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AWW AND ORDER

Florida Man Arrested for Releasing Balloons into the Air

It was meant to be a romantic gesture, but for authorities it was merely pollution

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: wodumedia.com

A Florida man who simply hoped to enjoy a bit of romance with his boo instead ran afoul of a little-used environmental law.

Anthony Brasfield and girlfriend Shaquina Baxter were sharing a mylar-filled moment in the parking lot of a Motel 6 near Fort Lauderdale, releasing a dozen heart-shaped balloons into the sky when a Florida trooper happened upon the scene and ruined the vibe by arresting Brasfield. The crime: "polluting to harm humans, animals, and plants" under the strictures of the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act. Apparently, endangered wood storks and brown pelicans live a mere mile and a half away from the location of Brasfield's romantic gesture, and could bear the brunt of the balloons' eventual landing.

"Between 2008 and 2012, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said there were 21 arrests statewide under the rarely used environmental crime statute," reads the report. "The third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison."

Via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
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Does the law go too far here, or is it necessary to stop harm to the environment?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • u
    Cheenoguy
    !
    Stupid enough to think that taking his girlfriend to a Motel 6 and giving her children's party favors would be "romantic".
  • harold_lloyd
    !
    It's not just mylar balloons, it's any balloon that could come down in water and be ingested by endangered wildlife, particularly sea turtles which are likely to eat them, mistaking them for it's regular diet of jellyfish.
    One balloon equals one dead turtle.
  • harold_lloyd
    !
    @Dan_Tien
    I'm not sure that much of anything goes through the minds of sea turtles.

    But it's not hard to find out what kills them, because they wash up on shore or get caught in trawl nets. When you open them up, you find that some object has blocked their intestine and resulted in mortality.

  • View all 36 replies >

  • Knightkore
    !
    Oh for crying out loud....flying heck....seriously? Have pollitically correct, environmental terrorists gone off the deep end? A conversation in prision "Why are you in here man? Murder a few people....you? Released some balloons for my lover....dude....that's....tha t's inhumane...."

    Now....read and re-read that probable interaction in prison and let me know what is nucking futs with America....

    So when is the re-programming brainwashing going to happen?
  • u
    Cheenoguy
    !
    @Knightmare
    Only a moron would think damaging the only planet we are currently capable of living on shouldn't be a crime.
    A fine probably should have been sufficient though.
    You shouldn't be pissed that this polluter went to jail you should be pissed about industry and its CEOs not going to jail for the attempts to destroy our planet for profit.
  • Knightkore
    !
    @Cheenoguy I am. It is the industries and CEO's and corporations that need to be looked at....not mention our government....but come on....releasing balloons in the air? How many political party's in celebration, including President Hussein Obama have done this? New York on New Year's Eve.....

    There is being responsible and taking care of the environment and there is obsession....
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Guess the Trooper didn't have a heart! The "lovers" could have shown their love in more environmental ways.......like matching large tattoos on their foreheads of each others names. Now that's love....bahaha
  • u
    metre
    !
    Big deal, "Ignorantia juris non excusat" or "Ignorance of the law is NOT an excuse (or a defense)". But common sense would tell you that what comes up must come down and therefore "Releasing Balloons into the Air" EVENTUALLY would mean that you have littered/polluted. And this comes from someone who lives by the ocean and is CONSTANTLY picking depleted balloons up off of the beach and out of the water. So, even IF they didn't endanger wildlife they ARE pollution/litter and the individual SHOULD know better and be held accountable.
  • Bobolinsky
    !
    I couldn't care less about what the envirowhackos have to say. They can suck my b***s for all I care. Though I can't say I'd be opposed to an envirowhacko sucking my balls, I do have to take exception to any claims they have about the "environment."

    Back when I forked over money at an REM concert to join Greenpeace, I soon after learned that envirogroups arent concerned with the environment.

    On top of that? Democrats aren't interested in any kind of monitoring of dangerous enviroterrorist groups like ELF.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Liberation...
  • jessejaymes
    !
    That's unfortunate that you would fork over money to "join" an organization that has NEVER in their existence allowed people to simply join. They accept donations, they will call you a friend of Greenpeace but they have never EVER allowed people to walk up and just join for a fee. Gonna have to call BS on this one.
  • Bobolinsky
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    @jessejaymes-- you need to look into how Greenpeace, Sierra Club etc suckers in the gullible. I was a "member"... whatever that meant... whether you want to label it as such or not. The young often reject the labels that the old assign.

