Maximin Andre Pierre was arrested Sunday afternoon for soliciting donations while playing saxophone in Ybor City. Police said they warned him "several times" before arresting him for "vending in Ybor City without a permit."
We here in the Sticks are glad to hear all the real crime has been cleaned up.
The Tampa Tribune says the Polk County Jail housed more people per capita than any jail in the state in 2006, and ranked fifth in the nation among cites or counties with their own jail systems.
Sixty percent of the crimes committed on USF’s main campus are from people who have no affiliation with the school. Bruce Benson is USF’s newly named director of public safety, and he has some ideas to keep these troublemakers outside the grounds. The university plans to erect gates at a six entrances and close them between midnight and 6am. Sometimes all you need is a bit of common sense.
There’s a small commmunity in northwest Hillsborough County called Keystone, so it’s completely unfair of you to suggest that Keystone Cops are rampant throughout the entire county.
So we’ll just say that we sure have some really, really stupid law enforcement officers throughout the area. A judge has tossed out charges against the Latin Kings. Sometimes you hear of police officers convincing a bad guy to do something illegal, and then arresting him. That is against the law, and is sometimes known as “entrapment.” It sounds like our local cops tried some sort of Super-Duper Special Forces Entrapment. From the Tribune Story:
In December 2005, [Luis “Danny”] Agosto was in jail, charged with armed burglary and grand theft of a motor vehicle. Agosto had a long record with multiple felony convictions and he was worried about a long prison sentence, according to court testimony and Sleet’s written order.
Tampa police and the FBI investigators asked him to help look into possible drug and gun activity within the Tampa Latin Kings gang. In exchange, they dropped the burglary charge and gave Agosto 10 years’ probation for the theft charge.
He also was given a rent-free apartment, a cell phone, $2,400 a month for living expenses and the promise of a $100,000 bonus upon conviction of Latin King members.
The Tampa division of the Latin Kings gang, however, had been dormant since August 2005, according to Sleet’s order. Therefore, Sleet wrote, Agosto was “employed” by law enforcement to get the gang back together. Agosto started to hold meetings of gang members with required attendance.
On Aug. 20, 2006, Agosto gathered 39 purported members of the Latin Kings at a Tampa meeting hall. All were threatened with beatings if they did not attend.
Six law enforcement agencies raided the meeting and all were arrested…
Now come on. Anyone who has seen even their first cop movie knows that you can get the bad guy to snitch on his peeps to reduce his sentence. But having the guy round up all his buddies for some gimmicky bullsh*t reason dreamed up by the cops? Not allowed.
Your Men In Blue just plodded forward, and soiled themselves bragging to the national media about the 39 gang members arrested. And the judge is pissed. He chastises law enforcement:
“This court finds that law enforcement’s conduct, by and through [the confidential informant], was so outrageous toward those defendants … as to violate the Florida Due Process Clause,” Sleet wrote. “Dismissal is an extreme sanction; however an extreme sanction is warranted to punish extreme conduct.”
Keystone is gonna want their own cops.
Hillsborough County Commissioners unanimously agreed to red light cameras on Thursday. The Tribune notes:
… 10 Hillsborough County intersections will get red light cameras that supporters say save lives and detractors claim cause more - not fewer - accidents.
Red light cameras cause about as many crashes as red lights. Neither are the reason for accidents. Selfish, careless, negligent, thoughtless, self-centered, inconsiderate, and inattentive drivers are to blame for wrecks.
Once these cameras are installed, you better look out. RLCs won’t change the habits of these people right away. They will still be driving on your streets while on the phone, applying makeup, reading the newspaper, and texting their peeps. And the odds are they will be right behind you when you slow quickly for a yellow light (which is what you are supposed to do). So there will be a few fender benders.
But not to fear. It costs a lot less to fix the rear of your vehicle than the front of it. And after just a couple of months (and plenty of front-end body work), those selfish drivers will realize that they should maybe pay a bit more attention to the road. All will be well in no time.
We applaud the decision of your Hillsborough County Commissioners.
There is another video making its way around the world. Instead of a wheelchair dumping, this time Tampa Police Officer Kiet Truong was dragged down the street for blocks. How scary is that? He could have been killed. Because of the very real dangerous situations they are often in, I tend to give cops the benefit of the doubt, as I did with the wheelchair incident.
