Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

(See the original full-sized cartoon here, from the [almost] daily cartoon paper fruit hair.)

I’m sure you have heard about the woman raped during gasparilla. After the assault, she walked to her car and called the cops to report the rape. While a police officer was taking her back to the scene of the crime, he pulled over, handcuffed the girl, and took her to jail.

The rape investigation never went any further.

And it gets worse.

A jail worker with religious objections blocked her from ingesting a morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy, her attorney says, keeping her from taking the required second dose for more than 24 hours longer than recommended.

So, why did she go to jail instead of being treated like a victim? Police say she had an outstanding warrants in Sarasota. She wasn’t being hunted, she simply owed the state over $4,000 restitution after a juvenile arrest in 2003.

Furthermore, her attorney says that the woman believes that the restitution had been paid, and that the $4,000+ is nothing but a clerical error.

A mistake on paperwork was excuse enough for Tampa Police to arrest a rape victim, completely bypass the rape investigation, and call it a day. It seems like these guys will resort to ANYTHING to keep from having to work too hard.

But regardless of the “clerical error,” if restitution money is the only reason law enforcement is looking for someone, that is no reason to treat them like a criminal.

Once again - if you have ANY kind of record and you need help from the police, you will be considered GUILTY and unworthy of their assistance. You may want to make sure all your records are cleared up - your life may depend on it.

It’s gonna get cold tonight.  No - I mean really cold.

Temperatures are expected to go to 38 degrees around 5am tomorrow, and that’s just downtown Tampa.  Your neighborhood will likely get even colder, and the wind chill will be below freezing.  Don’t forget to keep your pets inside tonight, and go cover your plants.

Hillsborough County is opening shelters for the homeless tonight:

Freeze shelters will open tonight, Monday, Jan. 29, for the homeless and people who live in homes without adequate heat.

The shelters are:

• Salvation Army, 1514 N. Florida Ave. This shelter is only for adults.
• Metropolitan Ministries, 2010 N. Florida Ave. This shelter is for families.
• Good Samaritan Mission (South County) at Bethune Park, 5809 Edina St., in Wimauma. This shelter is for adults and families.

The Salvation Army and Metropolitan Ministries locations will open after 4 p.m. The Bethune Park location will open at 6 p.m. They will stay open until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, and meals will be provided.

Hillsborough County’s Health & Social Services Department works with these organizations to help provide freeze shelters when temperatures reach below 32 degrees, including the wind chill factor.

The after-hours telephone number for persons seeking shelter information is 234-1234.

Skyscraper City is an online forum about development and highrises all over the world. Of course, there is a contingent that focuses only on happening in and around Tampa Bay.

Recently, there have been lots of rumors regarding possible lessees for the ground floor of Skypoint. There seems to be quite a few folks who say that the owners and operators of the successful Franklin Street restaurant and nightspot, Fly, will be opening a new restaurant named “River” in the base of the still-under-construction Skypoint Condo tower on Ashley Drive.

The talk and the speculation was likely fueled by a introductory gathering at Fly last week for Novare-Intown’s latest condo tower, Element, which is just beginning construction on Franklin Street, opposite the Kress building.

But, there is no official word anywhere. So, in order to find out, I contacted Fly directly. Owner Leslie Shirah said it’s “too early to say anything on the subject.”

No word on when “River” (or any other restaurant) would or will be opening in Skypoint, but the first residents are supposed to move in in May. I’d guess a restaurant would not happen before late summer or fall of this year, and more likely at the beginning of ‘08.

Jobsite Theater is offering buy one, get one free tickets to the remaining shows of All the Great Books (abridged). It’s a hilarious show, and they have received nothing but great feedback on it.

If you want the buy one, get one free deal, just to go to the ticket window, call 813.229.STAR or visit TBPAC.ORG and use promo code BOOKS.

This discount basically makes the tickets $10.75 a pop, which is quite a bargain.

Only two performances remain!  This Satuday at 10p and Sunday at 7p.

I thought those t-shirts my friends wore in junior high were funny but they appear to be legally inaccurate. In a stunning act of poor judgement (in my own pathetic opinion) a Tampa police officer arrested this guy for skateboarding on Channelside.

When I saw the story I thought surely the arrest was for something else and he just happened to be skateboarding when caught.  Nope.  The charge reads “Unlawful Rollerskating.”

Sunday morning, Kowzun said the judge and lawyers laughed when his charge was announced.

Apparently this isn’t the first time skaters were arrested in Tampa.

I arrested 2 skateboarders a couple years ago who 1) damaged a marble staircase to the tune of $400 and 2) refused to leave when asked. Also seized their boards AND their video camera as evidence. It’s not funny when your business is out the repair money or sued when mom and dad look at the tape of Jr. breaking his arm and say “Why didn’t somebody stop my son from breaking the law and his arm??”

OK.  Although it doesn’t appear this guy damaged anything and he apparently followed instructions to leave the area, albeit on his board. Also, and I know I am going to regret saying this, isn’t 25 a bit old to still be a skater?

It’s all coming down on Rick Baker. And he doesn’t want to talk about it. Well, Rick, you better do something.

By giving the ok to go with the boxcutter plan, St. Pete police chief Chuck Harmon was not just removing unsafe housing. The tent-slashing destroyed personal property, violated rights, made his police staff look like animals, made city leaders look like imbeciles, and embarassed the entire bay area.

Baker, if you care about the city as much as you say you do, get the guy out of there. Today.

Sometimes I sure love mayor Pam. Not sure about how good a Mayor she is, but pictures like this make me smile.

Can’t see Dick Greco or Sandy Friedman having a photo like that show up anyplace, can you? Unfortunately, for a lot of folks Gasparilla day was not going to end with smiles such as Mayor Pam’s.

This year saw 166 arrests on the day of the big parade. That is 46 more that just one week prior (I guess the children’s parade isn’t quite as wild) or a 28% jump. Last year the same comparison from the day of the parade and the Saturday one week prior only saw a 3.5% increase in arrests.
Of course I know that beer has no direct correlation with the number of folks jailed but something was sure in the air.

If you read the St Pete Times on Sunday the morning after the parade you might notice that they only indicate one person arrested for Boating Under the Influence. That may be the total of those arrested by the Tampa Police but the State Fish and Wildlife officers arrested quite a few boaters on Saturday for overindulgence. Gasparilla Day is reviled by some boaters for the damage inflicted by inattentive/inebriated boat owners in the crowded bay and channel.

Maybe the Trib’s Daniel Ruth summed up the day best of all,

Today is the big day when Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla will, in honor of a rapacious phony pirate, invade the city in a cocktail-fueled parade of bacchanalia during which pulchritudinous maidens of dubious age of consent will expose themselves in return for cheap beads made by some of the finest Chinese political prisoners money can buy.

It’s a family event.

(Don’t worry guys I had to look up “pulchritudinous” also- Jason)

I hope that all of our dear Sticks of Fire readers and contributers were safe this weekend and that the hangovers have faded nicely. If you did wind up in the pokey let us know what happened in the comments, but be sure to tell us your name so we can look at your mugshot and laugh at with you.

*** The pictures used in this post were taken by Jonathon Robinson (hire him! w32.jonathon.x [at] gmail [dot] com) and if you want you can see the rest of his Gasparilla 2007 set at his flickr.com page.