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<p>&nbsp;Florida has enacted a new law that is now being applied across the &nbsp;state and it is being used to strip citizens of their constitutional &nbsp;rights.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A college student recently became the law’s target after he made &nbsp;three anonymous comments on Reddit and was reported by one of his &nbsp;fellow students. Chris Velasquez, 21 a student at the University of Central Florida, &nbsp;was the first person taken into custody by Orlando Police under the &nbsp;state’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/florida-gov-rick-scott-breaks-with-nra-to-sign-new-gun-regulation/2018/03/09/e5d1f02e-23b2-11e8-86f6-54bfff693d2b_story.html?utm_term=.cda3cf28e7a0">Risk Protection Order Act</a> (RPO), which was signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott on March 9. Police began their investigation of Velasquez long before the RPO Act &nbsp;was signed into law.&nbsp;</p>
<p>On Feb. 10, he replied to a group chat that &nbsp;suggested people are too weak to be school shooters with the comment, “<em>Maybe for now but not forever</em>.” With reference to Las Vegas Mandalay Bay shooting suspect Stephen Paddock, Velasquez commented, in jest, “<em><strong>R.I.P. my hero</strong></em>.” And in a thread about Parkland shooting suspect Nickolas Cruz he wrote, “<em><strong>Cruz is a hero!</strong></em>”&nbsp;</p>
<p>Those three simple comments made under the pseudonym “<em>The Real U.C. Chris</em>” &nbsp;drew the attention of the thought police, the public, and were reported &nbsp;to the UCF Police, who took Velasquez in for questioning on March 5. Following the interview with UCF Police, in which Velasquez did not &nbsp;have an attorney, the authorities determined that Velasquez was a danger &nbsp;to himself or others and using Florida’s Baker Act, the young man &nbsp;temporarily lost his freedom while his mental health was evaluated by a &nbsp;psychologist.&nbsp;</p>
<p>He was admitted involuntarily to a mental health facility &nbsp;while UCF Police, Orlando Police, and a special agent with the FBI went &nbsp;to Velasquez’ home and confiscated a revolver that belonged to his &nbsp;father. The family has since hired a lawyer who claims UCF police coerced comments out of Velasquez.&nbsp;</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-opd-gun-seized-florida-gun-legislation-20180321-story.html">report</a> from the Orlando Sentinel,&nbsp;Kendra Parris, attorney for the Velasquez family, described Velasquez’ treatment by police as “<em>shameful</em>.”&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>“</em><em><strong>Officer [Jeffrey] Panter took a handful of online &nbsp;comments—none of which was an actual threat—from a forum in which people &nbsp;are known to troll and act like ‘edgelords</strong></em><em>,’</em>” she said.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Parris also used the term “<em>coercive</em>” to describe how police arrived at the conclusion her client had “<em>homicidal ideations</em>.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>Predictably, police praised their actions as having been able to &nbsp;further protect the community.&nbsp;UCF Police Department spokeswoman &nbsp;Courtney Gilmartin issued a statement in which she said, <em>“We should &nbsp;all sleep easier at night knowing that a firearm was removed from his &nbsp;household and that he is barred from purchasing any others.”</em> That statement is only partially true.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Velasquez did not own a weapon &nbsp;and the only gun taken belonged to his father, leaving the rest of the &nbsp;Velasquez family entirely defenseless and unable to protect themselves &nbsp;against home intruders or criminals who may target them. For posting three comments online, Velasquez had his freedom &nbsp;temporarily taken away, was forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, &nbsp;and was later told not to return to UCF, an action taken known as being “<em>trespassed</em>.” &nbsp;</p>
<p>He is still a student at the university but now is the focus of a &nbsp;campus-based investigation to determine whether he will be allowed back &nbsp;on campus. UCF is determining if Velasquez broke the university’s code &nbsp;of conduct—presumably for exercising his rights to free speech in a &nbsp;public forum and using a fake name.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Orlando Sentinel obtained the original petition for an RPO &nbsp;against Velasquez. Orlando Police Sgt. Matthew Ochiuzzo wrote in the &nbsp;petition, <em>“Due to the respondent’s admissions of detailed homicidal &nbsp;ideation, your petitioner is gravely concerned that a real or perceived &nbsp;life event could unpredictably cause your respondent to obtain a firearm &nbsp;and commit a mass shooting.”</em>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The temporary RPO was granted but a subsequent review by the same &nbsp;judge who signed it found there was no probable cause to allow for a &nbsp;permanent RPO that would last for one year. Parris said she has come to the conclusion that police were responsible for <em>“dragging an innocent student with zero history of violence or mental health issues through the mud.”</em>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In her motion to dismiss the case, Parris claimed her client’s constitutional rights were violated. “<em>There is a long list of jurisprudence which constitutes a threat</em>,” &nbsp;Parris told The Free Thought Project in an exclusive interview.&nbsp;</p>
<p>After &nbsp;being forced to spend the weekend in a mental health facility, doctors &nbsp;also concluded Velasquez posed “<em>no threat to anyone</em>.” Parris said her client was engaged in “<em>constitutionally protected free speech</em>.”&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>“</em><em><strong>There’s another thing that is absolutely bonkers about &nbsp;this, anybody can buy a gun in a private sale in this state. This law is &nbsp;not stopping anybody from purchasing a firearm. What it did do was &nbsp;trample on my client’s constitutional rights,</strong></em><em>”</em>&nbsp;Parris said, noting that her client was simply a victim of the “<em>thought police</em>.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>Stopping short of calling Orlando Police detectives “liars,” Parris told TFTP that she believes the police were “<em>extraordinarily reckless</em>” and that no less than four parts of the petition for a permanent RPO were patently false: &nbsp;</p>
<ol>
  <li>Officer Ochiuzzo was “<em>100 percent false</em>” when he claimed Velasquez fantasized about becoming a school shooter since he was in middle school.</li>
  <li>Parris said her client was recorded saying he could never see himself doing that (committing a mass shooting).</li>
  <li>Velasquez never said he would use an AR-15 style gun, even in a &nbsp;hypothetical scenario where he might be mad enough to harm someone.</li>
  <li>Velasquez also never said he wanted to feel the rush of adrenaline of being a school shooter.</li>
</ol>
<p>Parris was also critical of the Orlando Sentinel who she says was &nbsp;tipped off to what the Orlando PD were planning to do to Velasquez, &nbsp;attempting to make a show of their power to enforce the RPO Act. <em>“Another problem with the reporting (Orlando Sentinel) is that &nbsp;Mr. Velasquez had the pistol locked in a safe and Chris had no access to &nbsp;the firearm,”</em> Parris said.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>“The media doesn’t care. They just write what they want.”</em> Parris is working with the family to file a lawsuit against the City &nbsp;of Orlando, Officer Ochiuzzo, the University of Central Florida, and UCF &nbsp;Police.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>“This was an inappropriate case to bring pursuant to RPOs,”</em> &nbsp;Parris said, adding that she hopes that after taking the case to court, &nbsp;the resulting judgment will set a precedent that could bring down the &nbsp;new Florida law. <em>“</em><em><strong>There are substantive problems with due process concerns and this new law</strong></em><em>,</em>” she concluded.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Orlando’s first attempt to enforce their first RPO has ended in &nbsp;complete failure. Not only was no crime committed but a citizen’s &nbsp;constitutional rights were violated, his father was forced to surrender &nbsp;his weapon (which was inside a safe), and the suspect was kidnapped &nbsp;against his will and held in a mental hospital. Parris told TFTP that &nbsp;her client’s reputation has been permanently damaged as a result of &nbsp;police actions.&nbsp;</p>
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