Panama City Beach, FL In the ostensible land of the Free, cops claim the legal authority to extort money from you, or even kidnap you for a slew of activities which have no victim. Window Tint, smoking a plant in you own home, not wearing your seatbelt, walking across the street, sagging your pants, and even juggling can and will get you extorted, kidnapped, caged, or even killed. Now, as a recent case in Florida illustrates, we can add building a sand castle to that long list of victimless crimes.
Bryant Rylee and his family were at the beach last week building an awesome sand castle when they were confronted by police. The officer, who was protecting society by patrolling the beach for illegal sand castles, told the Rylees that their sand castle was in violation of the law.
At first, Rylee thought the officer was joking. After all, he and his son were harming no one while building their most epic castle. In a Facebook post, Rylee explains that it is illegal to build a sand castle with a hole deeper than two feet. However, he explained that their hole was only one foot deep, so there was no way it was in violation.
It wasnt the hole from which the cop was protecting society, though it was Rylees sons equipment that was criminal. According to their obscure ordinance, only plastic tools are allowed on the beach, and they had some metal ones.
It is important to note that the officer explained to Rylee that she would let him off with a warning if he simply filled in the hole. But Rylee wasnt buying it. He wanted to know what ordinance he was violating.
It was Rylees questioning of authority which led to police escalating the call. When her authority was put into question, the officer brought in backup.
Before the officer could tell Rylee which ordinance he was violating, the family was surrounded by police. In fact, four patrol units would show up and sit there for 20 minutes before any of them could produce the law which said metal beach toys were illegal.
According to FEE:
While Rylee, a devout Christian, says he supports law enforcement and prays daily for their protection, he also said on his social media account that, I do believe that we the people have a right to ask what ordinance number or to see the ordinance.
Rylee is absolutely correct. In the American legal system, there is a pillar of jurisprudence known as Mens rae, which is latin for guilty mind. The principle itself comes from the latin phrase actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, which translates to, the act is not culpable unless the mind is guilty.
This is a standard test of criminal liability that asks the state to consider whether or not a person has broken a law knowingly before guilt can even be assessed.
After it was all over, as Rylee explains, the construction of a sand castle cost him $25 and couldve cost him $500 and up to 60 days in jail.
When building a sand castle becomes a criminal act, it is high time we question where this ostensible Land of the Free is headed.
Bryant Rylee added 5 new photos.
This is the sand castle that cost me a $25 fine & could have cost me up to $500 & no more than 60 days in jail. Incase you didn't know, at Panama City Beach you can't dig deeper than 2ft & not exceeding 2ft long on the beach & you can't use any metal tools. I've been going to PCB for spring break for over 13 yrs, we've always built things digging with metal tools. So be sure you study your ordinances before you make a trip. My big mistake was asking the ordinance number & asking to see the ordinance. Apparently the beach patrol lady didn't like that so she called for back up...
That's when three other units arrived on the scene. One officer said, if I'd just cover the castle, I wouldn't get a ticket but if I must inquire or see the ordinance, I will receive a ticket. It took them 20 minutes to find the ordinance & it's not exactly the way they quoted. It said "2ft deep" but it didn't say "not more than 2ft long" & since I had dug only about 1ft deep, I was only ticketed for my metal tools. I do support law enforcement & pray daily for their protection. And I do believe that "we the people" have a right to ask what ordinance number or to see the ordinance. So... How many cops does it take to shut down a sand castle bandit & his son? The answer is 4! Be careful out there!



#63: Gatlin To: Tooconservative, misterwhite (#57)
And what evidence do you have to present that will show the Beach Rules were not propminently posted?
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 17:48:28 Reply Private Reply
#64: Gatlin To: Tooconservative (#62)
The article in no way shows that that as factual.
You even said It seems pretty obvious
What you are attempting to do, is pass off what seems pretty obvious to you .must be accepted as factual reality to all others.
Stop trying to do that .please.
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 18:03:28 Reply Private Reply
#65: Tooconservative To: Gatlin (#63)
How dull your life must be to care so much over this minor incident.
The fine officer didn't even shoot bother the guy's kid or his dog. I'm not sure how this even rated a headline at the Free Thought Project.
I'll let you guys obsess over this virtual non-event of a non-national news story.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-02 18:28:27 Reply Private Reply
#66: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#57)
You shouldn't believe every headline you read. He wasn't ticketed for building a big sand castle. He was ticketed for digging a big hole.
"The judge should throw the case out on the basis that you can't charge someone just as punishment for asking what statute or ordinance they are trying to enforce."
He was charged for violating the ordinance. However, the cop was willing to simply let him off with a warning if he filled in the hole. He refused. So she wrote the ticket.
