PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla.– A Clearwater man was busted for defacing an LGBTQ street mural in South Florida, proving again that the allegedly marginalized are an increasingly protected class.
19-year-old Dylan Brewer was arrested by Delray Beach police after he allegedly did repeated burnouts over a rainbow flag painted in the middle of the intersection at NE 1st Street and 2nd Avenue.
Surveillance video showed Brewer squealing through the intersection on Feb. 4 in his pickup truck with an American flag fluttering from the back.
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Local cops investigated for a week before Brewer turned himself in on Monday morning. It wasn’t clear why Brewer was in Delray Beach at the time of the incident.
According to investigators, police received “multiple reports from concerned citizens” who reported Brewer for engaging in “destructive acts.”
Cops alleged that Brewer caused “significant damage to the streetscape painting, which serves as a symbol of unity and inclusivity for the LGBTQ community.”
Brewer was charged with felony criminal mischief causing over $1,000 in damages and reckless driving. He posted $5,250 bail and was released from the Palm Beach County Jail.
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It’s not the first time a truck driver has peeled out over the LGBTQ mural at this particular intersection.
As the Tampa Free Press reported in April 2022, then-20-year-old Alexander Jerich of Lake Worth was arrested and later pled guilty to the same charges Brewer is facing.
Jerich paid $2,000 to have the intersection repainted, and was ordered by Judge Scott Suskauer to write a 25-page essay about the 2016 massacre that killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando – a popular LGBT hangout that was attacked by a Muslim extremist.
Jerich’s punishment paled in comparison to what left-wing LGBTQ activists wanted. They sought a hate crime charge against Jerich as well as a year in jail and a lifetime ban on Jerich using the public intersection.
As Rugg noted in an X post on Tuesday, “Here is a crazy thought: Don’t paint the street if you are going to be offended when people drive on it.”
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