Florida has become a bit of a running joke on the internet due to the amount of strange arrest reports that seem to emerge from the state on a weekly basis.
But while many Florida arrest reports seem fairly cut and dry, we recently stumbled across one that could attract some attention when it heads to courts.
According to The Associated Press, a Lake City, Florida man was driving his Chevrolet truck on U.S. 90 just before 6 pm this week when he was pulled over by a Columbia County sheriff’s deputy. The officer informed the motorist that he had pulled him over due to the vulgar sticker on the truck’s back window, which allegedly read “I Eat A–” in white letters, according to the arrest report.
The officer, believing the Chevy’s window sticker to be a violation of Florida obscenity laws, told the driver to remove one of the letters from the sentence, to which he declined. He was then arrested on charges of violating obscenity laws and resisting an officer without violence and later booked into jail. His truck, meanwhile, was towed – hopefully with the rear window sticker still intact.
The motorist, 23-year old Dillon Shane Webb, says the arrest violated his constitutional rights.
“I’m tired of police forces thinking they are above the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,” he said. “What’s vulgar to me might not be vulgar to somebody else.”
Columbia County police, not surprisingly, are leaving it up to the courts to decide whether or not the window sticker is protected by the constitution. The department also said the officer had probable cause to assume the sticker violated obscenity laws.
“If the law is faulty then the Legislature can address that or if the law is unconstitutional then the judiciary will address it,” Sgt. Murray Smith told AP.
Source: AP/Fox
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Silverado news, Chevrolet news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Obscenity laws. What a crock. Exonerate this man.
All we are saying is give peace a chance. JL
It’s always Florida… ?
So much for freedom of speech.
One the one hand I can agree with you, but on the other would you like to see a sticker that proclaimed that the driver saw your mother having sex with an Aardvark? Or you for that matter?
If the sticker was changed to “I eat @$$” would that have bee ok?
He should have checked with Jim Morrison first…
My guess is that time spent in jail will allow him to personally experience his sticker.
The driver said, “What’s vulgar to me might not be vulgar to somebody else.”
That’s very true but has nothing to do with the fact that he forced his standard on everyone on the highway who is old enough to read.
I am thankfully not a lawyer but I think this should be his defense: Join the lbgtq – and what ever the latest acronym is and contact the aclu. Then you see it becomes our civic duty to be interested in what his bedroom activities are all about – case closed.
Unless the exact words are illegal by a Florida statue, the ticket was invalid and without merit.
Maybe the sticker should have read donkey
Personally I just think it’s sad that our police officers have time for such petty traffic stops when kids are shooting each other in schools!
Incarceration only INCREASES his payout come LAW SUIT time.
When I heard about an obscenity case, I immediately remembered lyrics to an old song about just such a thing.
Sometime in the future
you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror
in a so-called obscenity case
It would be wise to remember that the same people
Who would stop you from viewing an adult film
May be back next year to complain about a book or even a TV program
If you can be told what you can see or read
Then it follows that you can be told what to say or think
Defend your constitutionally protected rights
No one else will do it for you
Thank you
This is the truth!!! Do people know how to not pay attention to things they don’t like or are offended by?
This also goes for vanity license plates, you should be able to put what ever you want on your car. If people dont like it then drive around!!!
Nobody is forcing you to read it
Boards of Canada – One Final Thought: Music Has the Right to Children
I never understood why you cant watch a movie with nude parts in it while driving down the road.. it’s your vehicle, your TV equipment!!! If people are looking at your screen then they are violating your personal space. If you dont like it either speed up and go around or slow down so that the passengers in your car cant see what’s being played.
Its called being responsible for yourself and not reporting people when they do things you dont like.
This is all just a cute form of behavior modification!!!
I’ve seen these all around PA and NJ. How is this bad?
When your children is riding in the car with you and they ask you why does someone put that on their vehicle, not the type of conversation I want with my 6 and 8 year old children if we drive up towards a vehicle with that message being displayed. that’s when its bad.
Then either pass the vehicle or slow down so you cant read it.
See the issue is you getting involved with other people’s lives. You have all of the control, but people like you refuse to use it. People complain what’s on TV instead of just changing the channel
Do you think the owner of the truck with the sticker has the right to force me to be constantly vigilant whenever I’ve got my kids in the car? He is the one trying to control me.
Always trying to blame someone else! It’s no different than when you take your kids to the beach and a lady has a little bikini on.
If you dont want your kids looking at a half naked lady, then you pick a different part of the beach to pitch your umbrella.
See you can control the situation but you refuse because you dont want to be the one doing the heavy lifting. See the point your missing is your the one that’s offended not the guy with the sticker on the window. So you should be the one responsible for removing it from your life not the guy with the sticker on his truck.
Besides are you really interested in sheltering your kids from everything in life? You dont think they stumble upon things like that on their phone?
