The Internet has recently been swarmed with a variety of "Florida Man" stories and all of the crazy and wild crimes they've committed. There's even a website where you can find all sorts of crazy crimes committed by Florida men. A Twitter user posted about a new "game" in a tweet, encouraging everyone to do a Google search of "Florida Man" along with their birthday. For example, I searched "Florida Man February 22" and found an article titled "Florida Man finds his way to Illinois, and two toilets led to his arrest." Interesting, right? Search for your birthday and I'm sure there will be several articles each featuring some weird crime committed by some weird Florida man.
But with everyone posting the crazy "Florida Man" stories they've found, not enough people are stopping and taking the time to figure out why they are seeing so many articles about insane Florida men.
I always knew that the people in Florida have a bit of a wild side to them, though I always just assumed there was something in the saltwater or the humidity got to their heads. Or maybe they were all under the influence of some Florida drug that makes every man do some unimaginable crimes. For being just one single state, Florida sure produces a lot of entertaining news content. But what if I told you that it isn't the saltwater or the humidity or a state-wide crazy drug? What if I told you that we can thank the Florida government for all of these stories of the wild and insane Florida men?
Well, that's what I'm here to tell you. Go ahead, give thanks to the great people in Tallahassee who made it possible for us to get countless moments of entertainment from all the "Florida Man" stories. Let me introduce you to the Florida Sunshine Law. Sunshine Laws are only in a few states, but luckily for us, Florida is one of them. Through Sunshine Laws, the public is able to view meetings, records, votes, deliberations, and other official actions, which would all be closed to the public in other states. The public can view government meeting minutes, documents, and arrest records. The Florida Sunshine Law provides regulations that require complete openness in both government and business.
Pretty cool, right?
In other states, many records are sealed and the public is not allowed to access them. But in Florida, reporters, websites, the public, really anyone can simply call a police department and request access to certain arrest records and receive them within minutes. Because most states don't have their own Sunshine Laws, the public isn't given as much information as those in Florida do. So there's a very big possibility that similar crazy things can be happening all over the country, but the records are sealed.
It's a pretty interesting and efficient law, and without it, we would have little to no "Florida Man" stories to entertain us. So while you're laughing at some crazy crime that a "Florida Man" committed, be sure to think of the Florida Sunshine Law and remember that the Florida government really did you a favor with that one.
Oh, and also, people in Florida actually are a little extra insane, so that may be a factor as well.