A new Florida law makes it illegal for drivers to play their music too loud. According to the Miami Times, residents believe the law will allow police to further target Black drivers with minor traffic offenses.
At my old house, every morning and every afternoon, a city worker would drive by blasting his house music so loud that it sounded like the car was going to fall apart. While New Jersey’s ordinance for loud noise wasn’t enforced on my side of town, a renewed Florida law from 2022 makes these occurrences straight-up illegal. Sadly, it may be at the cost of Black drivers, who are more likely to be pulled over.
If a Florida driver is playing music, taking a phone call or using any other device that makes noise that is “plainly audible” from a distance of 25 feet from the vehicle, they will be ticketed and fined for $114. The statute also warns against the sound being “louder than necessary” in areas like private residences, churches, schools and hospitals.
Kenneth B. Nunn, Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, says there are a few problems with this statute. The most notable is its vagueness, which leaves what’s “audible” up to the officer to determine.
“Whenever police officers have broad discretion whether to make an arrest or not, they tend to use that disproportionately against African Americans and other people of color—whether it’s conscious or unconscious racism,” said Nunn.
Figures from the Traffic Citation Accounting Transmission System found that from just May to December of last year, Black drivers received 37 percent of the tickets related to noise despite making up just 16 percent of the state’s driving population. A few Black drivers told Florida reporters about their firsthand experiences being pulled over because of the law.
Read more from Miami Times Online:
Darius Jermaine Ned Thomas Jr. was driving west on the Florida parkway in Jacksonville that runs along the St. Johns River, listening to music on a Friday afternoon in August in his Chevrolet Malibu sedan, when a sheriff’s deputy in a marked SUV pulled him over.
“It’s just pointless to have spent your money to put a system in your car, and then you can’t play it,” said Tajawaun Ontarien Curtis, 26, of Gainesville. Police issued him a $109 ticket in July on a busy road near churches and convenience stores. He paid it in October plus a $25 fee for not paying it sooner.
Carven Exantus, 34, of Miami has been ticketed five times for loud music – at $129 each – by police in Miami Beach, including twice the same day 90 minutes apart in October. Exantus, who is Black, beat four of the tickets in court, so far. His most recent ticket was the afternoon of March 9 along Ocean Drive. He has pleaded not guilty.
Nunn said police officers may even take advantage of this new traffic offense by using it as a “pretext,” or a traffic stop intended to that gives an officer an excuse to investigate other criminal activity. Some states have made it illegal to pull someone over for a minor offense in order to arrest them for a more serious crime.
Of course, the law doesn’t say in the fine print that Black people are the target but it adds to the pressure of driving while Black.
“It may affect all people because of the fact that the statute doesn’t have any racially specific language,” said Nunn. “But tell me whose music you think is the music that is going to have bass and [sound] louder. When you’re thinking about music, is it going to be country music? Or is it going to be ‘urban’ African American music?”