ORLANDO, Fla. – At the crosswalk outside the former Pulse Nightclub — where a man was arrested after allegedly leaving chalky footprints while crossing the street — more signs that were left overnight suggest it’s now prohibited to use chalk on the sidewalk, too.
The man who was arrested Friday night — Orestes Sebastian Suarez, 29 — was accused of using chalk to color the bottom of his shoe before crossing the road, leaving footprints. Suarez faced a charge of defacing a traffic device ($1,000 or more) and was held overnight on a $5,000 bond until a judge on Saturday afternoon found no probable cause for the arrest and said that Suarez would be released.
“Statute 316.0775, ‘Interference with official traffic control device,’ indicates that this is specifically for damage to traffic control devices,” Suarez‘s attorney said, making a probable-cause challenge that the state made no objection to. “The definitions of this particular section of Florida Statutes do not include crosswalks as traffic control devices and, further, Florida Statute 316.1895 delineates a specific difference between traffic control devices and pedestrian control devices. There was no actual defacement or damage value asserted in this. The statute’s overly broad and vague and even if there was some alleged damage, the crosswalk is an extension of the sidewalk, which is a traditionally-held public forum where the freedom of speech is a protected right. So, I don’t believe that there is any probable cause to arrest this gentleman under this statute.”…