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As Hurricane Irma's destructive path nears Florida, a sheriff is warning sex offenders to beware of officers checking IDs at shelters. But now people are worried the rules will also affect others with outstanding warrants.
[...] "If you go to a shelter for #Irma, be advised: sworn LEOs will be at every shelter, checking IDs. Sex offenders/predators will not be allowed."
The sheriff explained the tweet further by writing on top of it, "If you go to a shelter for #Irma and you have a warrant, we'll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail."
[...] RT America contacted the sheriff's office, and was told a public information officer would call back with further information.
Free pajamas and meals provided at no cost.
Source: Florida sheriff offers jail as 'secure shelter' for those with warrants fleeing Hurricane Irma
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Geezer on Sunday September 10 2017, @10:19AM (13 children)
Arresting people with outstanding warrants is just standard workaday policing, regardless of time and location. Professional cops keep their mouths shut and go about their business. Buffoons and latter-day Wyatt Earps just make it more difficult for all concerned.
Why does this sheriff have to make it part of the media circus surrounding a natural disaster?
I should hope the good people of Polk County bounce this clown from office at the first opportunity.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 10 2017, @10:48AM (1 child)
Agreed - but I think that in a natural disaster like this, MOST cops will let MOST warrants just slide for the moment. Parking tickets? No cop in his right mind is going to make your damned parking ticket warrant a high priority.
On the other hand, if you're the subject of a manhunt, considered "armed and dangerous", you can't expect the cops to look the other way even in the middle of a hurricane.
I hope that the rest of the sheriff's departments have more sense, and are able to assign proper priorities to their duties. Individual cops shouldn't have a hard time deciding, "Save this person's life, or arrest that fugitive? Which is more important?"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 10 2017, @08:34PM
Sheriff is a political (elected) position, these guys never miss an opportunity to flash their hard-ass creds to the voters, especially in counties like Polk where the majority vote for firey promises of making everything right, by force if necessary.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by SixGunMojo on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:08AM (5 children)
The Summery and the article both fail to mention that they will also be sanctuary shelters. http://www.businessinsider.com/grady-judd-florida-hurricane-irma-response-arrest-warrants-2017-9 [businessinsider.com]
Personally I think that flat out telling sex offenders to "Fuck off, go die in a hurricane" Is a pretty shitty thing to do. Why having provisions to deal with them is not SOP in the governments 'What to do in Case of a Hurricane' handbook is beyond me. I hope, in a wishful-thinking-not-really-kinda-way, that someone denied entry to a shelter gets killed, and their family sues the ever-loving shit out of this guy. I would also hope that he would get criminally prosecuted but we all know that would never happen.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:40AM
"Personally I think that flat out telling sex offenders to "Fuck off, go die in a hurricane" Is a pretty shitty thing to do."
I agree. Especially when all it takes to be labeled a sex offender in the US is to have a leak in public.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @04:35PM
They do have provisions to deal with them. "Fuck off, go die in a hurricane" seems like they've given it all the consideration they want to.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:20PM (2 children)
Really?
Is the public park wanker so dangerous that every manual of operations must include a section on management of same?
And if so, what would be in that manual?
If they are recidivist predators, what the hell are they doing running around loose?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday September 11 2017, @02:28AM
Furthermore, if the objective is to keep *other* people safe... .which 'sex offender' is going to Do His Evil Thing in a crowded shelter, full of stressed-out adult males who'd like nothing better than an excuse to pummel someone??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday September 11 2017, @09:49AM
No, the publicly elected sherrif, however, is. And therefore every manual of operations must include a section on how a sherrif should behave - to avoid him putting the public in harm's way, e.g. by publicly warning folks away from safety.
Because that's what he did. He publicly told people that there will be consequences for a certain class of citizens if they show up to a shelter.
Sidenote: don't bring your ID to a shelter. You're there to be safe, not to be ID'd.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:48AM (1 child)
The "good" (51+% majority) people of Polk county are all jerks like this guy. They go to church, but miss the message about turning the other cheek. Just because they've never had a problem with the law, they assume that anyone who has must be guilty and deserve all the punishments.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday September 11 2017, @05:06AM
Bingo...Mr. Sheriff is in fact also one of Polk County's preachers [wfla.com]!
(Score: 2) by Sulla on Sunday September 10 2017, @02:32PM (2 children)
I took this as the police not wanting to get sued for entrapment later
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 4, Informative) by Geezer on Sunday September 10 2017, @02:55PM (1 child)
IANAL, but I don't think you can entrap someone already under a warrant. The execution of a warrant is due process. Entrapment is not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @04:12PM
IANAL as well.
You absolutely can "entrap" person under a warrant. Entrapment and warrants are orthogonal things.
I think both the parent and grandparent are confused about what Entrapment [wikipedia.org]. Entrapment is more than just catching a person, or even tricking a person. Entrapment is the state forcing a person to commit a crime. Among other things this "traps" a person, in that they either are breaking the law by failure to comply with a lawful order, or they are are breaking the law by following that order. This was form of law was created to prevent a judge or somebody else being able to target somebody they didn't like and guarantee being able to put them in jail.
As a simple example, imagine there was a warrant against an Apple employee demanding that they hack into another person's iPhone for reasons. This would be entrapment, as that employee would either be breaking the law by hacking into the phone (and could be arrested for hacking), or they would be breaking the law by violating the warrant (and could be arrested for obstruction of justice).