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-02 18:29:25 Reply Private Reply
#67: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#62)
No. She de-escalated by offering to give him a warning instead of a ticket -- if he filled in the hole. He refused, escalating the situation to a ticket.
"But first he was offered the chance just to fill in the hole even though he was no less guilty of an ordinance infraction whether he filled the hole in or not."
Correct. His guilt was never in question. Whether or not he was to be punished was. Had he filled in the hole, he would not have been. He chose his fate.
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-02 18:35:30 Reply Private Reply
#68: Gatlin To: Tooconservative, misterwhite (#65)
Code for: You guys are correct.
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 18:39:03 Reply Private Reply
#69: misterwhite To: Gatlin (#61)
According to the headline, he was threatened with jail for building a sand castle. How's that for a ridiculous charge?
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-02 18:39:35 Reply Private Reply
#70: misterwhite To: Gatlin (#68)
Yep. Like when the MSM made a big deal about the crowd size at Trump's inauguration using photos taken hours before the event. They went on and on and on.
Then when Trump showed the photos during the inauguration proving that he was right, the MSM responded by saying, "Hey. Why are you so obsessed about this?"
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-02 18:45:03 Reply Private Reply
#71: Gatlin To: Tooconservative (#57)
I cannot show you an example from the Panama City Beach, but posted below is a notice from Orange Beach, Alabama .just across the state line from the beaches in Florida.
You will note in the DO NOT section of the Beach Notice, it specifically states
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 18:47:50 Reply Private Reply
#72: Gatlin To: Tooconservative (#71)
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 18:57:29 Reply Private Reply
#73: Gatlin To: misterwhite (#70)
Yea, always the same. They will fight tooth and nail to their last breath to spin, duck and dodge everything and anything in order to promote their isolated opinion of what is right and wrong .while they absolutely refuse to ever admit the fact that they are/were wrong.
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 19:05:16 Reply Private Reply
#74: Gatlin To: All (#73)
During the spring breaks at Panama City Beach, there have been numerous murders, rapes and drug/alcohol abuse arrests. Just a quick Internet search showed:
I simply cannot understand why .WHY . Bryant Rylee, a man who describes himself as a devout Christian, would ever .EVER .take his young children to Panama City Beach during spring break with all the bad stuff happening there and making national news.Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 19:27:51 Reply Private Reply
#75: Tooconservative To: Gatlin (#68)
Code for: you're idiots to worry over this on a fine spring day.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-02 19:45:51 Reply Private Reply
#76: Gatlin To: Tooconservative (#75)
Weather has nothing to do with being correct ...
Besides, it beats the Hell out of discussing those Freedom Caucus assholes....Which I will do, if I must to keep setting you straight.
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 19:55:48 Reply Private Reply
#77: randge To: Pinguinite (#25)
Part of the problem is that there is entirely too much fun in this country.
We need to redefine the parameters of what is considered "fun" and thus provide limits to unsociable behavior.
Then perhaps careless parents would be more likely rein in the behavior of their undisciplined offspring and so prevent them from creating hazards to life and limb for beachgoers on our national shores.
Time for some sanity.
randge posted on 2017-04-02 20:52:32 Reply Private Reply
#78: Tooconservative To: Gatlin (#76)
After you posted 25 articles about them, I just assumed you wanted ongoing non-stop coverage of them. I was only trying to please you.
What an ingrate.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-02 21:04:57 Reply Private Reply
#79: Gatlin To: Tooconservative (#78)
I just followed your lead....for once.
You did not say anything about all other times
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-02 21:29:41 Reply Private Reply
#80: Pinguinite To: Tooconservative (#78)
Hey, when it's not the Freedom Caucus, it's the Libertarians!
Pinguinite posted on 2017-04-03 00:15:05 Reply Private Reply
#81: goldilucky To: misterwhite (#16)
goldilucky posted on 2017-04-03 00:53:04 Reply Private Reply
#82: goldilucky To: misterwhite (#1)
You would sue the city, because they have a legal obligation (not so much as moral) to prevent accidents like this from happening. Unlike Malibu Beach, Ca, this is not a private beach as it belongs to the visitors to enjoy. You could also join the individual as well if you chose to and sue both parties for comparative damages (depending on who was more at fault; the one with the metal shovel 40% and the city 60% for their failure to provide public notice). Also attach compensatory damage for seeking declaratory relief.
goldilucky posted on 2017-04-03 01:04:59 Reply Private Reply
#83: goldilucky To: misterwhite, Gatlin (#81)
goldilucky posted on 2017-04-03 01:20:38 Reply Private Reply
#84: Gatlin To: goldilucky, misterwhite (#82)
I thought you might want to know that the area about which you speak in Malibu is called billionaires Beach and it is not a private beach . there is public access.
