We Asked for It! Readers Weigh in on Consequences for Boca Bash Boat Trash-Dumping Teens

On May 7, New Times shared a story on Instagram that posed a question: "Did Florida Go Overboard With Felony Charges Against Teens in Boat Trash Dumping Case?"

Not surprisingly, our followers weighed in by the hundreds.

We'll get to the results in a moment. (Spoiler alert: Are you familiar with the phrase "cement shoes"?)

But first some background — because, unlike miaminewtimes.com, Instagram isn't big on context.

The Case Against the Teens

Our story was the first we'd written about the two teenage boys caught heaving two bins of garbage over the side of the Halcyon, a three-engine fishing vessel, into the Atlantic Ocean near Boca Raton Inlet during the raucous annual Boca Bash event on April 28.

Footage of the incident posted on Instagram (of course!) by locally based drone-video outfit Wavy Boats, went viral on a global scale, sparking outrage and calls for jail time for the perpetrators.

And indeed, five days later, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced that the two lads, who exhibited celebratory behavior as they proceeded to strew trash into the sea off a boat registered to one of their dads, will face felony charges.

"We worked closely with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office to determine appropriate charges," FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto asserted in a statement. "Callous disregard for Florida’s environment will not be tolerated. This is a teaching moment for all those involved. Florida’s natural resources are precious, and we should all do our part to protect them."

One Expert's Opinion

By then, the alleged miscreants, one of whom is 15 years old, and the other 16, had turned themselves in. One had already confessed, and pretty much everybody and their Aunt Myrtle from Des Moines had watched the damning footage and rendered their verdicts on Wavy Boats' Instagram and elsewhere on social media. The overwhelming majority opined that the boys should be, as the saying goes, prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The offense was inarguably repugnant. But the decision to charge under a state felony statute that calls for a fine of up to $50,000 and/or imprisonment for up to five years, rather than under the "Florida Littering Law," which provides for a $150 fine for dumping less than 15 pounds and criminal penalties based on higher weights, was noteworthy.

Given that the accused are minors and the potential punishment is severe, we wondered what the possible outcome might be. We sought the opinion of veteran Miami-based criminal defense attorney Brett Schwartz, who noted that a felony charge doesn't guarantee jail time and that the most likely outcome will be pretrial diversion, community service, and a fine.

He said the gravity of the charges and viral attention to the case — some news outlets named the suspects despite the fact that they're under 18 — might have lasting consequences that could follow the boys well into adulthood.

"That's not to trivialize the importance of protecting our waters," Schwartz told New Times. "But these are juveniles, and to tarnish their entire future over this is unjust."

The Instagram Verdict

The responses to our Instagram post were spirited. And, as one might have predicted, the vast majority were along the lines of: Throw the book at 'em!

"Not overboard!" one commenter opined. "Everyone thinks they can do that here in Florida, that's why there's trash everywhere! People, teens or not, need to be held accountable for their actions."

"Who wrote this article?!?! The kid's mothers?" another asked.

"Lock 'em up!" wrote a third.

"Fuck 'em all and the boat they rode in on," another offered.

A smattering offered some Solmonic nuance. "Five years would be overboard," one commenter opined. "Maybe 60 days in jail and two years of cleaning beaches full time as volunteers is more appropriate."

Wrote another, "This is one boat that got caught at an inlet where there were a bunch of people present and they got put on blast. Hopefully, this reaction from law enforcement scares people off dumping like this or to lesser degrees in general when public eyes and smartphones are less likely to catch them."

A few respondents, however, expressed shock at the potential fate of the two high schoolers.

"Felony charge is insane," one wrote. "Everybody can agree it was a stupid-ass thing to do, but at the same time, everybody wants to act like they weren’t doing some really stupid shit [as a youth]. Everyone's perfect, I know."

Another concluded, "It's a shitty thing to do, but you're going to ruin the kids' life over it. Nobody’s ever made a stupid mistake? Misdemeanor with lots of community service."

In Retrospect

In the digital age, writing a strong headline is an exercise in needle-threading. It's one thing to juxtapose a headline the old-fashioned way: right on top of the story it pertains to. Paradoxically, reaching readers nowadays requires them to commit to a subsequent physical action. That goes double for Instagram — when you hold your users captive, urging them to comment while preventing them from clicking through for context, every question amounts to a poll. The ship has already sailed. The garbage, you might say, is already in the water.