Note: In the "real world," this example of entrapment is avoided by somehow authorizing the Apple employee to hack the iPhone, such as having the laws against hacking providing an exemption when it is done for or by the state. Therefore the action of hacking is no longer illegal, and thus this is not entrapment.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @10:33AM (4 children)
I thought it was Polk County I remembered but it's the next one over, Pinellas County.
The sheriff's office had a rug in their entryway that for months none of the staff noticed said "In Dog We Trust". [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @10:36AM
http://www.google.com/search?q=Muphry's.Law [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:52AM (1 child)
I was thinking this would be Pinellas County as I read the headline, Nick Navarro was quite the personality back in the day.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 10 2017, @12:01PM
Sorry, Navarro was Broward... there's no shortage of enthusiasm in Florida law enforcement.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @04:09PM
They could probably sell it to Birmingham (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_campaign#Fire_hoses_and_police_dogs [wikipedia.org]).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:06AM (20 children)
In case you didn't notice, this news comes from RT. Anyone has another source?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Informative) by SixGunMojo on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:16AM (4 children)
Here you go. :) http://lmgtfy.com/?q=polk+county+sherriff+warrents+irma [lmgtfy.com]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:34AM (3 children)
WTF
(Score: 3, Informative) by unauthorized on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:38AM (2 children)
The website requires scripting to work.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Arik on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:59PM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday September 11 2017, @06:22PM
Someone wasn't listening during the math lesson on ensembles, inclusion and exclusion.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:30AM (5 children)
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170906/13220538158/florida-sheriff-plans-to-use-hurricane-irma-to-bump-up-arrest-numbers-fill-his-jail.shtml [techdirt.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @02:27PM (4 children)
According to the source article [hrw.org], it is suggested that 517 out of 600 prisoners drowned or were otherwise killed as a result of New Orleans jailers in the employ of the county sheriff abandoning the jail with all 600 prisoners left locked inside.
Highlights:
- many had not even been brought before a judge to be charged with a crime, much less being convicted of anything
- locked cells flooded
- toilets backed up and overflowed due to flooding
- bodies floating in inside floodwaters
- no fresh water, so prisoners resorted to drinking "contaminated" water. Think about it.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @04:10PM (3 children)
A-yup. I feel like a certain portion of US law enforcement would feel just at home in, say, Saudi Arabia. Cutting off hands and heads for minor offenses, stuff like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:05PM
Yet it works just fine there. Cut off whatever was used to commit a crime... Sex offenders especially.
(Score: 2, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Monday September 11 2017, @02:41AM
I'll tell you, the Saudis are fabulous. They bought a whole floor of Trump World Tower. And when I went there, so friendly! They love me. We did a sexy sword dance. And Wilbur Ross said there wasn't one protester. Not one. Fabulous! 🇺🇸
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday September 11 2017, @06:30PM
"law enforcement" ?
A significant portion of the US isn't thinking very differently from the Saudi or the Taliban about people they find ... unpleasant. It's just the words and underlying concepts that change.
The law enforcement subset is just a product of selection of individuals based on their willingness to perform certain tasks. That biases the sample a lot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:31AM
https://web.archive.org/web/20170910005738/http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/07/florida-sheriff-warns-sex-offenders-people-with-warrants-at-shelters-will-be-arrested.html [archive.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by unauthorized on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:34AM
Yes, RT has links to the tweets themselves. There is no better source than the primary source.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:57AM
They don't need to make this stuff up - but it does fit the old rhetoric nicely, not surprising they're giving it a broader audience.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @01:46PM (5 children)
The funny thing about Russian foreign propaganda is that they've figured out that the truth works really well.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 10 2017, @04:09PM (3 children)
Yep, that's why I use it so often when I'm in a trolling mood. There's nothing better than pissing someone off with unarguable facts.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Geezer on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:03PM (2 children)
"There's nothing better than pissing someone off with unarguable facts."
I humbly submit that a nice cold beer while doing it is better. Getting a hummer under the table all the while approaches perfection.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:28PM (1 child)
I stand corrected. You, sir, are a visionary.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday September 11 2017, @06:34PM
On the matter of standing, hiding the hummer under the table is what prevents it from being perfection.
Proper body shape selection allows for both the troller's beer and keyboard to rest on a naked person. With proper training, she'll hold the screen up to the right height, too.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 10 2017, @08:36PM
Selective truth, published about any population of millions, can paint them all as just about anything you want.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Megahard on Sunday September 10 2017, @04:15PM (1 child)
Residents urged not to shoot guns at hurricanes. [sfgate.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @03:00AM
http://me.me/embed/i/18623744 [me.me]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:26PM
Florida jails aren't already overcrowded with pot smokers? I was going to add wife beaters, but in Florida hardly anyone gets locked up for that. In fact they get voted into office [dailymail.co.uk]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @09:58PM
Why would prisoners not surrender during a hurricane???
https://www.hrw.org/news/2005/09/21/new-orleans-prisoners-abandoned-floodwaters [hrw.org]
This story teaches an important lesson that prisoners need to fend for themselves during hurricanes, like everyone else. When the guards leave because the water is up to their necks, it's time to innovate and take advantage of Freedom™. THINK! Or you'll DROWN. That's the kind of motivation that produces results. At the very least, they should find a balcony and stick it out like the decent middle-aged white men who've been reporting Irma on all channels for the past 7 days straight.