A 40-year-old Jacksonville woman was arrested and booked on multiple assault charges after she allegedly punched a Florida state trooper who was working with federal immigration agents — prompting a warning from Gov. Ron DeSantis that the Sunshine State “is not Minneapolis.”
At a news conference Thursday, DeSantis warned anyone contemplating violent opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to think twice.
“This is not Minneapolis,” the governor told reporters. “This is not going to end well for you in Florida.”
The state’s top law enforcement official agreed, posting a still of the woman with a wide grin in the middle of her arrest.
“This is Jennifer Cruz of Jacksonville,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Thursday in a post on X. “Jennifer disagrees with immigration enforcement and decided to commit a few felonies by getting out of her car and punching a Trooper in the face.”
“But unlike Minnesota,” he added, “we don’t put up with this nonsense.”
Videos of the arrest and its aftermath made their way onto X.
Police arrested Cruz Tuesday morning outside Mi Pueblo, a Mexican market in Jacksonville. An apparent dash cam video shows law enforcement officers swarming Cruz, restraining her on the car hood and placing her in handcuffs.
It’s followed by Cruz kicking and screaming as police struggled to get her into a squad car as she laughs and taunts police, calling one officer a “weak-ass motherfucker.”
“Don’t you dare start kicking me!” one officer is heard warning her.
Footage shows her lying in the back seat of the squad car before suddenly popping up and kicking at the officer with her Ugg-like boots and later at the patrol car camera.
Cruz was booked into the Duval County Jail on a multiple charges, the New York Post reported, including battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting officers with violence and threatening harm to officers, among others.
She was released on bond following her arrest and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 4.
Gov. Ron DeSantis commented on the arrest Thursday during a news conference in Jacksonville, highlighting how in Florida state and local police coordinate and cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, instead of leaving agents to fend for themselves as has been the case in Minnesota.
“You have a right to go out there and criticize government policy,” DeSantis said. “You can go out there and protest within respected zones, but the idea that you’re going to assault one of our troopers is unacceptable, and you are going to face consequences as a result of that.”
The governor emphasized that the violence and property destruction underway in Minnesota following the shooting death by an officer of a woman who Department of Homeland Security officials said was trying to run the officer over with her SUV will not be tolerated in Florida.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more