MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – A Middleburg man said he was hospitalized after he was beaten by a group of people because of a sign he was holding.
Charles Brownett said he stood on the corner of Doctors Inlet Road and Plantation Drive in Middleburg on Tuesday, holding a sign that read “Because of Obama's policies” on one side and “Death to America” on the other. He said a woman in a passing car yelled to him, they exchanged words and he decided to move across the street to avoid confrontation -- but it didn't work.
"Two people came up there and said I need to leave America. I said, 'Well give me the money, and I'll leave,'” Brownett said. “I walked across the other side, and the next thing I know, I was pushed (and) my sign was being taken away from me.”
Brownett said a man who was also in the car got out, followed him across the street, grabbed his sign, and punched him.
“He grabbed it, punched me, ripped my sign up and then started attacking me,” Brownett said.
They began fighting, he said, and the scuffle landed him in the hospital with several injuries.
"I don't like being attacked. I don't like getting into fights,” he said. "I have a headache right now. My arm is killing me."
Brownett, who is home from the hospital now, said some people waved and honked in support of the opinions he chose to express publicly that day.
“It's the only means I have to fight back. I'm not rich, I'm not highly educated. That's the only way I know to do,” Brownett said.
Brownett stands by his constitutional right to free speech and said the people who nearly knocked him unconscious broke the law.
"No one has the freedom to go attack you. Nobody has that freedom,” Brownett said. “I've been attacked several times, and I need to go get a gun permit and a carry to conceal weapon to protect myself next time. I hate to say it's come down to that."
According to the Clay County Sheriffs Office, no one has been arrested in the incident. Deputies were going over evidence Thursday, including cellphone video another person recorded of the incident.
Deputies confirmed that Brownett was not violating any laws.
“Christ was crucified for what he believed in,” Brownett said. “I'm not Christ. Far from it.”