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Just a Personal Note
I’ve been doing some research on the Broward County Sheriff’s Department, and the Sheriff. It’s depressing, especially when I think about the Chicago Police Commander that ran to engage a dangerous felon. He led by example, and sometimes that comes with a price. He lost his life, a wife lost her husband, a child lost her father, and his fellow officers lost a good police officer.
I’ve always believed that you cannot use a law enforcement agency to further political goals, especially goals that include ignoring crimes to please a specific group of people, or to increase your federal funding, or to push a narrative. There are also some serious corruption problems within this department.
I’m coming to the conclusion that the Sheriff of Broward County must resign; to impeach him would be difficult because he’s an elected official. The State of Florida should explore revoking his state certification as a law enforcement officer. Revoking his certification would leave him no choice other than to resign his office.
I’m a bit depressed after reading some of the material I’ve found, but there are a lot of good line cops out there, and the word good is high praise. Good means that you come to work every day and you are competent out on the streets every day.
I’m going to take a break from the research for a while. I’m going to spend some time remembering the good officers I worked with, and the good officers that work throughout the United States. I’ll return to the research a bit later, but right now I’ve decided to put the shovel down. I don’t want to go through the rest of this weekend disgusted, and angry.
Published in General
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/23/broward-county-sheriffs-office-did-not-miss-warning-signs-or-make-mistakes/
I am on the same page with you.
Though the Left has so much blood on their hands and never pay the price.
The story begins with the Broward County “Solution:” which was egged on by the Obama administration.
The Sheriff is a minor actor following what he thought would be a path to success.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/23/broward-county-sheriffs-office-did-not-miss-warning-signs-or-make-mistakes/
It is important to understand the policy here. Broward County law enforcement (Sheriff Israel), in conjunction with Broward County School Officials (Superintendent Runcie and School Board), have a standing policy to ignore any criminal engagement with High School students.
When the police are hiding current, actual and ongoing unlawful conduct as a matter of standard procedure on a regular basis, what do we expect the police would do with reports of potential unlawful conduct? Of course they would ignore them.
A professor of mine once stated “Every process is designed to get the results it gets.”
QED
I’m with you.
Knowing so many brave, good, guys, makes the excusing of the deliberately pitiful performance in that Sheriff’s department just sad.
The stories about apathetic physicians don’t make the news much, only the murderous or rapist ones. Far more significant in numbers and impact is the apathy. Many docs do shift work for systems. The nature of these systems is often political and the docs care more about the system or politics. They let suffering go un-helped because their shift is over or the I’s and T’s aren’t right on some form. Meanwhile the docs ignore what should be the very reason God gave them gifts.
It’s sad to see any noble profession (especially your own) having major issues.
When you have the reserves to poke through this issue Doug, your perspective will be greatly welcomed. I was a bit hot under the collar when I wrote my members only article about this issue. Your sober perspective will be welcomed.
The Sheriff did nothing illegal. In the USA, there is no constitutional/legal requirement for the police to protect individual citizens from crime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales
As you say, it’s an elected position. The voters of Broward County will decide if the Sheriff’s policies are what they want for their children.
Except Sheriff Israel has packed his department with political hacks whose main purpose was Israel’s re-election and their own gravy train. He’s going to be tough to oust.
There is more than enough external stress for a police officer. You deal with, and see some pretty ugly things out on the streets. The internal stress is a morale crusher. I’ve been away from police work for a long time and this still bothers me.
The public has high expectations for police officers, and they should. This sheriff has not only damaged his own department, he has damaged and hurt the reputation of every officer everywhere in this country, to include those who are no longer serving. He has deepened the distrust, and encouraged cynicism about police officers within his own ranks, as well as the public that they serve.
You know, both sides can wave the bloody flag …
If the voters of Broward County really dislike the Sheriff Office’s policies, they’ll ignore the hacks and cronies.
It’s a very big if.
Too late for me to trust police in general. Has to be person by person. As I get older, I trust the police less and less. Their job is to make sure the people they “protect” (ha!) go home alive. In Cobb County, there is a man pulling people over and arresting for DUI based on some stupid test that shows they have Pot in their body, and the County claims he is doing it right even after blood tests show nothing.
Police abuse their power. They go after law abiding citizens because we are easy targets. I got pulled over because I swerved out of a lane when I was startled by a speeding semi as I was merging. I was partially on a shoulder as wide as my car. I get the whole “have you been drinking?”
I think speed traps and check points and most traffic stops should end. Use that to build up trust.
It’s more than political in the Broward County case. The “don’t ask don’t tell policy” included hiding recovered stolen items from their rightful owners in burglaries that were committed by the protected class. That is theft, and depending upon the dollar amount of the recovered items that also becomes a felony.
That also destroys any credibility an officer has in their testimony in a courtroom. What a beautiful situation, you have one group of officers committing a crime, and the expectation that you should believe another officer when they testify in another crime.
He’s still got to get past the people of Broward County, Doc. I still have faith in the people.
By the way lest anyone thinks I’m just concerned about the Sheriff of Broward County because he’s a Democrat I feel the same way about the former Sheriff of Maricopa County, good old Uncle Joe. Even though Donald Trump found enough votes to carry Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe could not. The Goldwater Institute, hardly a Left leaning think tank, had some very interesting reading material on his department, let’s just say he couldn’t find enough Republican votes in his bid to hold his office in the last election.
