Grim reaper to strike Jacksonville Beach with pointed agenda
Lawyer Daniel Uhlfelder faces sanctions for his Grim Reaper Tour. Image via Twitter.

ulhfelder
Attorney Daniel Uhlfelder became morbid fixture of Panhandle sands. Now he heads east.

Visions of a grim reaper walking the sands of Panhandle beaches became a common sight during the pandemic. Now, he’s visiting Jacksonville Beach.

Attorney Daniel Uhlfelder will bring his “Grim Reaper Beach Tour” to the east coast Friday. The dark figure already visited shores in Destin, Pensacola, Miami, Santa Rosa Beach, Panama City Beach and Miramar Beach. The visits were featured this Spring on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

The macabre vision arrived at Florida beaches with distinct purpose — to raise awareness for the spreading pandemic. Uhlfelder in March sued Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida officials to close beaches and issue a stay-at-home order. He’s afraid weak policy focused on short-term economic gain threatens the long-term vitality of beach economies.

“President [Donald] Trump and Governor DeSantis are literally forcing people to take a risk with their lives to get money to feed their family, pay bills and rent,” Uhlfelder said.

As he visits the first major Florida beach to reopen after a COVID-19 closure, Uhlfelder expands his rhetoric to attack DeSantis’ pandemic leadership all around.

“Our economy is largely based on tourism and thousands of local workers and small businesses don’t know where the next pay-check is coming from,” Uhlfelder said.

The Santa Rosa Beach attorney gained national prominence through a lawsuit against former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee over public access to beaches in Walton County.

He quickly leveraged that fame to form a federal super PAC.

His appearances draped in black and wielding a sickle as apathetic beach lovers took to the sands before and after surges in infections earned Uhlfelder further notoriety.

While a holiday weekend visit to one of Florida’s most popular beach destinations will surely cast Uhlfelder in some fresh stock art shots, he’s pointedly turning attention to a variety of coronavirus-related topics.

“The online enrollment for unemployment has been an abject failure, the CARES Act grants have failed to materialize and it seems a sweetheart deal with big banks and businesses has been done at the expense of the small businesses who are the backbone of our economy,” he said.

“Employees who have been making unemployment insurance payments for just such these moments have been abandoned and left with no support, they’ve seen their benefits stopped and small businesses are being told by their banks: ‘Sorry, the money has already run out.’”

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].


7 comments

  • Sonja Fitch

    July 3, 2020 at 5:34 am

    The Beaches Mayors have sacrificed money over safety and security for our communities! Shut down all of the beaches and businesses for our children!

    • Patrick

      July 3, 2020 at 9:17 pm

      You jnow children don’t suffe the symptoms…right!? They are typically asymptomatic

  • steve bronze

    July 3, 2020 at 10:09 am

    Grim reaper! o I’m scared now. take your propaganda elsewhere. this is still a free country (barely) sick of all the b.s. if I want to go to the beach I’m going to the beach.
    reaper will be booed and hissed if I see him.
    stay at home w your nonsense you may get infected.

    • Patrick

      July 3, 2020 at 9:22 pm

      I concur! However, 68 people in duval county have died from SARS-CoV-2!! (Out of over 1.1 million people; which is a stat of approximately .0006% of the population that ALREADY suffers from either COPD/respiratory-infection/tuberculosis/etc!!!). I mean come on…lets be honest about this number

  • mike

    July 3, 2020 at 3:34 pm

    Get the F offa tax paid structures get your own.

  • Patrick

    July 3, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    What does he mean about “life-threatening?” What’s this about approximately 3600 deaths in the state of Florida total since the pandemic started!?
    That’s approximately 1200 a month…did you know that over 7000 people die a DAY in the united states from reason NOT RELATED TO OVER-HYPED DISEASES!?!?

  • Rob Zelasko

    July 4, 2020 at 9:22 am

    This “Lawyer” dressed as the reaper obviously has an agenda. It’s to scare all you sheep. If he shows up at my beach, I’m going to spray him with my kids water guns…Hes running for Congress against Matt Geitz…

Comments are closed.


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