Society

The Real Reason Why “Florida Man” Exists

From the investigations side

Courtesy of FloridaMan @ Twitter

You are probably aware of the ‘Florida Man” cultural phenomenon, but if you aren't, it is simply that there’s a disproportionately high amount of bizarre crimes happening in Florida all the time. “The Florida Man Challenge” easily portrays this — Put “Florida Man” and your birthday into Google search and you will undoubtedly be astonished by the absurd crimes which happen each day in Florida. People high on meth killing people with nunchucks, riding alligators into Walmart to do a robbery, it’s madness knows no bounds.

You may have wondered why the “Florida Man” phenomenon can be possible.

Here’s why:

First, Florida has the strongest public record laws in the United States. This means that all crime data and reports are very transparent. This makes it very easy for journalists to access records and make a story out of it. And voila…you have multiple “Florida Man” stories for each day of the year.

Second, being an investigator across multiple sectors, I can attest there’s a lot of bizarre crimes happening everywhere in the United States. Other states have much less transparent public record laws though. Having access to privileged information, you quickly understand that Florida is…