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Some watercraft in the Cocoa Beach Boat Parade displayed messages that were offensive to President Joe Biden, sparking complaints from spectators and community Facebook arguments.
The popular annual event is organized by the Cocoa BeachRotary Club, which has publicly pledged to try to prevent similar situations from happening again.
The mayor of Cocoa Beach said political messaging was not welcome in a Christmas parade.
We have enough to fight about. "We don't need to ruin Christmas over it."
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the new Cocoa Beach police station.
An outdoor courtyard and event room are proposed for the upscale food hall.
The Cocoa Beach Boat Parade features a procession of boats. The festive flotilla started at Marker 101 near the park and headed south along the canal.
Some spectators complained about political flags and light displays via email and social media. The Cocoa BeachRotary Club President addressed the issue in an open letter.
A few boats that did not participate in the captains meeting in December joined the parade with political messages, according to a letter from the president.
The letter said they were deeply sad, disappointed and disgusted.
We are looking at best approaches to help similar situations in the future. The letter said that the Cocoa BeachRotary Club is a political association and its goal is only to make positive impact in our community and beyond.
Hundreds of comments were generated by Cocoa Beach City Hall officials after they posted the letter on the city's Facebook page.
Cocoa Beach does not sponsor the boat parade because the police boat leads the procession.
John Alexander, boat parade chairman, said in an email that the move was planned by a small group of boat owners to get attention.
The biggest issue this year was throwing candy off the boats. The political division of our nation's people has caused this event to become a focal point of division. Alexander said something in the email.
The City Attorney forwarded an analysis of a landmark 1995 Supreme Court decision regarding restriction of parade messaging to the person who was addressing the controversy.
The judges ruled that the organizers of the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade had the right to refuse participation to the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston.
The issue in this case is whether Massachusetts may require private citizens who organize a parade to include a group of people who do not wish to be included. The Supreme Court said in its opinion that the mandate was against the First Amendment.
Cocoa Beach selects a former Mount Dora official as the new city manager.
Indialantic may create a dog-friendly beach at Sunrise Park.
"If someone wants to fly their boat flag down the canal with whatever they want on the back of it, have at it," he said.
"If it's a private civic organization that's doing a parade, they can certainly have rules and regulations in place that would prohibit any type of offensive or political messaging restrictions that they want," he said.
In 2015, hundreds of people attended a debate after Confederate flags were displayed in a parade.
The Confederate Sons Association of Florida Indian River Camp 47 and the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp J.J. Dickison drew criticism for flying the flags during the parade.
The council voted to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund parades. The council may revisit the issue of funding the Light Parade early next year, as the organization has had funding challenges ever since.
The Cocoa BeachRotary Club board of directors will meet after the new year to discuss boat-parade policies.
Anyone can join the parade. Alexander said it was unfortunate because so many kids were watching.
He said that he has been organizing the boat parade for about 10 years and never had anything like this happen.
The Vice-Mayor of Cocoa Beach was watching the parade. The December event has always been a family friendly event for all and I feel is not the place for politically derogatory displays.
Williams wrote that it was not yet clear if those boaters were repeat participants, if they registered for the parade, or if they just showed up and cut into the parade.
I am wondering if we can regulate and enforce ways to keep this type of thing from happening in Cocoa Beach. Williams said in the emails that they had to cancel the parade to make sure the issue wasn't tied up in a legal battle.
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Political displays in the Cocoa Beach Boat Parade draw complaints.
