Why Did a Florida Sheriff Accuse a Group of Fishing Guides of Inciting Threats Against Public Officials?

The Hendry County Sheriff accused Captains for Clean Water of "fuel[ing] hostility and provok[ng] violent rhetoric," but a free speech advocacy group says they were well within the First Amendment.

For the past several months, an organization of Florida fishing guides has been wondering exactly how it ended up being accused by a county sheriff of inciting threats against public officials.

The incident not only raised questions about a swampy, Florida-specific brand of public-private collusion, but a First Amendment advocacy group says the speech at issue was constitutionally protected.

On June 6, the Hendry County sheriff posted a Facebook message regarding Captains for Clean Water, an environmental advocacy group of Florida fishing guides:

"Recent posts by Captains for Clean Water have fueled hostility and provoked violent rhetoric, putting our citizens' safety at risk," Hendry County Sheriff Steve Whidden said in the statement. "Their actions have even inspired some Floridians to issue threats to public officials, warranting the attention of law enforcement."

"Let me be clear: threats of violence are not protected speech," Whidden continued. "By creating an environment in which people feel emboldened to attack elected officials, the Captains for Clean Water is promoting danger, not solutions. We will not tolerate threats, harassment or calls to violence—online or otherwise."

Captains for Clean Water cofounder Daniel Andrews says Whidden's statement "totally caught us off guard." There were thousands of comments on the group's recent social media posts, he says, and they hadn't heard anything from the sheriff's office prior to the statement.

"We have always been firm but very peaceful and nonviolent," Andrews says. "There's never been a time that I can look back on that I can see anything could even be perceived as remotely violent that we've said or done."

It was especially confusing since the alleged threats had all been in response to public hearings in Palm Beach County, not Hendry County.

The situation became a little clearer when Whidden told Gulf Coast News on June 9 that the alleged threats were "brought to my attention by U.S. Sugar, and they were concerned for the safety of their people."

U.S. Sugar is one of two large Florida sugar companies supporting a proposed industrial rock mine on land the companies own in the Everglades Agricultural Area. Captains for Clean Water is one of several environmental groups opposing the project, both online and at public hearings.

Captains for Clean Water has a stake in the issue because many of Florida's fishing grounds depend on a healthy flow of clean water from the Everglades. The diversion of too much water leads to high salinity levels in Florida Bay, which kills off important seagrass beds. Nutrient runoff and pollution also cause noxious algae blooms and red tides.

Reason, Captains for Clean Water, and other news organizations put in public records requests in June with the Hendry County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office released those records earlier this month, but the records included no additional information concerning Whidden's communications with sugar companies.

In response to a records request by the Tampa Bay Times, the sheriff's office said there were no written notes or other records regarding Whidden's phone conversation with U.S. Sugar.

However, Reason did obtain screenshots of four of the Facebook posts that the sheriff's office highlighted as threats:

• "Burn them and their lies."
• "This is why Mangione is so popular."
• "The 'Good Ole Boy' system is solid & strong in our country & state for over 230 years. These corrupt people should be executed."
• "Violence will stop this. Sounds harsh, I get it. Examples must be made. Pain works, every time."

Two of those comments were first noted in a March 27 news story in The Palm Beach Post, and then in a March 31 op-ed in Florida's Voice, a conservative outlet covering state politics, with the author of the latter venturing the question: "Are Captains for Clean Water an ecoterrorism organization?"

Gabe Walters, a staff attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, says that Captains for Clean Water's activities don't come close to meeting the legal standard for incitement. Under the test that the Supreme Court established in the landmark First Amendment case Brandenburg v. Ohio, the government has to prove that the rhetoric at issue incited violence or threats of violence, and that the incitement was imminent, likely, and intentional.

"It's obviously a very high bar to meet, and that's to make sure that we don't punish political advocacy or speech that's on the First Amendment-protected side of the line," Walters says.

As for the comments themselves, Walters says they don't meet the criteria for true threats, either.

"The idea that [Captains for Clean Water] incited others to post threats is a little bit of a non-starter from the jump, but looking at the statements of these third-party comments on this social media post, they all strike me as aspirational, as political hyperbole, and not even directed directly at the alleged targets of the alleged threat," Walters says. "So it's difficult to see how a prosecution of the actual individuals who made those comments would comport with the First Amendment."

It's also a bit of a sleight-of-hand to say the comments were incited by Captains for Clean Water. They were in response to videos highlighting the comments of Palm Beach County commissioners, who would go on to unanimously approve the rock mine project.

And it doesn't do much to dispel the notion of a good ol' boy network when it looks like a large company can ring up a county sheriff, who then uses his office to publicly denounce one of the company's opponents for constitutionally protected speech.

What's more, those "threats of violence" apparently generated little to no real police activity. The Hendry County Sheriff's Office hasn't reportedly investigated anyone, much less charged them with a crime, for those online comments. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office contacted one of the posters about his comments, but ultimately, the man was just given a warning.

"I'm not aware of any additional follow-up," Andrews says, "and I think that's really the concerning part about it, if law enforcement is being used to intimidate organizations that are bringing science-based concerns forward."

The Hendry County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Sugar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.