You are just one of those people who wants to control what other people do, but have no interest in being part of the solution.
And that is pathetic in my opinion!!!
I have to drive on public roads. I have no choice when I’m being passed by another car, especially in traffic. This is completely different than what channel I watch, or where I am on the beach. But I’m the one who’s pathetic, with three exclamation points.
Let me ask you this. Is there anything that someone could put on their bumper or window to get others to look at that you would find objectionable? Anything at all?
Sure there are, but I am adult enough to understand that I do not control other people. So when I see it I either stop paying attention to it or I drive around so it not in my view.
See i take the responsibility of dealing with the problem myself. Not forcing other people to do something i want them to do.
It’s called being a adult not a petulant child!!!
Ha! You control other people all the time through the thousands of laws and regulations on the books. The only question here is what will be regulated, not whether there will be regulations. Or are you an anarchist?
I’m not talking about whether I see something. I’m talking about children.
Speaking of children, you keep calling me names, including “petulant child”, but name calling is childish. So, what’s up with that?
Your asking about children looking at a sign on a truck. What do you think a 8 year old looks at on their phone, tablet, YouTube.
Dont be fake, this is about you and only you. You hate when people put this stuff on their vehicles. And you want to come up with a story that can justify telling somebody what they should be doing.
OK, I’ll post your photo, name, address, and phone number on my car with a caution in large red letters, “Suspected Axe Murderer.”
Or do you, like a pathetic, petulant child want to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing?
PS – Nice touch, upvoting your own comments!
I’m sorry that I didn’t recognize that the individuals message display on his vehicle reflects your Standard of Living also, as if you have no standard at all as to how people look at you in public to begin with if your going to defend that guy.
Are you giving a pass for someone to have a pornographic related statement displayed on their Vehicle out in public like it’s okay?, and your solution to that problem on your part is what other than just trying to ignore it?
The point is I dont believe I should have the right to tell somebody what they can and cant do with their personal items.
He wants to put that on his car then I zero problems with it. Because I am in control of my faculties. I have the ability to ignore what it says and move on with my day.
Develop some self control and not let those things bother you.
He has his Freedom of Speech based on how he wants to be looked at in public and I have my Freedom of Opinion based on what I may not like about it, I think that’s a fare trade-off at the end of the day.
What he meant was “I am an a##”. No sticker needed.
You put what ever you want on your car!!! I have desire to tell someone how to live
And all the defenders of bumper sticker dude also agree that burning the American flag is everyone’s right and acceptable as a symbol of free speech, right?
The additude changes when you have something on your vehicle or house or bike and somebody wants you to remove it.
So answer the question
Why cant you ignore the things you dislike? The bumper sticker, why can you just stop looking at it?
Nobody wants to Address this problem. They always think it’s the other persons responsibility to solve their problems.
Remember you are the one with the problem. The guy with the bumper sticker is perfectly fine with the sticker. It’s you making a problem out of it.
2 men or 2 women kissing and fondling each other in public is offensive and obscene to me religiously…
But constitutionally they have the right to not be obstructed to excercise thier rights to engage in such activities… And my right is to turn my head and look elsewhere… Citizens have the right to adorn themselves with extreme multiple piercings or very obscence tattoos which are in my opinion pornographic in some cases… But its still thier right to so … Life, liberty, property … Including thier affects even if it is poor choices in T-shirts Or stickers including the “thin blue line Gang sign that law enforcement adorn” and use as graffiti tags on our public owned property and yet noone speaks against it… But if a citizen is charged for excersizing his rights it is lawful for civil servants to unlawfully detain and arrest the citizen? … for not willing to waive those rights? … I would also like to add how can a citizen be charged with resisting arrest for no crime committed? Arrest is only for a crime … No crime? The law is no arrest… Tyrant actions by law enforcement on a daily basis is a fact. I can assure you the action of our civil servants are far more threatening to the citizens than anything we could write on our property… Maybe citizens should be more aware of how the police think more than what a citizen can write or display.
I like the helpful info you supply for your articles. Thanks for sharing a smart thought.
I remember visiting SW Florida and seeing some punk from New York with NY tags that read “F–k you” . I personally think that is objectionable and does not belong on a license plate. But there is nothing objectionable about the rear window sticker in the article It is a reference to the apple, soup and salad diet. My wife and I have been eating a@@ for about two years. I have lost 65 pounds, she has lost 35 pounds, and we both have a lot more energy and are at our ideal weights. We do walk, particularly in the nice weather, and we still splurge with pizza or other treat one meal per week, but only one. When my colleagues ask me how I did it, I tell them, by eating a@@. I have not, however, thought to put it on my truck.
Those charges were dropped.
I personally disagree, I think you should be able to put whatever you want on your license plates. If you font like it dont look at it. And if your kids ask tell them that is grown up stuff and they are not to be concerned with it.
People need to stop trying to control and dictate what another person does.