Port St. Lucie police arrest ‘The son of man’

PORT ST. LUCIE — “The son of man” was arrested after police say he was riding a bicycle just off Interstate 95, an affidavit states.

A Port St. Lucie police officer Jan. 7 reported he was traveling on I-95 about 12:25 a.m. at Gatlin Boulevard and saw a man “driving a bicycle on the interstate just off the roadway.”

The officer stopped the man.

He said he was riding to Palm Beach – about 50 miles to the south -- after being “kicked out of his home.”

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He declined to give his name, saying he didn’t have one.

He later said his name was “LOL” and “The son of man.”

“The Son of Man” is a 1964 surrealist painting by the late Belgian Rene Magritte.

It depicts a man standing in a white shirt, tie, jacket and bowler hat. A green apple with four leaves almost completely obscures the man’s face.

According to an analysis on artpieces.net, “The Son of Man” is in a private collection.

The analysis states: “The meaning of the painting is cryptic, but one can extrapolate some meaning from the words of Magritte himself. He spoke specifically of that feeling of human curiosity, where one seeks to see the hidden things that exist behind the other objects that we see, but one is often frustrated in this pursuit. The painting appears to capture this frustration — or ‘conflict,’ as Magritte put it — by allowing us only a slight glimpse of the man's face behind the fruit.”

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Meanwhile, after police asked for a fingerprint reader, “The son of man” identified himself as 29-year-old David Barnes.

It’s unclear whether Barnes is a Magritte fan.

Barnes, of West Palm Beach, was arrested on a charge of resisting an officer and obstructing without violence. He also got a citation related to riding a bicycle on the interstate.