Demarquize Dawson was driving a rental car near the Hard Rock Casino in Davie, Florida when a police officer stopped him and arrested him because the license plate frame on the vehicle partially covered the first “S” in “Sunshine State.” Dawson spent the night in jail and ended up in the hospital after a panic attack.
- Police released him and apologized, saying vague and unclear wording in the statute made them think this was illegal.
- A license plate frame obscuring part of the license plate is only illegel if it obscures the numbers and letters of the plate itself or the validation sticket.
- “Sunshine State” and county names don’t count because they are not a “primary feature” of the plate.
Florida man has been arrested and spent a night in jail because the "S" in "Sunshine State" on his rental car's Florida license plate was obstructed by a frame.
This law was passed by the pro Flock camera lobby and the penalties for it are absolutely absurd police state BS.… pic.twitter.com/motRusOELb
— Mrgunsngear (@Mrgunsngear) December 18, 2025
Florida 320.262 is a new section on “license plate obscuring devices” that are designed to interfere with detectability and recording of a plate number or validation sticker. It says you can’t attach or apply material “onto or around” a plate that interferes with the legibility, detectability, or recording of any feature or detail, and makes a knowing violation a second-degree misdemeanor with penalities of up to 60 days jail and a $500 fine.
By specifying that oscuring “any feature or detail” is illegal, that suggests covering the plate’s S for Sunshine State could be a crime. This should have been consistently drafted to reference primary features and details, or license plates and validation stickets.
It’s not clear whom the customer rented the car from. The license-plate frame on the vehicle reads “CROWNCARS.COM.” That belongs to florida dealership group Crown Automotive.
If it were Hertz, the jokes would write themselves, but then it’s usually been Hertz falsely reporting their own customers to the police – not accidentally covering up the S in Sunshine State on a Florida license plate.
Florida is a third world country (a s@&$those state?) the home of a corrupt President, a Senator who defrauded taxpayers of more than $1 billion and a Governor aspiring to join the club. I’m sure some private prison or other lobby made such a law to be interpreted by a police officer looking for illegals to round up using any excuse? That’s the world we live in.
I am trying to understand how this escalated to arrest. Why wasn’t this just a written citation or even a fix-it ticket and all parties move on? Oh, that’s right, it was Florida.
He should get a big paycheck from the police department’s insurance company.
Another great reminder why we avoid this knuckle-dragging state like the plague.
That arresting officier was just a Barney Fife looking to fill his Quota.
Snowbirds beware. Why was this man detained? Wouldn’t a warning have sufficed? What about all the new electronic license plates with their changeable personal greetings? And AutoNation probably isn’t happy about the cause being their free publicity frames. The moral of this story is that laws must be written with precision — unless FL wants to be known as The Opaque State.
Yes, Please for goodness sakes, stay out of Florida! It’s the most dangerous state in America. While Florida doesn’t have random stabbings on public transit, commuters being pushed onto subway tracks by random repeat offenders, people being set on fire on public transportation, homeless randomly punching people on the streets, drug infested homeless encampments, and ever increasing rates of crime by illegal aliens, it does have license plate frame laws, and they do take them seriously.
In most states it is the state name that can not be covered over
Several years ago a driver from New Hampshire had covered the state motto on his license plate, “Live free or die”. He was issued a ticket for that. Well it eventually ended up in the Supreme Court. The SC eventually ruled that forcing someone to display a motto that they didn’t believe in was a violation of his1st amendment rights. In other words you can obscure the state motto as long as the plate number and the state that issued the plate are still readable.
@Simon
Where do you live? New York, Kalifornia, New Jersey, Illinois, etc, etc. Talk about shitholes. Oh and google Shelia Cerfilus McCormick. That little Demo fraudster in Florida and I hope you don’t live in Minnesota where the Somali crime syndicate might have stolen nearly 9 billion.
@Kevin
Yes. Don’t Kalifornia or New York my Florida.
Dumb cop call and this should have been caught when the victim was brought in. I hope he sues big time. Unfortunately such bad calls can happen anywhere; when a member of my glider club landed in a field (a fairly routine occurrence when you are going far without an engine and updrafts die out) the Wisconsin deputy looked at his pilot’s license. It was a commemorative FAA issue of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. He got excited because, “Neither of those pictures look like you!” and it took his boss to straighten things out.
But running down a state sounds too much like Trump saying rotten things about foreign countries. You can’t generalize that far. I just had 2 weeks in Florida, Ft. Augustine, Cocoa Beach, Key West. It was a fine, friendly people, no problems. Maybe if I’d been a person of color that would have been different, but the attitudes described by posters can happen anywhere, though possibly more often in Red areas.
Hope he sues the idiots
I would like to see this get massive media attention with the message of don’t vacation in Florida. Spook politicians and police chiefs everywhere to keep the subset of cops who are power mad bullies under control or off the force.
Do the same sort of public shaming for other states and other tolerated bad behavior.
Simon Watson – you are full of hateful liberal DemocRAT shit. GFY you imbecile. The “actual world we live in” is the one constructed by corrupt DemocRATs and idiots such as yourself.
Greetings from the Sh!t Hole…ahem…sunshine state.
