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Appointed Broward Sheriff Responds to another Use Of Force allegation
Well, if response means walking up to a microphone and speaking words
UPDATED 5-20-19
Bodycam of brutal takedown
In response to another use-of-force allegation made by an attorney representing the family of a student at Blanche Ely High School, The appointed Sheriff held a news conference Monday afternoon.
The incident in question took place on February 21, while the student attended the school. The Broward Sheriff’s Office first learned of the family’s complaint following their media announcement this morning. The family never filed a complaint with BSO. Upon learning of the allegations, we conducted a prompt cursory review of the evidence in the case.
You can watch Appointed Sheriff ’s press briefing where he addresses his findings below:
Deutch Votes to Pass Landmark LGBTQ Equality Act
This morning, Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22) voted to pass a landmark bill to extend civil rights protections for LGBTQ Americans.
The Equality Act adds sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes and prohibits discrimination in employment, public education, housing, and other areas.
"No one should face discrimination because of who they love or how they identify," said Congressman Deutch, a Vice Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. "Homophobia and transphobia are inconsistent with our core American value of equality for all. Our LGBTQ family members and friends should be treated equally in the eyes of the law. I'm so proud to have cast my vote for this historic milestone toward ending discrimination against LGBTQ Americans and achieving full equality for all."
“Every day, between 1,000 and 2,000 people set foot on our campus,” said Robert Boo, CEO of The Pride Center at Equality Park. “Too many have faced discrimination because they are LGBTQ. Many Americans are at risk of being fired, denied housing or turned away from a business because of who they are or who they love. The Equality Act provides desperately needed protections for LGBTQ individuals nationwide to ensure that our citizens are free to live authentically. We work daily at The Pride Center to provide a welcoming, safe, inclusive home to our friends and neighbors. These South Floridians—like all LGBTQ Americans nationwide—deserve equality, freedom and protection against discrimination.”
Click here to view Congressman Deutch's video on the Equality Act.
Deutch Statement on FBI Briefing on FL Election Hack
Following this morning's F.B.I. briefing for the Florida Congressional delegation, Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22) issued this statement:
“Today’s classified briefing was important, but much of this information can and should be shared with Florida voters and the American people, and I asked the FBI to reconsider their decision to block the disclosure of the information.
"I am thankful that bipartisan members of the Florida delegation are working together to protect our election infrastructure, but I’m disappointed that that concern seems to end where Special Counsel Mueller’s report begins. The Mueller Report documented Russian attempts to influence voters and infiltrate computer networks in Florida.
"We need to all work together so that every American understands exactly what happened in 2016 and understands what’s necessary to defend our country from ongoing attacks by foreign powers.”
“Today’s classified briefing was important, but much of this information can and should be shared with Florida voters and the American people, and I asked the FBI to reconsider their decision to block the disclosure of the information.
"I am thankful that bipartisan members of the Florida delegation are working together to protect our election infrastructure, but I’m disappointed that that concern seems to end where Special Counsel Mueller’s report begins. The Mueller Report documented Russian attempts to influence voters and infiltrate computer networks in Florida.
"We need to all work together so that every American understands exactly what happened in 2016 and understands what’s necessary to defend our country from ongoing attacks by foreign powers.”
Rep. Richard Stark to run for Weston Mayor
In a post to his personal Facebook page Wednesday, state Rep. Richard Stark confirmed speculation he will run to be the next Mayor of Weston.
"Announcing my campaign kickoff for Mayor of Weston," Stark wrote.
"Working together we will ensure that Weston maintains its special HomeTown feel, high-quality services, and cost-effective government now and into the future. Looking forward to seeing you all on May 22!"
The May 22 fundraiser will be held at the home of Joel and Susan Fass in Weston from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Included on the guest list are state Sens. Gary Farmer and Perry Thurston; state Reps. Joe Geller, Michael Gottlieb, Evan Jenne, and Shevrin Jones; and Broward County School Board Members Robin Bartleman and Laurie Rich Levinson.
Stark currently represents House District 104, which covers the city of Weston. But Stark is term-limited from running for that seat again in 2020.
Conveniently for Stark, the next mayoral election in Weston is scheduled for Nov. 3, 2020.
Stark was born in New York City but has lived in Florida for decades. Prior to his time in the Legislature, he worked as an insurance agent and lobbied for health care reform in Tallahassee.
At Large Scholl Board Member Robin Bartleman is running for Stark's seat in 2020
Source FloridaPolitics.com
Ted Deutch, Gus Bilirakis back bill to address school shootings
Days after a deadly shooting at a Colorado high school, a bipartisan group of congressmen have introduced new legislation aiming to help identify school threats, as well as beef up suicide prevention programs within the nation's schools.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch joined his Republican counterpart in Florida, U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, to sponsor the legislation.