Now let’s be clear here. Street cops have to be alert to many more variables than jail cops. But I don’t think you can say that those jail cops have an easy job, either. Still, I’m beginning to feel very foolish for simply suggesting we wait for all the facts.
Ever since the worldwide outrage toward the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for tossing a paraplegic from his wheelchair, the law enforcement agency has been inundated with phone calls from people who claim they too were treated abusively during their stay in the hoosegow. A handful of those have found video that supposedly backs up their story, and have been featured in your local news outlets.
Because of all of that, the HCSO is “looking at ways to better train deputies.” But the accusations keep on coming.
The latest is another handicapped man who was also dumped from his wheelchair. But in this incident, HCSO says the dumping was justified, because the guy threw a crack pipe at deputies. Besides, they say, this guy shot someone earlier, so “the use of force was justified…”
It is becoming clear that the original incident was simply the tip of the iceberg. In that first video, remember looking at the reactions (or really, the lack of any reaction) by the nearby deputies? That suggests that this kind of thing goes on every single day. Prisoners are treated as the scum of the earth, whether they are guilty or innocent.
And look at the official responses for each of the above incidents. Basically, “the use of force was justified,” “the use of force was justified,” “the use of force was justified,” and “the use of force was justified.” Mostly against drunks and drug users.
By using that excuse every time, and with folks like myself giving law enforcement the benefit of the doubt, it could very well be that these institutions think they can get away with murder. In fact, in the hands of these jailers, it’s not too surprising that some folks have died in there.
Of course it’s not just here in Hillsborough County. Polk County jailers have similar problems. There are deaths in jails all over the country.
But who is upset? Not many. Complaints have been made against law enforcement, but they are dismissed with “appropriate use of force” arguments. Maybe it’s because they are just (alleged) criminals. People think “even if they are innocent of this charge, they probably deserved it.” And video cameras don’t show everything. So with not much proof, media shrug their shoulders, and just move on to another story. Steve Otto ALMOST admits it, and says the allegations are “easy to dismiss”:
I’ve been almost as guilty. Not too many days go by I don’t get an envelope stuffed with pages of handwritten material from an inmate in Hillsborough County. The pages are filled with detailed references to that inmate’s experiences in jail, along with the news that he has been unfairly charged.
When I get these I go back and check the records and usually find that the writer has been locked up for multiple reasons and generally for a string of violations.
I received one this week from an inmate who wrote that he is diabetic and went on to describe how his treatments have been messed up in jail, and he identified correctional workers and how they had abused him.
These are letters that are easy to dismiss, or at best taken to an editor to deal with it or not.
But when evidence is overwhelming, the editorial boards are aghast. St. Pete Times: Punish Now Severely. Tampa Tribune: casual cruelty is an outrage.
Which brings me to another question. If the deputies are guilty of just standing around doing nothing while inmates are treated as punching bags, what are we to say about the media?
Thanks to investigative reporter Mike Deeson, Tampa Bay’s 10 was the first to air the video of the Hillsborough County Sheriff Deputy dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair. That video has since made its way around the world on such outlets as NBC’s Today Show, CNN and the front page of BBC’s website.
Everyone is horrified.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is “appalled,” and ready to investigate, while Governor Charlie Crist finds it “terribly disturbing.” Sheriff David Gee said it was “horrific” and “aberrant,” and apologized for the actions of his deputies. Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said the actions are “indefensible,” and “anything short of dismissal would be inappropriate.”
Advocacy groups and officials nationwide are stunned. Daniel Ruth says cops are “inured to the suffering of people,” and assume that every prisoner is scamming. A Tribune editorial says there is no excuse, and the casual cruelty is an outrage. St. Pete Times editorial wants a severe punishment immediately. Steve Otto says nobody does their job right.
Of course, these are all the same people who vilified officer Matthew Parco for arresting a harmless 74 year old lady at the McDonald’s drive-thru. But that wasn’t the final story. Turns out the French Fry Grandma is a colossal b*tch, and Parco did nothing wrong.
Still, all of us rush to judgment. My first reaction was one of horror. And I too wondered why the other people in the room acted as if it’s a daily occurrence. But I think there is much, much more to this.
