Jacksonville City Council to introduce bill to combat ‘messages of hate’ projections

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Jacksonville City Councilman Rory Diamond says legislation is expected to be introduced this week that will require a permit, and consent from the building’s owner, to project anything on a building in Jacksonville.

“It essentially means, we’re going to protect property rights on the one hand, and we’re going to stop these messages of hate being projected on our Jacksonville buildings,” Diamond said.

According to Diamond, violators would receive a misdemeanor and it would also be a civil infraction, which means the building owner could sue.

Hate-filled messages have appeared in Jacksonville during the city’s biggest events. A swastika and a cross were allegedly projected onto the CSX Building over the weekend, and back in October, an anti-Semitic message was projected onto TIAA Bank Field during the Georgia-Florida game as well as a building in Downtown Jacksonville.

Diamond is confident this bill will pass saying, “I strongly suspect that there will be a large, if not unanimous, majority of the Jacksonville City Council to outlaw these kinds of messages on the sides of buildings in Jacksonville.”

The Councilman hopes the bill will become law in a few weeks. “These people are hiding. They’re not putting their name on this, so this is a message to them to stop doing this and we’re paying attention and we don’t want it.”

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