Can You Run Over Protesters in Florida? Charges and Stand Your Ground

No. You cannot legally run over protesters in Florida. The state’s 2021 anti-riot law is widely misunderstood on this point: it created a narrow defense that a driver can raise if a rioter later sues them in civil court, but it did nothing to shield drivers from criminal prosecution. A driver who injures or kills a demonstrator can still be arrested and charged with aggravated battery, manslaughter, or murder.¹

What the 2021 Anti-Riot Law Actually Does

The law at the heart of the confusion is HB 1, the “Combating Public Disorder Act,” which Governor Ron DeSantis signed on April 19, 2021.² The specific provision people point to is Section 870.07 of the Florida Statutes. It reads: “In a civil action for damages for personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage, it is an affirmative defense that such action arose from an injury or damage sustained by a participant acting in furtherance of a riot.”³

Read that language carefully. It applies only to a “civil action for damages.” It is an “affirmative defense,” meaning the person who caused the injury has to raise it after being sued and then prove — either with a riot conviction or by a preponderance of the evidence — that the injured party was participating in a riot.⁴ It does not stop a lawsuit from being filed. It does not grant immunity. And it does not apply to criminal cases at all.¹

Also worth noting: a peaceful protester is not a rioter under Florida law. In June 2024, the Florida Supreme Court held that “mere presence” at a demonstration that turns violent does not make someone a participant in a riot. The person must have intentionally, knowingly, and purposely engaged in violent and disorderly conduct, or intended to help others do so. The court put it plainly: “A peaceful protestor, under the most natural reading of the statute, is no rioter.”⁵ That matters because a driver trying to invoke the Section 870.07 defense in civil court would have to prove the injured person met this narrower definition.

Criminal Charges You Can Still Face

This is the piece that gets lost. Nothing in HB 1 prevents the state from prosecuting a driver who runs into protesters. Former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg stated it directly: “A driver who injures or kills someone who was blocking the streets can still be arrested and prosecuted for aggravated battery, manslaughter or murder, among other crimes.”¹

Whether charges actually get filed depends on the facts. Driving into a non-violent protester standing on the roadway with a sign is not the same, legally, as fleeing a group that is attacking your vehicle. But the legal analysis in that second scenario happens under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, not under HB 1.

Where Stand Your Ground Fits In

Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute, enacted in 2005, allows a person to use force, including deadly force, without a duty to retreat if they reasonably believe they face imminent death or great bodily harm. It operates independently of the 2021 anti-riot law.¹

In a vehicle-and-protester situation, a driver might invoke Stand Your Ground to defeat criminal charges at trial, to get a case dismissed before trial, or to persuade prosecutors not to file charges in the first place. The threshold, however, is high. Miami defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh told reporters that “the right to use deadly force in Florida only occurs when you reasonably fear death or great bodily harm,” adding that “you don’t get free rein to hit protesters just because they are around your vehicle.”⁶

Harvard lecturer Caroline Light observed that DeSantis may be “counting on” prosecutors declining to file charges when drivers claim fear, which would let Stand Your Ground function as a practical shield even though no formal immunity exists in the anti-riot law.¹

A Case That Shows How This Plays Out

In March 2025, Andrew Dutil, 45, drove his Nissan Pathfinder onto a curb toward protesters outside a Tesla dealership on Okeechobee Boulevard in Palm Beach County. No one was hit; the protesters moved. Dutil was still arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, a felony carrying up to five years in prison.⁷

Prosecutors dropped the case about three weeks later. Assistant State Attorney Kristen Grimes wrote in an April 11 filing that while deputies had probable cause to arrest, the evidence — including video — was not enough to prove every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. The reasoning did not rely on HB 1 or Stand Your Ground.⁷

As of the available reporting, neither the ACLU of Florida nor the Community Justice Project is aware of anyone charged under HB 1’s specific provisions, and no driver has publicly raised the Section 870.07 affirmative defense in a civil case.⁸

Threatening to Hit Protesters Is a Felony

Anyone thinking about posting threats online about running protesters over should know that Florida treats those posts as serious crimes. On June 11, 2025, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrested Zachary Degross, 26, for allegedly posting on social media that he “would run them over with a tow truck” if he saw protesters. He was charged with a second-degree felony: written threats to conduct an act of terrorism.⁹ The sheriff’s office said: “Making a threat like the one Degross made is a felony… If you are making threats online to harm others, even if you don’t intend to follow through with that action, we will arrest you.”¹⁰

Where the Confusion Came From

Much of the public misunderstanding traces to comments Governor DeSantis made on The Rubin Report podcast on June 11, 2025, days before the planned “No Kings” protests. He said: “If you are driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety, and so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you.”⁶ He added: “You don’t have to sit there and just be a sitting duck and let the mob grab you out of your car and drag you through the streets, you have a right to defend yourself in Florida.”¹¹

Those remarks described a self-defense scenario governed by Stand Your Ground, not a blanket permission to drive through demonstrators. A driver who hits someone because they felt annoyed, inconvenienced, or politically opposed to a protest is in a very different legal position from one who is being pulled from the vehicle by a violent crowd.

How Florida Compares to Other States

Florida is not the only state to legislate in this area, but it is less protective of drivers than people often assume. Two states go further in explicit ways:

Oklahoma (HB 1674) grants both civil and criminal immunity to drivers who injure or kill protesters while “fleeing a riot,” provided the act was unintentional, the driver exercised due care, and the driver reasonably believed they needed to protect themselves.¹²
Iowa (SF 342) provides civil immunity to drivers who injure participants in protests, demonstrations, riots, or disorderly conduct situations, so long as the driver exercises due care.¹²

Oklahoma’s statute reaches criminal cases; Florida’s does not. On the narrow question of a driver’s liability for hitting a protester, Oklahoma offers more explicit cover than Florida does.¹²

The Short Version

If you drive into a protester in Florida, you can be arrested, charged, and prosecuted. The 2021 anti-riot law does not change that. It only gives you an argument to raise if the person later sues you in civil court, and only if you can prove they were rioting under the Florida Supreme Court’s narrow definition. Stand Your Ground remains available as a criminal defense in genuine self-defense situations, but reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm is the standard, and inconvenience is not enough.

1
WLRN. Florida Drivers Run Over Protesters Law
2
Florida Senate. CS/HB 1 – Combating Public Disorder
3
Florida Legislature. Section 870.07, Florida Statutes
4
Florida Senate. Chapter 870, Florida Statutes
5
FindLaw. DeSantis v. Dream Defenders
6
NBC Miami. DeSantis Says in Podcast Florida Drivers Can Hit Protesters to Flee for Your Safety
7
Palm Beach Post. No Criminal Charges for Man Accused of Driving Into Tesla Protesters
8
Miami Herald. DeSantis Says Drivers Can Hit Protesters in Florida
9
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Arrest of Zachary Degross
10
Jacksonville.com. Social Media Threat Against Florida Protesters Leads to Arrest
11
NewsNation. DeSantis: Florida Drivers Sometimes Have Right to Hit Protesters
12
ICNL. Bills Provide Immunity to Drivers Who Hit Protesters