The story below the linked one is how a man rammed his way into a gated community, beat two people to death with a baseball bath, and then the police found the suspect unconscious after he drank some bleach.

That seems more weird than my local news, by a bit.

Maybe it's weirder than your local news, because your local news never finds out about those weird police calls like they do in Florida?

It's my opinion that Florida is weirder, because driving around, the weird signs of weird people (roadside, or on their vehicles for instance) are weirder and more common than up north. Not an airtight proof, but an independent datum not biased for the same reasons as the news.

This is a demonstration of selection bias.

That's still downstream of Florida's sunshine laws. If that happens in your state, there's a chance the media doesn't hear about it, or hears about it too late.

In Florida, the media hears about anything that involves an arrest because it's all published for public inspection. It's not just mugshots but other records too.

The smallest community newspapers in Florida will have a section about who got arrested.

> That seems more weird than my local news, by a bit.

Come to Oregon and we can talk weird.

I grew up in Florida. It's not just easier to find mug shots online. It's a weird place.

Alligators:

https://nypost.com/2020/06/11/florida-man-fights-off-alligat...

https://nypost.com/2018/07/30/florida-man-brings-gator-into-...

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/8-foot-gator-wrestled-from...

Pythons:

https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2019/08/12/6-foo...

https://www.foxnews.com/science/alligator-fights-python-on-f...

Driving dogs:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/22/us/florida-dog-drives-circles...

Kangaroos:

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/f...

Speed-trap towns that had to decommission their police:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kELze26IXpk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo,_Florida

Those aren't particularly weird. People chopping off their limbs in copy-cat insurance scams is weird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_Florida

For over a hundred years kooks and scammers from the Northeast and Midwest have made their way down to Florida. It's a weird place because weird and disreputable people move there. (Source: I grew up in the panhandle, and also inherited some "beach front" property in the middle of the woods that an uncle bought in the 1960s from a Chicago developer front running a classic Florida real estate racket. Also, see "Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country".)

Don't forget the random cannibal attacks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_cannibal_attack

Seconded, grew up in Tampa. Florida is weird, just not quite as weird as "Florida Man" makes it look.

I always thought this was for precisely the oppposite - i.e. that news headlines (edit: I mean whole articles) were more often "A Florida Man has been arrested" because they were not allowed/didn't have the names.

I think using the term "Florida Man" is a meme now and probably carries more weight than using the accused's actual name.

From the wikipedia article:

> Miami New Times claimed that freedom of information laws in Florida make it easier for journalists to obtain information about arrests from the police than in other states and that this is responsible for the large number of news articles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Man

I understand now, the headline reads "Florida Man arrested" and then the article will have "Bob Bobbinson was arrested today for ..."

How many headlines about non-public figures have you seen that include someone's name?

"Tim Jones has been arrested" isn't exactly an informative headline.

Well that's just taking things too literally. I meant the whole article would use "Florida man" instead of a name.

I Googled the name hoping to prove that wrong, I wish I hadn't.

The headline is usually "A Florida Man has been arrested" because news stations all around the country dig through Florida public records to fill space when their local news is slow. It says "Florida" because it is not local to the outlet that is publishing it. Local news usually says "local man" or specifies a locality.

If anyone's interested in an in depth dive into the "Florida Man" meme, the podcast Citations Needed did a great (imo) episode on it: https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-75-florida-ma...

The _Florida Man_ documentary is also equally fascinating and depressing.

https://vimeo.com/118532076