A.G. Gancarski
The Jacksonville Beaches on the Fourth of July have a certain amount of public safety concerns. Townies cross the ditch, get blitzed, and act the fool. Since Independence Day 2011, when there was a bit of a melee at Jax Beach, there has been increased vigilance.
That’s the price of doing business. Neptune Beach has been conscious of it, as a 2014 article from The Island Times documenting Mayor Harriet Pruette and Police Chief David Sembach fretting about the impending July 4 happening documented.
In this article, Sembach cited townies and renters as being the problem. He fretted about his police force being outmanned, even then. Mayor Pruette expressed similar concerns: “the word is out that Jacksonville Beach is cracking down, and people are saying ‘let’s just go to Neptune Beach.’ They’re taking advantage of us because they know we don’t have the manpower.”
The scene on First Street on Independence Day, the mayor added, was “out of control.”
So back then, the mayor and the chief had clear communication. A shared purpose and understanding of the clear and present danger posed by those who celebrate freedom just too vigorously.
Well, that didn’t last.
On this July 4, police officers arrested Lane Pittman, a guitarist shredding a version of the national anthem, Hendrix style. Cops told him to stop playing. Apparently, Pittman got the idea that he could play on the sidewalk. From there, Pittman found himself arrested. Since then, he has been a cause celebre in the local media.
National coverage has followed. Even global. And why not? It’s not like the European Union is undergoing something of a triage; not as if the Chinese equity markets are in rather drastic correction. This story, of a kid arrested for playing the Star Spangled Banner, struck a nerve with media. As if Pittman was striking a blow for free speech or individualism, and as if his decision not to heed a police warning and play a four minute guitar solo in protest was a rational decision.
Duval County is a place, after all, where law enforcement works differently, depending on your sociological circumstances. Lane Pittman benefits from what some call white skin privilege.
In fact, Pittman’s case has exposed a schism between the Neptune Beach mayor and police chief. A memo after the fact was somewhat lacerating, saying “as I mentioned at the end of the special meeting last week ‘getting any information out of you is like pulling teeth.’ Again, to have this whole incident make national news and you not brief the Council on the details is totally unacceptable.”
So if it had stayed local, it would have been more acceptable? How about regional?
Perhaps the reason the chief didn’t sound the Drudge Report siren is because he saw it as just another incident on a holiday where an overtaxed police department gets to babysit a bunch of soused adults. Perhaps it really wasn’t that big a deal. Perhaps he could have moved on. Pittman chose not to.
And the mayor chose to reprimand the police chief in the public record, for reasons that will only undermine that chief’s ability to do his job come the inevitable bacchanalia of Labor Day weekend, weakening him but not appreciably strengthening her own position.
