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WATCH: Florida Deputy Illegally Arrests PINAC Reporter Protesting At High School
Broadcast by honoryouroath + YouTube
Florida Sheriff’s deputies illegally enforced the “school safety zones” trespassing law against PINAC reporter Jeff Gray, outside of a St. Augustine high school earlier today. Gray complied with law enforcement orders, and is currently being held in the northeastern Florida St. Johns County jail, but oddly no charges are listed with his mugshot, unlike all of the other suspects as you can see below.
The St. Johns Sheriff’s Office has wanted to detain Gray for many months now, after the local schools Superintendent declared him persona non grata, even though Gray has a son currently attending St. Augustine High School and two other children in the system.
Jeff Gray was arrested while protesting with a sign in hand, the SLAPP lawsuit filed against him by St. Johns Schools last December. The legal action was filed along with 38 SLAPP letters sent to his home address by certified mail, one of which invoked Florida Statute 810.0975 and its “school safety zones.”
“How are you doing, Mr. Gray?” asked the Florida deputy as he got out of his patrol car, wearing street clothing, to which Jeff responded, “Pretty good. How are you?” “May I ask you why are you here?” asked the St. Johns sheriff’s deputy. “I am peacefully assembling and peacefully protesting,” replied Gray. “Ok. Do you realize [that] this is a violation of your no trespass order that was issued. Correct?” asked the deputy.
“No, it’s not actually. There’s a provision that that says “shall not infringe on the right to peacefully assemble and protest If you look in the statute, it’s right there,” said Gray, whose HonorYourOath YouTube page is famously filled with instances like these where the reporter very carefully expresses to the officers his statutory or constitutional rights, and he re-iterated for emphasis, “In the statute. That’s why I’m here.”
“This is within the 500 foot safety rule, so i’m putting you under arrest for violation of that trespass order,” replied the Florida deputy who seemed to suddenly remember that Gray is a reporter and would in all likelihood be recording the scene, “If you would, put your sign down, turn your phone off, put your hands behind your back, turn around please. Put your hands together like you’re praying, please.”
Gray surrendered to detainment. “If you look at the statute, there’s a provision…” said Gray as the sheriff’s deputy cuffed him. But Jeff Gray is right. The last sentence of the “School Safety Zones” statute reads: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to abridge or infringe upon the right of any person to peaceably assemble and protest.”
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday March 15 2016, @05:00AM
The "trespass order" is in retaliation for an exposé he did following a school bus crash. He found that bus drivers were not carrying out pre-trip inspections as required by law, and dumbly admitted to falsifying records, among other things. As a truck driver and CDL holder, he knows to take pre-trip inspections seriously. Local news media like news4jax [news4jax.com] also picked it up. It's very embarrassing for that school district. I expect the trespass order itself will not hold up under court scrutiny.
The pre-trip inspection investigation is an offshoot of public records audits that PINAC members like to do. In Florida in particular, there is a strong public records law, however compliance is bad (since most agencies don't encounter citizens well-informed of their right to public records) and enforcement is a long game [photographyisnotacrime.com]. The State Legislature could end up gutting the law to make it easier for corporations acting on behalf of the state to avoid public records requests. Note that the law allows you to request records where they are located, without going through a central office or PR person in some other location, and does not require you to identify yourself. Some of Gray's most recent public records audits have involved going into a school lobby and requesting access to inspect and photograph a binder of fire safety documents that is in plain view. Older audits at various locations test the very easiest public record to provide: the sign-in sheet in plain view of anybody who walks in. Reactions to these audits vary. Some will be very cooperative, others will be cooperative, but flustered or confused when Jeff Gray refuses to identify himself (not required by the Public Records Act [flhsmv.gov]), and others will flat-out refuse and call the cops for no reason. The encounters are recorded on video, often contradicting statements like "he was abusive and I felt threatened". Not recording these encounters is just plain risky, since public officials and law enforcement lie time and time again.
Ignoring the protest legality argument, since that's already been laid out here and may be decided in court, let's talk about your general attitude towards First Amendment audits.
Recording from public sidewalks or public right-of-ways is a First Amendment protected activity, and there should be no consequences for citizens that are so-called "trolling" for police misconduct. As can be seen in many Gray 1st Amendment audit videos [youtube.com] (or on similar channels [youtube.com]), the cops or building/prison/whatever security will be called, show up, and they do a little fishing. They always ask for identification. In most states, if you aren't being detained or arrested, you don't have to provide ID. The cops can't legally detain you without an articulable suspicion that a crime has occurred. That's a gray area, but if they aren't detaining you, you don't need to produce ID. They also like to pull the terrorism/ISIS card, attempting to shame the videographer, as if recording a police station from a public sidewalk is somehow indicative of terrorist activity.
The only "trolling" involved is on the part of the police. If you watch some of Gray's videos, you'll find that he is calm and polite. Ideally, cops/security wouldn't troll by approaching a videographer in the first place, since it is ridiculous to do so. However, if they do make a consensual contact, it's no problem if they ask to see ID, so as long as they accept "no" for an answer. If they repeatedly ask for ID, threaten to arrest for the non-crime of "not showing ID" (when no crime has been committed), or just generally harass the videographer, that's when they show the world (through YouTube) that they are thugs that are not used to citizens asserting their rights. While such police drama results in an interesting video and possibly some YouTube cash/donations, Gray and others have made it clear that they would rather not be approached or harassed. Yet the boys in blue fall for it... often. So who's the troll? The guy on the public sidewalk with a camera, or the cop attempting to harass and scare citizens into showing ID when they aren't obligated to? This is not counting the straight up brutality that might result, including false arrest, the use of the ultimate "contempt of cop" charge (yelling "stop resisting!" repeatedly and reflexively), or completely illegal attempts to delete footage from cameras. Some of these First Amendment audits have resulted in settlements forcing police departments to clarify policies by making it clear that citizens are allowed to film out in public, or requiring officers to go through additional training, which they clearly need.
If you ask me to select some specific/short videos for you to watch, I can do that later.