Also co-sponsoring the bill are U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, a California Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican.
The measure, dubbed the Suicide and Threat Assessment Nationally Dedicated to Universal Prevention (STANDUP) Act of 2019, aims to "to encourage schools to expand evidence-based suicide prevention training to students in grades 6 through 12," according to a Thursday release on the bill.
"The legislation would provide training to students and schools for threat identification, triage, and intervention, as well as guidance and protocol for coordinating with local law enforcement using established school threat assessment models."
“Especially among children and young adults, gun violence against others or themselves are at heart-wrenching levels in our country," said Deutch, whose district covers Parkland, the site of a 2018 shooting which killed 17 people.
"But this public health crisis is preventable. We know that often the warning signs are there; we just need to be trained to identify them and react appropriately. This bipartisan bill would help teachers and administrators catch those warning signs and intervene before gun violence tragedies occur."
While mass shootings typically garner the attention when discussing gun violence in the U.S., approximately 60 percent of the nation's annual gun deaths are the result of suicides.
“There is no higher priority than keeping our children safe," Bilirakis added.
"By providing high quality screening and prevention training to school staff and peers, we can identify threats before they materialize, and ensure that those who are at risk get the mental health treatment they need. Sadly, some communities in my district are among those with the highest suicide rates in our state. With training like this, we can help reverse that troubling trend."
Democrats have consistently pushed to increase gun control measures following shootings in recent years. Many of those efforts have stalled in Congress, with Republicans generally opposed.
It remains to be seen whether the STANDUP Act of 2019, with its focus on non-gun-related measures to attempt to cut down on school shootings, will earn broad enough support to get to the President's desk.
The measure is being backed by Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit founded by family members whose loved ones were killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.
“The rates of youth suicide and violence occurring in our country’s schools are appalling," said Mark Barden, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise. His son, Daniel, was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.
Source FloridaPolitis.com
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell calls President’s reaction to shooting immigrants ‘dangerous’
After Donald Trump laughed off a supporter's comments suggesting immigrants who enter the country illegally should be shot, U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is now hammering the President, calling his reaction "dangerous."
"When he talks about shooting, I lost my father to gun violence," Mucarsel-Powell said, recalling her father who was shot to death when she was in her mid-20s.
"I take that very seriously. We are in a situation right now in this country [where] we just had another shooting in Denver. He has to be careful," she said of the President.
The comment about shooting immigrants came from a member of the crowd as Trump spoke at a Panama City rally Wednesday night. At the time, Trump was discussing the possibility of using weapons against immigrants entering the country illegally.
Speaking of the border agents who encounter those migrants, Trump said, "Don't forget, we don't let them — and we can't let them — use weapons. We can't. Other countries do. We can't. I would never do that. But how do you stop these people?"
That's when one unidentified member of the audience yelled, "Shoot them!"
Trump laughed and pointed in the direction of that audience member before shaking his head. "That's only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement," Trump joked as the audience laughed and cheered.
"This is dangerous," Mucarsel-Powell said of those comments in an appearance Thursday on CNN's New Day, since posted to the congresswoman's Twitter account.
"I am an immigrant. I came here from Ecuador. The rhetoric of attacking immigrants, criminalizing them, saying that we're criminals, is just completely wrong."
She pointed to migrants who are seeking asylum, arguing the President's rhetoric puts them in danger.
"We cannot allow this President to carelessly say that immigrants are coming and that there's shooting. I mean, that is a dangerous road to take and I urge the President, people close to him, to please measure their words."
Mucarsel-Powell, who is in her first term representing Florida's 26th Congressional District, said that while Wednesday's crowd may have enjoyed Trump's comments, they may not play as well elsewhere in the Sunshine State.
"Obviously it's playing well for him politically. But it's not going to play well for him in Florida," Mucarsel-Powell argued.
Source: FloridaPolitics
Elections officials alarmed by Legislature’s imposition of new petition responsibilities
A last-minute amendment to a bill tightening restrictions on petition gathering inspired new nightmares for Florida’s election supervisors.
The provision requires state and county elections officials to become the source of citizen petition forms and to track the documents.
Added onto a bill (HB 5) hours before session’s close, an amendment applies existing procedures for third-party voter registration to signature gathering.
State Rep. James Grant, a Tampa Republican, called the measure an extra safeguard against fraudulent petition drives.
“When we looked at what other constructs already exist, the third-party voter registrations are very similar,” Grant said.
But elections officials disagree, and say the change creates a new duty they have no desire to take on.
“This is a world of headaches waiting here for about every one of us,” said Paul Lux, president of the Florida Association of Supervisors of Elections.