There is no such animal as a private beach in California.
In California, the area between the water line and the mean high tide line is public land by law. To put it simply, wet sand means public beach.
In theory, anyone could walk the length of California's coast -- some 1,100 miles -- and never set foot on private property.
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-03 05:32:33 Reply Private Reply
#85: Gatlin To: randge (#77)
There have been murders, gang rapes and numerous other unsociable behavior happenings durint spring break in Panama City Beach. One guy is serving 4 [or more] life sentences for murder and one guy is serving 10 years for gang rape .there are more stories like this.Gatlin posted on 2017-04-03 06:12:24 Reply Private Reply
#86: Deckard To: Gatlin (#85)
Why are making yourself the sole arbiter of what parents should be allowed to do with their kids, when and where?
Below is the scene referred to in the article.
Your holier-than-though, self-righteousness is growing tiresome.
Deckard posted on 2017-04-03 06:44:51 Reply Private Reply
#87: A K A Stone To: Deckard (#86)
A K A Stone posted on 2017-04-03 06:58:06 Reply Private Reply
#88: A K A Stone To: Tooconservative (#65)
:)
A K A Stone posted on 2017-04-03 06:59:43 Reply Private Reply
#89: A K A Stone To: misterwhite (#53)
Except that I don't blare my music at 3am.
Miss White would divorce you.
I'd simply call the friendly police and they would come and shoot you. Then there would be some discussion in cyberspace about what a dumb ass you were and you deserved it.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-04-03 07:02:26 Reply Private Reply
#90: Gatlin To: Pinguinite, misterwhite, All (#25)
Furthermore, digging holes in the sand is not normal and acceptable in the USA for the purposes of beach fun when a teenager dies after being trapped in sand hole he dug at the beach.
An Oklahoma teenager has died after a sand tunnel he was digging at a Florida beach [Panama City Beach] collapsed on him, KOTV 5 in Tulsa reports. The report says 17- year-old Travor Brown of Broken Arrow, Okla. was found Wednesday (June 8, 2016) trapped in a hole he had been digging into sand bank on Panama City Beach. Emergency responders were unable to revive the boy and he was transported to an area hospital in critical condition. A family friend told KOTV 6 Brown's mother made the decision to take Brown off life support and "let him go home to Jesus."
I will be your huckleberry. I will take a strong conservative stance that mandates restrictions in beach use that will help ensure that stupid people do not get raped, accidentally hurt and killed while on the beach or murdered while attending spring break at Panama City Beach.I will strongly support what Panama City Beach Police Chief Drew Whitman said:
Here is but one beach fun that is not normal and acceptable in the USA. It is a gang rape and but one of the sexual assaults that Panama City Beach Police Chief Drew Whitman talked about. The last I remember reading about this was that one perp had been sentenced to ten years I dont know about the others. So as far as I am concerned, you libertarian assholes can take your anything goes anarchist philosophy, policies and attitudes and go straight to Hell with them .if you dont see the dangers here and the need for the authorities to establish controls to prevent these occurrences, because as you say: [they] would mandate restrictions in beach use that would help ensure that stupid people don't get hurt.Gatlin posted on 2017-04-03 08:19:40 Reply Private Reply
#91: Gatlin To: Tooconserative (#90)
From my post above
This is you generation, TC, not mine ...Please dont ever tell me again that I was wrong when I said that I lived during The Greatest Generation.
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-03 08:22:42 Reply Private Reply
#92: Gatlin To: A K A Stone (#87)
It has been said by many, you will find the most beautiful beaches in the world there .westward from Panama City Beach through Fort Walton and over to Pensacola.
Having grown up in a small farming community some miles North of there, I agree with those who made the comments about the beauty, since I had the occasion to spend lots of time on the beach at Panama City Beach. Also, our Summer 4-H Club camp was not too far away from there.
During week days, it was not uncommon to stand on the beach and not see anyone when looking either to the East or the West. The big traffic [big for that period] was only on weekends.
Y'all enjoy your stay there, ya hear .I just couldnt pass that up.
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-03 08:45:31 Reply Private Reply
#93: Gatlin To: A K A Stone (#88)
Yea...
But every point I made was a valid one ...
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-03 08:49:16 Reply Private Reply
#94: misterwhite To: A K A Stone (#89)
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-03 09:25:16 Reply Private Reply
#95: misterwhite To: goldilucky (#83)
Which it where it should be settled.
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-03 09:27:32 Reply Private Reply
#96: Tooconservative To: Gatlin (#91)
Yet you guys have wasted all these posts ranting over some crappy trench that is one foot deep on this beach instead of the rampant crime by hordes of outsiders committed every year there. People go there from around the country for the criminal mob activity, much as they once went to Mardi Gras for the same thing.
