OPINION:
A 19-year-old Florida man faces felony charges for showing disrespect for the LGBTQ community.
Police say Dylan Brewer drove with aggression over the rainbow painted across a Delray Beach intersection in February. He and his lawyers are scheduled to discuss the matter with a Palm Beach County judge on Tuesday.
High jinks of this sort might ordinarily result in a ticket costing a few hundred dollars, yet State Attorney Dave Aronberg, a Democrat, insists this young man deserves to be locked up for five years over it.
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This is quite a contrast to how other Palm Beach County protesters have been handled. In 2020, Black Lives Matter activists set fire to cars, fired guns and looted stores. Only 10 perpetrators of the mayhem were charged, and the serious charges were dropped under pretrial diversion deals that eliminated meaningful consequences for their violent actions.
Mr. Brewer is being treated differently because his Dodge Ram pickup truck supposedly performed burnouts over “Pride Intersection,” which was painted on the pavement at a $16,700 cost.
For the felony to stick, Mr. Aronberg must show that the burnout caused more than $1,000 in damage to the pavement mural — an exhibition on an open street that carries regular traffic. Tires often leave marks on the pavement after hard braking or accelerating. A little elbow grease would have cleaned it up, but it appears the marks have already been washed away by rainfall.
Had Mr. Brewer’s truck been flying a Black Lives Matter banner instead of a Trump flag on the evening in question, one can’t help but think he wouldn’t be threatened with a felony. The officer even checked the “reckless driving” box on the citation issued at the scene, indicating that no property had been damaged. The story changed a week later when officials asserted that substantial damage had been done.
Mr. Brewer appears by his actions to object to the city’s forcing the “pride” message on residents, and burning a bit of rubber on the road was his response. There are legitimate reasons to disagree with the politicization of public thoroughfares. Pride is the worst of the seven deadly sins, yet governments at all levels spend the entire month of June celebrating vice as if it were virtue.
There are also valid safety concerns about kaleidoscopic pavement designs creating a distraction. Federal rules had discouraged such displays until Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg loosened standards last year, while acknowledging that research is underway into potential hazards.
Because Mr. Brewer wasn’t burning the American flag or looting a Best Buy store, a left-wing prosecutor is out to ruin his future. The First Amendment protects everyone’s speech equally, but such protections are meaningless when vindictive prosecutors single out anyone disagreeing with the government’s speech.
So far, Mr. Brewer has raised $35,000 from the public toward his defense in a matter that should never have advanced to this stage. To the extent his impish behavior deserves punishment, a few hours of community service would suffice.
Seeking to brand this young man a felon for life for disagreeing with leftists is an act of wrath — another deadly sin. Gov. Ron DeSantis ought to put a stop to the malicious prosecution with a preemptive pardon.
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