Times reporter Abbie Vansickle found out that his friends say Brian Sterner hasn’t been his normal self lately. He was arrested for “fleeing and attempting to elude officers,” which if true, doesn’t show much respect for law enforcement. After his initial report, Mike Deeson followed up with Sterner’s neighbors who are so scared of the guy, they don’t want to be seen on camera, and he has allegedly tried to run some of them over with his car.
Meanwhile, according to Tribune reporters Josh Poltilove and Mike Wells, Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones has had a very good record:
A review of the personnel files of Marshall-Jones and the three supervisors turned up mostly positive performance evaluations and dozens of commendation letters. Her last evaluation was written by Hinson (one of the supervisors seen in the video) two weeks before the wheelchair incident… In it, the sergeant says Marshall-Jones is an outstanding employee who handles inmates well.
In fact, her personnel file indicates she was praised:
… contains at least 13 commendation letters praising her service from various residents and other county workers. In November 2003, she and the rest of the booking room staff were named employees of the month.
But like you, she is not perfect. Marshall-Jones has been suspended twice. But notice both were administrative screw-ups, and both happened over eighteen years ago.
She worked at the courthouse with Hillsborough Circuit Judge Barbara Fleischer. Check what she says about her:
“She used humor to cajole people who otherwise were difficult to deal with. If anything, she calmed down situations that otherwise might have resulted in confrontation.” … “I never had any issue with anything related with her behavior.” … Marshall-Jones was “one of the better people I’ve come into contact with.”
Sue Carlton covered the courthouse, and remembers Marshall-Jones:
One of the nicest [bailiffs at the courthouse] was a female deputy who worked with a judge who liked the courtroom to run just so. Still, she kept things pleasant, always seemed even-keeled, funny, friendly. She was someone you never minded running into. Her name was Charlette, and every time I see her on that video, I can’t imagine.
And someone at Marshall-Jones home is confident:
A woman who answered the telephone at the home of the deputy, Charlette Marshall-Jones, said: “I feel positive. When I know I’m not wrong, I feel that way… I do believe the truth will come out, but I can’t offer more than that.”
Again, the video of a disabled person getting dumped out of his chair is horrific. It’s difficult to imagine what might have led to that happening. But we don’t have to imagine. This is the United States of America, so Deputy Marshall-Jones will have a chance to explain her side. I’m willing to wait for that.
Let’s get the entire story.
107 people were arrested during last month’s Gasparilla invasion and parade. The two you see being carted off 
here were busted before the parade even started. There were eleven felonies reported and 96 misdemeanors, including nine charges of boating under the influence.
The director of Hillsborough County Health Department and professor of internal medicine at the University of South Florida, Dr. Douglas A. Holt was arrested during Gasparilla festivities Saturday on a charge of boating under the influence. His response:
“I’m a very responsible person, but I made perhaps a wrong choice,” Holt said. “I certainly put no one in danger.”
Meanwhile, Mark Koert was drunk when he tried to slam a 28-foot Maxim he stole from the municipal docks at the Tampa Convention Center into Deputies Paul Shute and Timothy Lundy, both of the sheriff’s marine unit. The Realtor has a mostly clean record, so I’m thinking he was quite inebriated.
Don’t forget, the Knight Parade is this Saturday. Have fun with that!
Photo courtesy of J William Robinson. Check out his other work at jwilliamphoto.com.
I don’t know what my deal is with skaters. I’ve never owned a skateboard, never known a real skater, and I have a 10 year old pair of inline skates that have been worn a handful of times (the last time being about 9.5 years ago). But I get so worked up when I hear someone getting arrested for UNLAWFUL ROLLERSKATING.
Three skateboarders were arrested in downtown Tampa:
Leon Wilfredo Lopez, 24, Jed Wesley Foster, 22, and Oliver Quinn Giles, 18, were arrested and charged with unlawful skateboarding…
Eventually we’ll rid the world of these terrible terrible menaces to society. But in the meantime, can’t we just help them find places where they can go? Instead of busting their chops, why can’t cops suggest they head over to the Bro Bowl or DeSoto Park?
Tampa gets on National Television because of skaters - why don’t we have a bit more respect for the sport? Why doesn’t the city’s P&R list of parks include those with skate ramps? Seriously, can’t we have a few more public places where this mostly harmless activity is allowed?
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