\n<\/p>\n
Orlando activists use chalk to color in a crosswalk near the Pulse nightclub after the DeSantis administration removed a rainbow memorial.<\/span>Ronaldo Silva\/NurPhoto\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n As the nation<\/span> reels from last week\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Transportation removed<\/a> rainbow markings from a crosswalk in Orlando. There are rainbow-colored crosswalks across the country showing communities\u2019 commitment to equality, but this one had special significance\u2014it was painted as a memorial<\/a> 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<\/a>. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in US history.<\/p>\n The removal of the Orlando crosswalk was, supposedly, part of an effort by federal and state transportation officials to eliminate roadway \u201cdistractions.\u201d And while it\u2019s true that officials are now removing all sorts of colorful street art\u2014both political and apolitical<\/a>\u2014the overriding motive seems to be a GOP attempt to use \u201csafety\u201d concerns as a pretext for cracking down on speech.<\/p>\n \u201cRoads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,\u201d US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared<\/a> in July. He demanded<\/a> that the nation\u2019s governors crack down \u201cespecially\u201d on political content in \u201cintersections and crosswalks.\u201d Florida\u2019s transportation secretary, meanwhile, described<\/a> the initiative as an effort to \u201censure we keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies,\u201d and his department released guidance barring \u201cpavement surface art that is associated with social, political, or ideological messages.\u201d Amid an uproar over the state\u2019s actions in Orlando, Gov. Ron DeSantis was even more explicit:<\/p>\n The removal of the Pulse rainbow has, unsurprisingly, sparked particular outrage. The crosswalk is \u201ca symbol not only of LBGTQ people, but also our city\u2019s own history, and the way our community came together in the wake of that tragedy,\u201d Carlos Guillermo-Smith, a state lawmaker from Orlando, told the Washington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> \u201cTargeting rainbows is about erasing the LGBTQ community.\u201d<\/p>\n Activists have fought back, using chalk to replace the paint that had been removed from the crosswalk. Authorities countered by washing away that chalk\u2014and threatening to prosecute<\/a> anyone engaged in \u201cdefacing\u201d 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\u2019s when state highway patrol officers arrested Orestes Sebastian Suarez, a Georgia resident who was visiting Orlando for his birthday. <\/p>\n Suarez was taken into custody on felony charges \u201cafter troopers said they saw him coloring the bottom of his shoes with chalk and then walking in the crosswalk,\u201d according to local news station WESH2<\/a>. \u201cWe put some chalk down on the ground, and before we knew it, an officer was approaching us, saying, we wanna talk to you,\u201d Suarez later told the outlet<\/a>. \u201cI identified myself, tried to do everything the correct way, and before I knew it, I was in the back of a squad car.\u201d<\/p>\n A judge, apparently, was unconvinced by the allegations, declaring<\/a> Saturday that there had been no probable cause for the arrest and releasing Suarez without bail as prosecutors decide whether to pursue formal charges.<\/p>\n \u201cTo 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\u2019s just insane in my opinion,\u201d Suarez told WESH2.<\/p>\n Update, September 1: <\/em>The chalking arrests continued<\/a> Sunday.<\/p>\n