I’m a firm believer in apolitical law enforcement.
6 years ago I was a fan of Joe. Then I went to the Maricopa court house to testify for a friend and my friend’s lawyer filled me in on from a very different perspective on Joe. From then on I decided to ignore Joe.
Well, I guess we could call it a NeverTrumper think tank with Jeff Flake having been the Director. Last I saw he had 18% approval among voters and decided not to run. I’m sure there are corporate jobs waiting for a pro-immigration lobbyist.
So, is Joe Arpaio a case study that one should trust the voters to remove bad sheriffs from office, or a case study that state officials should step in and remove bad sheriffs from office via administrative manoeuvers, perhaps against the will of the voters?
After all, Arpaio was re-elected three times. Presumably, his worst tendencies didn’t occur out of the blue during his final term in office.
Of course, in Arpaio’s case, he had been convicted of a crime (contempt of court). In the Broward County case, (presumably) no crime has been committed by the sheriff.
I’m no fan of Jeff Flake and his decision not to run was not disappointing to me. The Goldwater Institute reports dealt with specific issues and actions taken by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department that had nothing to do with immigration issues. The lack of warrant service to include not passing down warrants to his own deputies left people on the streets who should have been arrested, but ended up being ignored and allowed to run free to commit more crimes. This may have cost one deputy his life when he was dealing with an individual that killed him. He and other deputies were unaware of the fact that this individual had a warrant for his arrest.
Mark Steyn is in no mood.
He was a pretty busy guy, and was what I call an attention seeker.
He had two reporters arrested and jailed because they wrote articles that criticized him. That cost Maricopa County a lot of money.
He had a county commissioner arrested, and threatened others with arrest. That cost Maricopa County a lot of money.
The wife of the Mayor of Mesa criticized him so he responded by having deputies and volunteers seize the Mesa City Hall, and Library. He did not bother informing the Mesa City police chief beforehand of his so called immigration sweep, that netted two janitors.
One young man was arrested in a plot to kill Sheriff Joe, left unsaid is a deputy paid the 18 year-old to build the bomb, and promised him more money when the bomb was completed. The young man was mentally unstable, and when he asked for an attorney during the interrogation one was never provided. The jury acquitted him, and once again Maricopa County had to pay damages.
His deputies conducted a raid on a home looking for weapons. The homeowner’s weren’t home, no weapons were found, but the house burned down, and the family dog was killed. The night wasn’t a total loss, when the homeowner returned home he was arrested for some unpaid traffic tickets.
There have been questions about the misuse of money, but as the TV ads exclaim, but wait there’s more. Needless to say other law enforcement agencies shed no tears when he lost his re-election bid. The State Attorney General and his office didn’t shed too many tears either.
I imagine those who have spent years protecting others, whether in law enforcement or military, are among those most offended by the behavior of fellow officers whose choices and actions cause harm.
We rarely hear about the good ones unless we lose them in the line of duty. Seems to me they and the families of those who died in Parkland deserve justice. This case begs for a thorough Dept of Justice housecleaning.
Lost in all this is the belief that voters get what they deserve. The 17 students that lost their lives, and their parents didn’t deserve this, the wounded and their parents didn’t deserve this. This nonsense is going on in Chicago, Baltimore, and in other cities as well. Nonsense is the wrong word, tragic is a more fitting word. People are not getting what they deserve with politicized law enforcement. You’ll have to pardon me, my feelings on this subject are pretty strong. I knew nonsense when I heard it from people I arrested, nonsense sounds no different to me when it comes from the brass, or those that use a police department for social engineering.
Totally excellent post, excellent conversation, excellent responses.
Many thanks: I’m glad it went to main feed, so I can forward it.
I’m glad you posted this. I wonder how much of the on scene incompetence is a result of corruption spreading down from the head.
Most of the elective offices have no business being on the ballot, especially the law enforcement ones.
It certainly doesn’t help. The Sheriff directing the blame on the NRA, and his 3 deputies who appear to be spectators, rather than first responders, was designed to prevent a closer look at his department and the policy to not report crimes in the Broward County school system. The so called little things that are ignored manifest themselves, and are exposed when the perfect storm hits.
Over thirty 9-1-1 calls to the shooter’s home, a relative asking that his firearms, and his knives be taken. A stranger that sees his You Tube video, and social media posts in which he calls himself a school shooter. A therapist who states he’s not a danger to himself, or to others, two deputies that believed he was dangerous, but ignored.
It’s sad.
That’s a tough subject. I am in a rural area and almost daily see the consequences of elected law enforcement offices. On the other hand, who do you really trust to appoint impartial fair and consistent constabulary? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Yes, this is a do-nothing bromide that elites pass out to forestall any serious effort.
Is it possible to impose educational/professional pre-requisites for elected officials?
Do elected judges and/or district attorneys have to be lawyers in good standing before they can run for the position?
How often are lawyers or judges disbarred? How frequently do doctors lose their licenses?
Soros spent $8 million on the election to replace Joe. I am told the PHX voters are not happy with him.
Joe is too old. He needs to retire.