Amid a Wave of Mass Shootings, Florida Cracks Down on Chalk

Orlando activists use chalk to color in a crosswalk near the Pulse nightclub after the DeSantis administration removed a rainbow memorial.Ronaldo Silva/NurPhoto/AP

As the nation reels from last week’s horrific school shooting in Minnesota, authorities in Florida seem to be doing everything in their power to re-traumatize a community victimized by a different mass attack. That now includes arresting one protester, apparently for leaving temporary chalk footprints in a crosswalk that has become a flashpoint in Republican efforts to expunge pro-LGBTQ messaging from the public square.

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Transportation removed^[2] rainbow markings from a crosswalk in Orlando. There are rainbow-colored crosswalks across the country showing communities’ commitment to equality, but this one had special significance—it was painted as a memorial^[3] to the 2016 massacre at the nearby Pulse nightclub, an LGBTQ bar where 49 people were slaughtered by a gunman who expressed support for ISIS^[4]. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

The removal of the Orlando crosswalk was, supposedly, part of an effort by federal and state transportation officials to eliminate roadway “distractions.” And while it’s true that officials are now removing all sorts of colorful street art—both political and apolitical^[5]—the overriding motive seems to be a GOP attempt to use “safety” concerns as a pretext for cracking down on speech.

“Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared^[6] in July. He demanded^[7] that the nation’s governors crack down “especially” on political content in “intersections and crosswalks.” Florida’s transportation secretary, meanwhile, described^[8] the initiative as an effort to “ensure we keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies,” and his department released guidance barring “pavement surface art that is associated with social, political, or ideological messages.” Amid an uproar over the state’s actions in Orlando, Gov. Ron DeSantis was even more explicit:

The removal of the Pulse rainbow has, unsurprisingly, sparked particular outrage. The crosswalk is “a symbol not only of LBGTQ people, but also our city’s own history, and the way our community came together in the wake of that tragedy,” Carlos Guillermo-Smith, a state lawmaker from Orlando, told the Washington Post^[9]. “Targeting rainbows is about erasing the LGBTQ community.”

Activists have fought back, using chalk to replace the paint that had been removed from the crosswalk. Authorities countered by washing away that chalk—and threatening to prosecute^[10] anyone engaged in “defacing” the street. But the anti-woke crackdown reached the absurd Friday night, after protesters began putting chalk on their shoes and leaving colorful footprints in the crosswalk. That’s when state highway patrol officers arrested Orestes Sebastian Suarez, a Georgia resident who was visiting Orlando for his birthday.

Suarez was taken into custody on felony charges “after troopers said they saw him coloring the bottom of his shoes with chalk and then walking in the crosswalk,” according to local news station WESH2^[11]. “We put some chalk down on the ground, and before we knew it, an officer was approaching us, saying, we wanna talk to you,” Suarez later told the outlet^[12]. “I identified myself, tried to do everything the correct way, and before I knew it, I was in the back of a squad car.”

A judge, apparently, was unconvinced by the allegations, declaring^[13] Saturday that there had been no probable cause for the arrest and releasing Suarez without bail as prosecutors decide whether to pursue formal charges.

“To come here and do something like this, and to be threatened with something so extreme as a felony charge for protesting and showing love to your fellow human, it’s just insane in my opinion,” Suarez told WESH2.