Florida sheriff warns squatters he will be their ‘worst enemy’ and has a place for them in jail

“When you come to this community, and you violate the state laws, the people’s laws will lock you up,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in an interview with Fox News Digital. Judd, who has made headlines for telling gun-owning residents to turn robbers into “grated cheese,” oversees law enforcement for the 725,046 residents of Polk County.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Wednesday that eliminated squatters’ rights and increased penalties for offenders, becoming the first state to tackle the issue head-on, according to his administration.

Judd said he supported DeSantis’ legislation as it would give clarity to other counties on what protocols they can employ to manage the problem.

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“I think New York and California allowing them to stay for weeks, months, years or days – They’re just crazy,” he said.

For example, the Polk County Sheriff’s office recently addressed a call from a realtor who had been showing a home and found squatters on the property.

According to the sheriff, the squatters claimed that “it’s our house. No one was here, so we moved in.”

“Well, we moved them out to the county jail and charged them with burglary. That’s why I don’t understand what the laws possibly could be that would allow people to unilaterally, illegally trespass, break into your home just because you weren’t there and take it over. It doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” he said.

In contrast, New York resident Adel Andaloro was arrested for changing the locks on her Flushing, Queens, home after it was occupied by squatters. The home was an inheritance from her deceased parents, and she was in the process of trying to sell it.

The sheriff said some states were encouraging criminal behavior.

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He continued, “The laws [in places like New York and California] are being changed to enable the criminal, to be a criminal, to encourage the criminal. And when a criminal can steal and get away with it, when a criminal can steal and not be held accountable or responsible, then not only do they do that, but others watch that and say, ‘Me, too.’”

Some district attorney attorneys, like Soros-backed Alvin Bragg’s chief prosecutor Meg Reiss, believe the criminal justice system is “racist” and that law enforcement has a role in making a systemic overhaul in society by selectively prosecuting crimes.

“So one of the first things [to] do is change the language: ‘the bad dude.’ What does that mean? What are the circumstances of that person coming into the criminal justice system in the first place? And what is the background to that person?” she said in a 2017 interview.

The Florida sheriff said the idea the criminal justice system is racist is “fiction” and it makes him want to “throw up.”

“It’s an idiot-ology that makes absolutely no sense, makes no sense at all,” Judd said. “We know that stealing someone else’s property or taking it against their will is not good.

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“I just want to throw up when I hear people say, ‘Oh, but you know it’s just not fair to this group’ …It’s the same for everyone, young, old, White, Black, Brown. It’s what society has suggested through legislation mandated is normal, acceptable conduct. So we can all live in this beautiful democracy peacefully with each other and thrive and prosper,” he said. “But to suggest our system is broken is wrong, is racist, is not fair, is just not true. It’s fiction to say those things.”

The sheriff said people residing in high-crime areas with leaders encouraging crime are at fault if they vote for those individuals.

“If you live in California and New York, and you vote in the majority for the people who create those rules and regulations that let criminals out to victimize you, that’s on you. When you have to lock the underwear up at Wal-Mart in California, you got a problem. When Oregon just criminalizes their drugs that they decriminalized. It’s like, what did you think was going to happen when you decriminalized drugs? Are you all nuts? But hey, you keep a light to them. You’re gonna keep making crazy laws that favor criminals as opposed to favoring you. And one day, you’ll be a victim if you haven’t been already. It’s just that simple.”

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“I’m highly recommending they blow you back out of the house with their guns,” Judd said at the time. “I would highly suggest that if a looter comes into your home, breaks into your home while you’re there, to steal stuff, that you take your gun and you shoot him. You shoot him so that he looks like grated cheese.”