Florida man strikes again! This time in the form of Jacksonville resident lane Pittman, who decided to get patriotic on July 4, as one does, by rocking the National Anthem in the middle of the street… which is a bad idea. Obstruction of traffic is a great way to piss everyone off and get the cops called on you, which is what happened.
So the cops show up and Pittman moves to the sidewalk. No harm, no foul. Except once he was done jamming, he got arrested because he attracted too much of a rowdy crowd! According to police via the Orlando Weekly.
"Out of respect for the national anthem, they let them finish the National Anthem,” Neptune Beach Police Chief David Sembach told WXJT. “He was told he was going to have to stop playing. He went to the sidewalk and continued playing, and it was only after that that the crowd was getting hostile, so the only way to stop it, since he wasn't going to stop playing, was to take him out of the location.”
Pittman has also released his own statement along with the below footage of the incident.
ATTENTION: I want to put this out before anyone hears anything differently. On July 4th, 2015, I was arrested by Neptune Beach police officers for playing the Star Spangled Banner (and a few seconds of Ted Nugent) on my guitar on 1st Street and Margaret in the 32266.I originally set up in the middle of the street but was told by an officer that I was going to go to jail if I kept playing and that I couldn’t play in the street. I then asked if I could just move it back to the side walk and the officer said yes. So I did. After I got done, multiple officers came up to me and said they “just needed to talk to me.” I thought I was in the clear because the original officer told me it was okay to play on the sidewalk. I guess he failed to let his fellow officers know because they detained me and threatened to take me downtown for it. I do not promote deliberately defying authority. I endorse good character and fun times within the system. I did not have a drop of alcohol in my system and was just trying to be as patriotic as I can, legally, on the day of our independence. So, before rumors spread, this is to clarify ANYTHING being said among the public. I have youth that I teach small groups at in church. I have youth that I coach. I would never, for a second, want them to think that intentionally rebelling against authority is something that I am for. Nor do I want the parents of those youth to think that. I am very thankful for the support of THE greatest family, friends, and fans in the entire world. I love all of ya’ll more than you can ever know. Please feel free to share this video to anyone out there. AMERICA!!
Pittman has since hired an attorney "and claims the officers were rude and arrested him without an explanation or reading him his rights," according to the newspaper. I guess this counts as a public disturbance? If you're getting that many people around, things are bund to go south or at least plug up some streets, so I can see where they're coming from.
