Lane Pittman, 22, wanted to please the crowd with his hard-rock version of the US National Anthem in the street of Neptune Beach, Florida, on July 4th, 2015. As Pittman started to play his guitar in front of his friend’s house, reportedly, police officers came to him and said to stop “breaching the peace”.
“I had to ask them [police] what they were arresting me over, and they said I breached the peace, and they were going to try and get me with inciting a riot. That blows my mind because it was peaceful all up until they arrested me.”
“Out of respect for the national anthem, [police] let them finish the [song] <…> It was only after the crowd was getting hostile, [that we had] to stop it,” Neptune Beach Police Chief David Sembach said.
Pittman has now hired an attorney to represent him in court. Lawyer claimed that there is no law, prohibiting playing music on the sidewalk.
“Disturbing the peace could be used to cover a lot of conducts that may not necessarily be criminal. I guess we’re going to have to wait and see what the state attorney decides to do with it,” Attorney Caleb Rowland said.
Pittman said he’s afraid that the incident will negatively affect his future and the possibility of getting a good job. The guitarist concluded that he didn’t want things to turn out this way.