    I was a stupid ass at an REM concert. What's your excuse?
  • jessejaymes
    !
    @Bobolinsky No you were NOT a member of Greenpeace. the only MEMBERS of Greenpeace are active Greenpeace workers and staff. Everyone else is a "friend of Greenpeace". I know this for a fact because we did research to point out that Greenpeace is and was an elitist organization that will take your money but allow NO say in what they do or pursue. You got snookered if you were told anything different and believed it.
  • jessejaymes
    !
    You know you right wingers really shouldn't engage in fear tactics like this. Say we went to total full socialized medicine. What are the doctors going to do when they can only make 200,000 a year instead of a million getting paid off by big pharma? Stop being doctors and go drive a truck? Perhaps become brick layers? or Goat herders? Get real man. Even with socialized medicine the doctors and nurses will still make more than 70% of the population. Get off your high horse. Doctors are not going to be quitting to flip burgers at Wendy's.
  • Malitia_Man
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    @jessejaymes

    Who said anything about doctors quitting??? While I believe some doctors will peruse other fields of the trade under socialized healthcare, the majority will be RETIRING!!! And statistics have shown that there has been a decline of people seeking & or perusing a medical career... Some of its due to Obamacare... Most of it has to do with the commitment to a college for 8 years!! And how is it "fear mongering" when it's the truth!!!

    I would rather be slapped in the face by the truth, than be cuddled by a lie!!!
  • jessejaymes
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    @Malitia_Man Well "your" system isn't working. We have the most expensive health care in the world and are not even rated in the top 10 anymore. So much for rhetoric.
  • Malitia_Man
    !
    @jessejaymes

    We have the most "expensive" healthcare in the world, but people still seem to be coming here for treatment!!! Why do Canadians come for treatment here, rather than die due to socialized medicine??? Doesn't seem to make sense does it???

  • View all 34 replies >

  • u
    CaryNickel
    !
    Agreed. I find mylar balloons laying around in the desert quite often, and I usually just pick them up and haul them out with my own trash. Guess what other "pollution" I've found laying around in the desert? Expended weather monitoring balloons that are government sponsored and often launched from liberal collage campuses. Think lefties are hypocrites? Of course they are!
  • TheJimmy
    !
    @Hoosierdaddy Definitely. This has absolutely nothing to do with balloons or the environment whatsoever. It has everything to do with a racist cop taking pleasure in ruining a young African-American couple's Valentines Day get together. At least that's what my friends on the Far Left believe.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    @TheJimmy HMMM.....the only scent of racism I smelled also smelled a bit like the truth. Racism happens in all walks of life, but, TheJimmy has shown very little if any (unless dry wit is considered racist)..

  • View all 6 replies >

  • AlexMIA
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    I'm all for the environment but slapping someone with third degree felony over a law most don't even know about is excessive. All my cop friends would say the trooper was a zero.
  • Knightkore
    !
    Been wondering about this....shouldn't politically parties be in jail right now....even President Hussein Obama....how many balloons have they released into the air?
  • jessejaymes
    !
    You know I haven't bought a mylar balloon for over 30 years I bet and I've known for at least 20 of those years that there were laws against releasing them. And I'm an old guy who doesn't get out much anymore. Why is this such a surprise to you people?
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  •
    stepped_in_it
    !
    @harold_lloyd HMMM....always thought communism laid in it's death bed nearly 30 years ago. Some are not only stuck in the 20th century, but, maybe time warping into the 19th or 18th century also.....;-)
  • Fishbone345
    !
    I wonder if he had any plans to follow the balloons and pick up the refuse when they run out of helium?
    You might as well just go take balloons sans helium and dump them in a field somewhere, the same end result is achieved.
    How callous can you be?
  • Jinks
    !
    I'm going out tomorrow and buy a bunch of rubber and drop it into the middle of a field somewhere. Correction: I won't be going out tomorrow and buy a bunch of rubber and drop it into the middle of a field somewhere.

    I realized that there is a difference between messages attached to a contraption that might travel halfway across the globe and deliver a message to someone a "world" away... and a piece of rubber sitting in a field.
  •
    Fishbone345
    !
    @Jinks "I realized that there is a difference between messages attached to a contraption that might travel halfway across the globe and deliver a message to someone a "world" away... and a piece of rubber sitting in a field. "
    Yah, that's exactly what this guy was doing too, trying to send messages to someone a "world" away.
  • Jinks
    !
    @Fishbone345 Unless there's a plague of guys wanting to send messages to a world away, I dont see the problem.
  • harold_lloyd
    !
    First, I doubt that the poor idiot will do any jail time, and I suspect that there is more to the story.

    Troopers here in FL are not generally into the 'cop attitude' thing, and it's just possible that the ballon guy got mouthy.
  • harold_lloyd
    !
    @TheJimmy
    No, I'm not. And it's kind of silly to bring that up.

    Or do you think that of all the many people releasing ballons in that parking lot that he picked the person of color?

    Was the trooper white?

    Are you a little over-sensitive to the race thing?
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Whenever I deal with a cop, the terms I generally use are "yes, sir....no, sir". To many now expect respect without giving respect. You just might be right about the "mouthy" thing!

  • View all 6 replies >

  • mudpike
    !
    Get some helium - some extra heavy duty garbage bags - fill them with aluminum foil balls & strips - tie off the bottom & let them fly . Coupla tens of thousands of them going up at the same time will keep these idiots busy for a 'spell '. Give the morons something to do , after all they never see UFO's anyhow .
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