ORLANDO, Fla. – Another protester at the crosswalk near the Pulse nightclub site was detained by the Florida Highway Patrol Tuesday, but this time there was no arrest.
News 6 watched as a man started to fill in the crosswalk with chalk, as other protesters have been doing ever since the state painted over the rainbow blocks in the crosswalk last month.
Four protesters have been arrested for coloring in the crosswalk.
Troopers detained the man, but did not put him in handcuffs and did not arrest him. He was issued a traffic citation under a different Florida Statute than FHP has used to justify the four other arrests.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis says protesters have been commandeering the crosswalk for their own ends. He says the decision to paint over the former rainbow crosswalk, which the Florida Department of Transportation approved in 2017, is a matter of safety.
“This is kind of an instructive civics lesson here,” DeSantis said in Orlando Tuesday. “You do not have a right to take somebody else’s property for your messaging purposes. That has never been what the First Amendment has said…and we just gotta be clear on that.”
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However, in light of recent arrests at the crosswalk, protesters have been crying foul - claiming that the state is hindering their freedoms of speech and expression.
“I think ‘commandeer’ is a very weird word used for putting chalk on what, in my opinion, is an extension of the sidewalk,” said protester Cait Aldbrandt, who was one of three people arrested Sunday night for using chalk on the crosswalk.
FHP at the time said the act constituted an interference with a traffic control device under Florida law, the same as the three other people arrested.
“This is 100% a politically motivated thing,” Aldbrandt said. “And then they went to cover it up with safety — ‘oh it’s a safety thing.’”
As FHP continues to monitor this area, we’re learning more about the agency’s purpose here.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles tells News 6 that between Aug. 19 and Aug. 27, four sergeants and 10 troopers have been assigned to the on-duty detail outside Pulse, and FHP leadership determined those staffing levels.
Three of the sergeants are from outside of Orange County.
The department tells News 6 that the decision to provide staffing to the intersection of State Road 527, aka South Orange Avenue, and Esther Street, was quote, “based on the need for public safety, the safety of Florida Department of Transportation employees, and to ensure the roadway is not defaced or damaged.”
The Florida Department of Transportation issued a rule change earlier this year after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that crosswalks should be free of political messages or art.
The Pulse crosswalk was the first known crosswalk to be painted over by the state. Crosswalks, intersection art, street murals and even art in bike lanes are being painted over across Florida, after FDOT’s decision.
“When you have a state crosswalk or a state road, the law in the state of Florida is now that there’s no markings or that’s not gonna be used for those purposes. FDOT issued a memo to explain that a couple months ago. Everyone’s been on notice about that,” DeSantis said.
State Attorney Monique Worrell says her office will quote “review each case with fairness, transparency, and respect for both the law and the community we serve.”
The state attorney also included in her statement that she believes the rainbow crosswalk was a memorial to the 49 lives taken at Pulse.