YouTuber Honor Your Oath Civil Rights Investigations was arrested in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, on Sunday for soliciting without a permit when he asked a Daytona Beach Shores police officer for money on a public sidewalk.
The YouTuber was protesting a Daytona Beach Shores city ordinance that prohibits soliciting without a permit, or panhandling, within the city limits. Honor Your Oath deemed the ordinance “unconstitutional” as he claims that panhandling is a protected act under the first amendment.
Honor Your Oath was accompanied by YouTuber James Madison Audits, who also filmed the interaction with the police from a safe distance away. The footage released by both YouTubers features the officers explaining to Honor Your Oath that he needed a permit to solicit money in public.
The officers again explained the ordinance as Honor Your Oath asks both officers if he can have some money. When he affirmed that he would continue to solicit them for money despite the ordinance, he was arrested.
According to Honor Your Oath’s YouTube page, he was detained by police for 2 ½ hours and then released for unknown reasons while he was being transported to the Volusia County Jail. James Madison Audits picked him up to give him a ride back to his wife.
It is unclear as of press time if Honor Your Oath will be filing a first amendment lawsuit based on his arrest.
According to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, the 1980 case of Schaumburg vs. Citizens for a Better Environment established that panhandling is protected speech under the first amendment. However, since that decision, the United States Supreme Court has allowed crackdowns on public begging.
While an anti-panhandling ordinance in Daytona Beach, Florida, was found to be unconstitutional in July of 2024, the Daytona Beach Shores ordinance remains in place.
The ordinance reads, “It shall be unlawful for any solicitor, agent or peddler, as defined in this chapter, to solicit property or financial assistance of any kind, or directly to sell or offer to sell any article, tax, service, emblem, publication, ticket, advertisement, subscription or anything of value on the streets, sidewalks or other public property in the city, or in any private dwelling, apartment or other place of residence, or in any motel, hotel, tourist accommodation or timeshare condominium, or on any commercial property, unless such persons shall have first obtained a solicitor’s permit from the city.”
Punishment for violation of the ordinance includes a fine of $500.00, up to 60 days in jail or both.