What, you think I am a millennial? Wrong again. And you can't insult my own generation much more than I already do.
You weren't even out of high school during WW II (unless you've been lying to us).
So you were part of the So-So Generation that lost the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Stop trying to steal the glory (such as it is) of the WW II generation. You aren't one of them. You're just a wannabe.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 11:04:53 Reply Private Reply
#97: Tooconservative To: A K A Stone, Gatlin, misterwhite, Deckard, hondo68 (#87)
For God's sake, don't dig a dinky hole in the sand with a metal hand shovel or Gatlin and misterwhite will be calling for your arrest and execution.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 11:06:32 Reply Private Reply
#98: Tooconservative To: Pinguinite (#80)
But posting an article about Justin Amash who is a libertarian and in the Freedom Caucus and is an Arab congresscritter is like winning the Triple Crown.
; )
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 11:09:41 Reply Private Reply
#99: Pinguinite To: Tooconservative (#98)
Disturbing images come to mind about how Gatlin would celebrate.
Pinguinite posted on 2017-04-03 11:29:09 Reply Private Reply
#100: Tooconservative To: Gatlin (#72)
Which does imply that, as a matter of policy, that the local PD does not strictly enforce those ordinances at other times of the year.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 11:36:35 Reply Private Reply
#101: goldilucky To: Gatlin (#84)
goldilucky posted on 2017-04-03 12:25:54 Reply Private Reply
#102: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#100)
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-03 12:33:43 Reply Private Reply
#103: goldilucky To: Gatlin (#85)
Looks like fun to me and my kind of crowd.
Part of the problem is that there is entirely too much fun in this country.
Too much fun? We are the country that is the most overtaxed and overworked nation than any other country in this world. We shell out much of our income taxes which go to USAID through the IRS and it goes to feed foreign countries. Betcha' didn't even know that. So when it comes to Spring Break, you damn right those kids are gonna party like there is no tomorrow and oggle gorgeous babes.
goldilucky posted on 2017-04-03 12:39:20 Reply Private Reply
#104: Tooconservative To: misterwhite (#102)
Nevertheless, if words have meaning, then the police chief was telling us that some of the listed ordinances are not enforced rigorously except during spring break with its huge crowds.
Which is an entirely valid observation and counterpoint on this stupendously irrelevant non-news steaming turd of a thread.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 13:01:16 Reply Private Reply
#105: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#104)
But he never said they weren't enforced at all. Just not as rigorously.
Does that make you uncomfortable? Would you rather he enforce the law rigorously year round?
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-03 13:41:53 Reply Private Reply
#106: Gatlin To: Tooconservative, misterwhite (#100)
There you go .
Hey, what are you doing on this thread anyway?
Arent you the one who said:
Gatlin posted on 2017-04-03 13:42:40 Reply Private Reply
#107: goldilucky To: All, Gatlin (#103)
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/competent-authority-assistance
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/tax-treaties
goldilucky posted on 2017-04-03 13:45:30 Reply Private Reply
#108: Tooconservative To: misterwhite, Deckard (#105)
Some posters on this thread seemed to be trying to portray this as a strictly enforced ordinance year-round despite the fact that the officer who was on patrol for exactly these kinds of infractions was so unfamiliar with enforcing them that it took her and several backup units of police to finally know the correct statute number to cite if they were to write a ticket for the infraction. Which means that the cops themselves are extremely unfamiliar with writing tickets for that infraction for beach holes (which was not violated) and the "metal implement" infraction.
I suppose the perp should be happy that the cops didn't just shoot his dog and his kid.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 14:04:25 Reply Private Reply
#109: Tooconservative To: Gatlin (#106)
I don't even get your point. I doubt anyone else does either.
It seems I've been sucked into the vortices of a Complete Bullshit Thread.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 14:06:33 Reply Private Reply
#110: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#108)
Whoa! Who? According to the article the officer said she'd let him off with a warning. That's not strict enforcement. Why would anyone think this ordinance was strictly enforced?
You're just making shit up again.
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-03 14:43:54 Reply Private Reply
#111: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#108)
And yet he never thanked the cops for not shooting his dog and his kid. What a jerk.
misterwhite posted on 2017-04-03 14:46:18 Reply Private Reply
#112: Tooconservative To: misterwhite, A K A Stone (#111)
Reading this thread is likely to make LF readers more stupid than before they read it. It sucks your brain slowly, a Dracula of a soul-sucking thread.
Delete it now. Before someone gets hurt.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-03 15:05:54 Reply Private Reply