If you live here this is not news. FHP does essentially nothing but things that support immigration enforcement and harassment of the LGBTQ community. They and local PD are doing what they’ve always done: use vaguely written laws to profile and open the door to other things.
Meanwhile, our governor diverts millions of dollars to a non-profit run by his wife that shelled out millions in junkets to friends. He does this while trying to sneak through a bill to allow developers to build golf courses, hotels, etc. on state park land.
@Parker
Yes the Florida Gestapo shakes down the LBGTQ community. All roughly 5% of them in the state. Hilarious.
Fake.
David miller. God bless you you need all the help you can get.
Your such a positive person
I was pulled over in my hometown because I had a clear plastic cover over my license plate to keep it clean. The sunlight had faded it and, frankly, I never looked at it. Mandatory court appearance, $1500.00 fine and 3 points on my license! I explained to the officer but he wrote the ticket anyway. He explained, and rightly so, that obscuration of the tag prevents the toll road checking if the transponder isn’t working and prevents checking possible stolen cars. As soon as I got home, I removed it and checked my other car. Same problem. When I went to court, I took pictures of before and after I removed the covers. Luckily, the prosecutor asked me before court how I was going to plead. “Guilty”…no question. Because of my stellar driving record, I got a “plea deal” of $10.00 court costs, no points, no mention on my driving record.Took it! DUH!! I mentioned this to one of my car club members who has a smoke colored cover on his tag. “Nah, no big deal.” Well, about 3 months later, he got a ticket and wasn’t as lucky as I was! $1500, three points and posted to his record for 5 years.
As a Florida native who lives in NYC, yeah, all states, cities, people, across the country and world, can misbehave, be disrespectful, harm others, etc. And yet, there are still decent people everywhere. You just have to know where to look. So, I’d disregard the off comments calling other places s-holes. Besides, I guarantee you I can find the ‘bad part of town’ wherever you live with a quick search. *cough-y please*
Must be more to the story to explain the arrest. Is there any video of the traffic stop? Apparently, Florida Man has a significant criminal record.
I, too, would like to see the bodycam footage to see if there’s any indication if this was a “driving while black” situation, or if the outcome might have been influenced by how the motorist acted during the stop. There might be more to this story than we’ve heard so far.
Something doesn’t sound right about this story. If stopped don’t argue your case on the side of the road. In FL traffic court is held by Zoom. Show up, argue your case, get it dismissed.
It’s rich how many people who say “just do what the police say and don’t argue” are the first people to set the lawn on fire when they feel aggrieved.
@Coffee Please…you tell me…a rainbow crosswalk requires FHP show up to facilitate its removal because it’s a distraction and driving hazard while all other decorative crosswalks remain. Police attend LGBTQ themed shows that are marketed as 18+ and then harass the event planners. Books about same-sex couple are banned from school while we teach that slavery was “states rights” (to enslave someone).
Law enforcement in Florida has become weaponized against everything DeSantis and the radical christian nationalists dislike.
So…yeah…no…you can dismiss this away because your fragile masculinity cannot handle the trust, but those of us living down here see things quite clearly (including the ones who will tell they are doing it intentionally). Maybe you should chain your handle to “Brain Please” because yours clearly isn’t working properly.
Dillon – Look around you fool, the truth of my remarks are staring you in the face but it is obvious that you are too ignorant to see the truth.
How much will this lawsuit pay?
@ David Miller — How odd for you, of all people, to call someone hateful. The best treatment for BDS is to turn off FoxNews. Why are you so mad? Did your daddy cut off your Medicare and food stamps and give it to the “illegals” next door? Did you see a drag queen in a men’s restroom? Oh, the horror.
@Kevin
Not sure what your comment has to do with AutoNation’s frame obscuring the word “Sunshine” and a man being held overnight for this heinous offense. But if it gave you a chance to rant about “ever increasing rates of crime by illegal aliens,” I guess that’s a silver lining. My point is that if a state is going to pass laws, they should at least get a competent lawyer or ChatGPT to proof-read them. Maybe it was just a slow night for the cop.
@Parker
So this is about Rainbow Colored crosswalks? Shouldn’t crosswalks be a standard color for driver recognition? Should we change traffic lights to rainbow colors? Airport taxi and runway lights and markings? Where do we stop? Oh and my masculinity is just fine thank you.
Many parents teach their children, “Actions have consequences.” It’s a shame that more people don’t have the time nor the means to file wrongful arrest suits and seek liquidated damages from a jury. Yes, they will rile a few, but the legislative lessons they will teach are priceless.
Gary loves the occasional clickbait to drag out the excuse mongers. No doubt he resisted, and that is why he spent the night in jail.
@Kevin. Florida is a state that is quickly abandoning public health by making important vaccinations “optional.” So one can be infected anywhere, any time, any place in FL.
Same state that has no state income tax, but sucks federal and blue state monies with each hurricane that destroys poorly-built, uninspected homes, condos, and apartment buildings. And let’s not forget the FL Yale history graduate who’s decided that slavery and Jim Crow weren’t so bad now that he’s in politics.
Oh, and DeSantis was one of two (2) votes against federal aide following super storm Sandy, but immediately demanded repeated federal dollars year after year. So NJ/NY/CT/PA don’t deserve federal help, but FL does endlessly.