Lux said a fundamentally different burden comes with providing petition forms compared to voter registrations.
Most notably, every organization asking for a stack of voter registration forms gets the same documents. In contrast, every citizen initiative effort will have its own petitions.
Put another way, the Young Republicans and Young Democrats can show up to a county fair and gather the exact same forms. That’s not true for those supporting Marsy’s Law and others backing a Medicaid for All referendum.
Lux said the new law will require every county elections office in Florida, along with the Division of Elections, to have forms at the ready for every active petition. Right now, elections offices have no role with petition forms at all until it comes time for them to be submitted and verified.
John Sowinski, a Republican petition organizer involved in a dozen state initiative campaigns over the past 25 years, called the measure misguided.
He questions applying a system designed for party registrations to one governing petition gathering. Most notably, he said serializing the forms creates a logistical burden for supervisors while doing nothing to curb dishonesty.
“Those rules exist to keep third-party registrants who are partisan from manipulating the process when turning in forms,” Sowinski said.
For example, think of that Young Republican voter registration drive. What’s to stop an overzealous volunteer from gathering registrations at the fair, then only submitting Republican forms and forgetting Democratic cards in the trunk?
In that case, an elections office will notice if numbered registration forms getting turned back in show irregular skips.
But that problem doesn’t exist for signature gatherers trying to land a measure on the ballot.
“It’s in the interest of every petition group to get every form in front of the supervisor,” he said. “There is no fraud prevention here.”
Grant disagreed on the procedure's value. He sees the purpose of those serialized forms as most valuable in a forensic sense.
The state knows of instances where fraudulent signatures or those of dead voters end up in piles of submitted petitions. Officials verify every signature, and if such funny business occurs, the state can now hold bad actors accountable back tracking forms back to gatherers.
Imagine that Medicaid for All petition had 100 forms issued by elections officials to a certain petition group and half came back with bad signatures. The state can identify the bad actor submitting those petitions.
There’s concern on the part of elections officials whether this will end up an unfunded mandate, with county offices having to print collectively millions of petition forms.
Sowinski said groups this election cycle aim to bring in 1.1 million signatures in hopes of getting 766,320 good ones. That's the the number required to qualify a constitutional amendment for the 2020 ballot.
With so many petitions in the hands of volunteers, and in some cases sent out via direct mail, organizers need many more forms than that. In some cases, a group may want 11 million petitions printed in hopes one in 10 come back with a signature.
So does that mean elections offices print out that many forms for every active citizen initiative or be ready to do so on request?
Grant hopes not. His understanding of the bill is that a digital copy can be provided by elections officials to anyone requesting it. Rather than printing thousands or millions of numbered forms, the office should be able to assign a range of numbers to a collector in a database.
That way, a Marsy’s Law collector could request 1,000 petition forms, but an election official could provide one digital copy. It would be up to the collector to print and number 1,000 actual papers. If they wanted more, they could get assigned another range of figures at the elections office.
“The notion we are turning every elections office into a print shop is either inaccurate or something I want to fix as soon as we get back,” the lawmaker said.
Lux, meanwhile, expects as elections officials work to make sense of new elections passed in the session, more questions will arise. This issue will be discussed a coming supervisors conference in Daytona, where he anticipates many will want answers on these new regulations.
Is the press the enemy of the people
From time to time we like to check in on the polling about public perceptions of the press. President Trump's daily insults are definitely having an effect, but most people reject his anti-media rhetoric -- and that includes many of his voters.
Check out this new data from Quinnipiac, asking if people side with "enemy of the people" or the view that "the news media is an important part of democracy." Only 23% say "enemy" best reflects their POV. 66% reject that and say the press is important. Now, I don't mean to discount the fact that tens of millions of people support the enemy rhetoric. But Quinnipiac pointed out that there's a divide among Republicans on the question: "Republicans say 49 - 36% that the news media is the enemy of the people. Every other listed party, gender, education, age and racial group says the media is an important part of democracy."
Another Q poll finding: "By 52 - 35%, voters trust the media more than Trump to tell the truth about important issues." But "Republicans trust Trump more than the media 82 - 9%." As Jay Rosen has put it, "Trump is their primary source of information about Trump."
Scott Israel blasts Gov. DeSantis, calling charges against him ‘patently false'
Another Vote Of No Confidence for BSO
Another Vote Of No Confidence At Broward Sheriff Office
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Appointed Broward Sheriff's Office uses intimidation to silence Unions
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Appointed Broward Sheriff's Office uses intimidation to silence Unions
Justice For Lucca March And Rally May 5, 2019 3pm to 5pm
Justice For Lucca March And Rally May 5, 2019 3pm to 5pm
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