Police in Florida arrested a man for wearing a mask in public during training, body camera video

Only a few years ago, the police in this country arrested people for the lack of masks in public places during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But a newly released video from last summer shows Florida police arresting a man for walking down the street wearing a ski mask and listening to music from a radio he was carrying.

Titusville police officers told the man they had received a call about a masked man with a gun, but an audio recording of the call to dispatch shows the caller wasn’t even sure he saw a gun.

“There was a guy in there wearing a ski mask and a backpack, and I don’t want to say he put a gun in a bag, but it looked very suspicious,” the woman told the dispatcher in the recording, which can be heard in the video below.

Also, a controversial state law that took effect in 2023 allows citizens to carry concealed weapons without a permit, so even if he had a gun, it wouldn’t be illegal if the citizen is a legal resident of the United States and over the age of 21 with no criminal convictions. felony or drug offenses and other conditions are the same criteria required for Florida residents applying for a concealed handgun permit.

And while there are laws in Florida that prohibit citizens from wearing masks in public, those laws are outdated and require other acts like intimidation, threats, abuse, or harassment to be considered a lawful arrest because they were designed to combat Ku Klux Klan in masks. members terrorizing black people.

However, law enforcement officers from all over the country began to use them “secret laws” to arrest people who are peacefully protesting against the US government, according to American Civil Liberties Union Florida

Secret laws banning people from wearing masks in public are now being used against people wearing masks during a peaceful protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. This is a big problem.

In the 1940s and 50s, many US states passed anti-mask laws in response to the Ku Klux Klan, whose members often concealed their identities while terrorizing their victims. These laws were not passed to protect these victims, but because political leaders wanted to protect segregation as part of the “modern South” and believed that the violent racism of the Klan made them look bad.

These laws are now being used across the country to try to suppress dissenting groups and movements, raising questions about selective prosecution.

The man in the latest video, who told police he had been working out, was handcuffed and taken into custody after he refused to identify himself, telling officers his name was “John” without giving his last name or date of birth.

However, when officers searched his backpack and found several water bottles and nothing else, the two began a conversation that was either turned off by police at the scene or later, before the video was released.

But they decided to let him go after that 18-second conversation, likely realizing Florida has no law against wearing a mask in public without another main factors such as intimidation, threats and harassment, which was not here.

Detention

The incident happened on July 8 after a woman called police who wasn’t sure she saw a gun but was concerned about the mask. The woman who was driving when she spotted the man also told the dispatcher that he was hiding behind a bush, adding to her concern.

Police stopped the man as he walked down the sidewalk without a mask and asked if he had a gun, to which he denied.

“Somebody said they thought they saw a gun,” the officer said. “I am asking you if you are armed.”

“I don’t have a weapon,” said the man. “I walk, exercise. I would like to go now. Is that okay with you?”

But the policeman demanded to know why he was wearing a mask as he pulled the mask from his neck to his face.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” the man said. “I am legally allowed to exist. By law, I’m allowed to cover as much as I want.”

However, the policeman demanded his ID when other officers arrived at the scene, but he insisted that he had no ID on him.

Meanwhile, other Titusville officers drove up to the bush he was allegedly hiding behind and encountered a woman hiding behind the bush because she was afraid of the masked man.

However, this woman did not mention the gun.

“Did you see someone here wearing a mask or something?” the policeman asked the woman.

“There was a guy who had a big radio,” she said, saying she was scared, but not because of the gun. “And I think he went there.”

But as soon as the police confronted him, he exercised his constitutional right to be free from illegal search and seizure.

“Can you confirm without stripping me naked and violating my rights that I don’t have a weapon,” he said.

At one point during the arrest, the man opened his backpack and pulled out several water bottles to show officers he didn’t have a gun, but the cops handcuffed him, fearing he might pull out a gun.

But there was no gun, so he was released without charge.

The video of the detention was discussed in YouTuber BP Castwhich analyzes illegal detentions on video and has more than 101,000 subscribers