A Florida Highway Patrol officer arrested two people Sunday afternoon for allegedly “defacing” the formerly rainbow-colored crosswalk outside of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub — the latest in a string of questionable arrests.
According to court records, on Nov. 23, 28-year-old James Houchins and 29-year-old Austin “Bubba” Trahan were caught on video “aggressively” chalking the term “Resist” onto the crosswalk, which is owned and maintained by the state Department of Transportation.
The video footage came from the transportation department’s Regional Communications Center, which notified Florida Highway Patrol of the chalkers and dispatched an officer to the area to arrest them.
Both Houchins and Trahan were arrested by the officer Sunday on a third-degree felony charge of criminal mischief for defacing the crosswalk — a piece of roadway that the state formally deems a “traffic control device.”
That charge, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, was reduced by a judge Monday to a misdemeanor. According to Houchins himself, however, the state would have to formally file that misdemeanor charge in order for that to go through, and he told Orlando Weekly he doesn’t believe that will happen.
“My understanding with that is, if the state wants to charge even at a misdemeanor level, they have to go in and officially refile those charges. And just like the other four who have been arrested, they’re not going to do that,” Houchins said in a phone call Tuesday.
At least four people have similarly been arrested for “defacing” the crosswalk outside of Pulse since August, following the state’s decision to paint over the rainbow colors of the crosswalk in the dead of night. State transportation officials claimed the goal was to ensure roadways were not being used for “political” or “ideological” purposes. Florida Gov. DeSantis also later claimed the colors posed a “safety hazard.”
“This crosswalk means so much more,” Houchins told the Weekly. “I mean, yes, it’s LGBTQ. Yes, it’s our community. But for what it stands for, with the memorial and the 49 people lost.”
The rainbow checkered crosswalk, originally approved by FDOT in 2017, was in part established to memorialize the victims and survivors of the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub. Local elected officials have also said the crosswalk’s rainbow colors were meant to enhance safety, not undermine it.
A steep cost to de-‘Resist’
Under Florida statutes, property damage-related criminal mischief is subject to a third-degree felony if the cost of the damage is believed to exceed $1,000. Otherwise, if the cost is less, it’s punishable as a misdemeanor.
FHP officer Christopher Gonzalez, the arresting officer, claimed in his arrest report that restoring the crosswalk to its “original state” — post-“Resist” — would cost the state an estimated $1,004.
Tellingly, Gonzalez added that previous costs for “repairs” and washing down the crosswalk “have been over $1,500.” Protesters against the state’s decision to remove the rainbow colors of the crosswalk have chalked over it multiple times since August.
“It’s an intimidation tactic,” Houchins argued, adding that to him, it seems like the state is trying to “fabricate a crime.”
“Our attorney argued that it’s water-soluble chalk, and, you know, it washes away in the rain,” he explained. The judge, in response to the argument Monday, agreed there was no probable cause for the felony, and reduced the charge to a misdemeanor for damage costing less than $200.
Houchins told the Weekly that he and Trahan were at the crosswalk Sunday afternoon because they’d heard that FHP had “ripped” Puerto Rican and rainbow-colored flags from the grassy area outside of Pulse nightclub that morning — planted there by community members — and that they’d pressure-washed the nearby curb, sidewalk, and formerly-rainbow crosswalk of chalk, too.
The pair subsequently took it upon themselves to replace the flags and re-chalk the crosswalk with the understanding that, at worst, they’d face a citation for doing so. “We had already spoken to the lieutenant several times before the Highway Patrol, and [were] informed that, you know, it’s a citation, it’s not an arrest.”
Gonzalez, a FHP trooper, later found the two sitting at a Dunkin across the street from Pulse, where they were directed to “hang tight” before their arrest, according to Houchins. “The two individuals stated they did not chalk or deface the crosswalk but were only chalking the nearby sidewalk,” Gonzalez wrote in their arrest report.
Although Houchins doesn’t have any personal connection to the Pulse tragedy himself, he said what the state did in painting over the crosswalk — from rainbow colors back to standard black-and-white — “was a blatant attack on the LGBTQ community.”
“Continuing to show up, continuing to show them that we’re not backing down — we’re not going to stop that,” he said. “We’re not allowing their intimidation to stop us from being who we are.”
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McKenna Schueler
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