Teen charged with felony for leaving skidmarks on LGBT mural
Jul 3, 2024 0:56:33 GMT -5
Post by ExquisiteGerbil on Jul 3, 2024 0:56:33 GMT -5
Florida teen charged with felony for leaving 'donut burnout' skid marks on LGBT pride mural
Charge carries potential 5-year prison sentence
By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, July 02, 2024
A Florida teenager was arrested and charged with a felony on Monday after leaving skid marks with his car on a street pride mural.
Christian Maier, 18, was charged with felony mischief and racing on a street after surveillance footage caught him doing "donut burnouts" with his car on St. Petersburg's "Progressive Pride Street Mural" at 3:45 a.m. on May 22, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Police said the video showed Maier "recklessly maneuvering his car in a way to leave several tire marks across the mural and causing significant damage."
The Progressive Pride Street Mural adorning the roundabout at Central Avenue and 25th Street marked "the original St Pete gayborhood and the birthplace of St. Pete Pride in 2003," according to its Facebook page.
Police in St. Petersburg are continuing to investigate a separate May 17 incident during which a truck also caused damage when it "accelerated through the mural."
"Investigators have no reason to believe the incidents are related," St. Petersburg Police said at the time. "It’s going to cost the city of St. Petersburg $1,100 to restore. The city aims to have the mural repainted in time for pride month festivities."
Under Florida law, felony criminal mischief requires damage in excess of $1,000, and potentially carries a five-year prison sentence.
Many users on X urged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to pardon Maier, with some suggesting his prosecution is ideologically motivated.
"Blasphemy laws are as old as time itself. Nations generally do not accept insults to the national religion. And we’re no different here in the U.S. of Gay," tweeted radio host Jesse Kelly.
"Christian Maier is a hero," tweeted journalist Ian Miles Cheong.
"Pure anarcho-tyranny. In Florida, of all states," tweeted Michael Cassidy, a U.S. Navy veteran who also faced a felony mischief charge for toppling a satanic statue in the Iowa state Capitol last December. In May, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for having the felony dropped.
Similar incidents of teens being severely punished for defacing public LGBT pride murals have made national headlines in recent months.
In February, 19-year-old Dylan Brewer raised tens of thousands of dollars on GiveSendGo after he was charged with a felony for vandalizing an LGBT progress pride crosswalk in Clearwater, Florida, by leaving skid marks on it with his tires.
In June, a 19-year-old named Ruslan V.V. Turko and two unnamed minors in Spokane, Washington, were arrested and booked in the county jail for first-degree malicious mischief after leaving multiple dark skid marks on the city's street pride mural with their scooters, according to the Spokane Police Department.
Lime, the San Francisco-based electric scooter company whose scooters the boys used to leave the skid marks, denounced their actions as "vile" and "hateful." The company subsequently disabled the ability of riders to approach the Spokane pride mural.
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Charge carries potential 5-year prison sentence
By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, July 02, 2024
A Florida teenager was arrested and charged with a felony on Monday after leaving skid marks with his car on a street pride mural.
Christian Maier, 18, was charged with felony mischief and racing on a street after surveillance footage caught him doing "donut burnouts" with his car on St. Petersburg's "Progressive Pride Street Mural" at 3:45 a.m. on May 22, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Police said the video showed Maier "recklessly maneuvering his car in a way to leave several tire marks across the mural and causing significant damage."
The Progressive Pride Street Mural adorning the roundabout at Central Avenue and 25th Street marked "the original St Pete gayborhood and the birthplace of St. Pete Pride in 2003," according to its Facebook page.
Police in St. Petersburg are continuing to investigate a separate May 17 incident during which a truck also caused damage when it "accelerated through the mural."
"Investigators have no reason to believe the incidents are related," St. Petersburg Police said at the time. "It’s going to cost the city of St. Petersburg $1,100 to restore. The city aims to have the mural repainted in time for pride month festivities."
Under Florida law, felony criminal mischief requires damage in excess of $1,000, and potentially carries a five-year prison sentence.
Many users on X urged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to pardon Maier, with some suggesting his prosecution is ideologically motivated.
"Blasphemy laws are as old as time itself. Nations generally do not accept insults to the national religion. And we’re no different here in the U.S. of Gay," tweeted radio host Jesse Kelly.
"Christian Maier is a hero," tweeted journalist Ian Miles Cheong.
"Pure anarcho-tyranny. In Florida, of all states," tweeted Michael Cassidy, a U.S. Navy veteran who also faced a felony mischief charge for toppling a satanic statue in the Iowa state Capitol last December. In May, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for having the felony dropped.
Similar incidents of teens being severely punished for defacing public LGBT pride murals have made national headlines in recent months.
In February, 19-year-old Dylan Brewer raised tens of thousands of dollars on GiveSendGo after he was charged with a felony for vandalizing an LGBT progress pride crosswalk in Clearwater, Florida, by leaving skid marks on it with his tires.
In June, a 19-year-old named Ruslan V.V. Turko and two unnamed minors in Spokane, Washington, were arrested and booked in the county jail for first-degree malicious mischief after leaving multiple dark skid marks on the city's street pride mural with their scooters, according to the Spokane Police Department.
Lime, the San Francisco-based electric scooter company whose scooters the boys used to leave the skid marks, denounced their actions as "vile" and "hateful." The company subsequently disabled the ability of riders to approach the Spokane pride mural.
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