Earlier in the week, Florida‘s governor yielded to an order from the US Transportation Secretary to remove Pride crosswalks, notably targeting the one near Orlando’s Pulse memorial. This memorial and the crosswalk serve as a reminder of the 2016 LGBTQ+ massacre that claimed 49 lives. And while people painted Orlando’s Pulse crosswalk back to rainbow colors, sadly, police erased it again and are now stationed at the crosswalk to prevent any repainting. Then people started becoming more clever in their rebellion.
Since Florida police are now intent on keeping the crosswalks unpainted, it appears many other people simply moved on to other crosswalks all over Florida. In fact, a new Pride/rainbow crosswalk has popped up in Ybor City, the very same day the police started guarding Orlando’s Pulse crosswalk.
“You can try to make chalk illegal in the state of Florida, but we will still find a way. I don’t know of a single rainbow crosswalk that has ever killed a child. Yet I can name countless bus stops across this state without traffic lights—real dangers where tax dollars could be used to protect lives, rather than being wasted on erasing LGBTQ+ visibility,” according to one pro-Pride crosswalk Floridian, transcript courtesy of Erin in the Morning
Florida’s Governor, however, has chosen to continue to uphold the Transportation Secretary’s directive to remove all Pride crosswalks; hence, the Crosswalk Wars have begun. People online have thus pointed out just how much of an uphill battle it is for Florida’s police force to patrol and ensure the “monochromatic-ness” of Florida’s crosswalks.
“There’s more crosswalks than police 🎨🎨🎨” pointed out one Reddit user
“Theres so many roads you could put a rainbow anywhere” replied another one
“I mean Jesus, at this point it might as well be open season on the entire f***ing state. This is the kind of thing that you’d think would be inviting random acts of chalk drawings. Doesn’t have to be crosswalks. Like in response, hundreds of people just walk around and quickly draw a rainbow with chalk on the side of a building, on a sidewalk, on the road near the curb, etc etc etc, just to spite this absolute stupidity.”
In Miami Beach alone, city officials are promising to resist any law-enforcement or governor mandate to remove any Pride crosswalk. However, it appears Florida’s state administration will not back down from this kind of game and might just continue spending tax dollars to try to keep those crosswalks color-free.
Again, though, it’s not clear how Florida’s state-wide law enforcement personnel are going to enforce this directive. The Pulse crosswalk is only one among the estimated 200,000+ crosswalks all over Florida, and the state only has approximately less than 50,000 cops.
People Online are Calling the Directive Stupid
Of course, there’s also the fact that stationing police officers around these crosswalks just to keep them monochrome is a drain on manpower and money. Police officers will notably have to render overtime work just to stand or stay on those crosswalks. Additionally, that kind of effort shifts them away from more pressing matters, such as keeping the streets safe and patrolling instead. Some people have since pointed out just how ridiculous and wasteful the Transportation Secretary’s directive is:
“Now, taxpayer dollars are being wasted guarding empty pavement.”
“That’ll bring the price of eggs down, I know it! Saving our country from acceptance and kindness, one idiotic policy at a time.”
“Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.”
“Graffiti artists who put those whole poster murals up quickly can do the funniest thing now. Distract and bam drop a giant rainbow crosswalk sticker over it. Or do every crosswalk around the special one being watched.”
That isn’t to say there are little to no repercussions for any budding crosswalk painter, however. Criminal mischief in Florida for any “damage” to property worth over $1,000 can have heavy consequences if the paint or sticker is permanent. That’s why people are using chalk for now to circumvent the issue. As for Florida authorities, they might need reinforcements for the conflict they started.
