me because if we continue to be absent, we will continue to suffer the consequences of our absence.”

DeSantis’ executive order followed criticism from the Orlando chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police and other heads of law enforcement agencies in the Ninth Circuit, as well as U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.

Worrell’s critics claim her office was “soft on crime.”

The executive order said the state prosecutor avoided minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes, drug trafficking offenses and allowed juveniles to avoid serious charges or imprisonment.

Worrell has denied those claims and said DeSantis’s move was political and not about her performance.

Worrell is the second Democratic state attorney suspended by DeSantis. Last summer, the governor suspended Andrew Warren, a twice-elected state attorney for Hillsborough County, who pledged not to prosecute doctors who provide abortions.

Congressman Frost said he and members from New York and Maryland wrote to James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, asking him for an oversight committee to examine “abuses of power happening in the state.”

“Under its current administration, Florida’s executive and legislative branches of government have engaged in a relentless assault on the fundamental rights and freedoms of Floridians,” the letter read.

Jasmine Burney-Clark, the founder of Equal Ground Education Fund, an organization that focuses on expanding and protecting voting rights of Black Floridians, said she hopes the action mobilizes voters.

“This rally was the tipping point for organization and community groups,” she said. “We want to address every single attack to our democracy, not just this singular issue.”

The governor appointed Andrew A. Bain, a judge in Orange County, to take Worrell’s place.

Worrell said she plans to fight the decision in court and will be seeking reelection in 2024.