MEET FLORIDA WING NUTS PAT WAYMAN AND STEVEN R. FIELDS

CONSERVATIVE LOONY BIRDS PAT WAYMAN AND STEVEN R. FIELDS

A Florida county is considering changes to its charter review board after two elected members have focused on punishing political enemies through extralegal tactics instead of government business.

The Sarasota County charter review board typically proposes minor changes to the county charter when they meet three times a year, but critics say two of its members — Pat Wayman and Steven R. Fields — have been using their positions to usurp authority from other elected officials, reported the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The pair have voted to establish a “people’s common law grand jury,” which sovereign citizens and other anti-government extremists have proposed to investigate and prosecute government officials for treason — which, as they frequently point out, carries a potential death penalty.

“Take a look at the French Revolution and what took place there,” said Mike Bolam, who has attended charter review board meetings to support the common law grand juries.

The board voted 4-4 in May to study a proposal by Rodger Dowdell, a Tea Party activist who denies being a sovereign citizen but, nonetheless, spouts sovereign citizen rhetoric.

“Grand jury powers come from God,” Dowdell said, advocating a return to the post-Revolution legal system where there were no police departments and judges rode horseback to hear cases brought by groups of 25 citizens.

Most importantly, he told the Herald-Tribune, those rulings would be kept out of reach of presidential and even U.S. Supreme Court authority.

“A people’s common law grand jury can, without any probable cause, go into any nook or cranny of government — local, state or federal — research anything that’s going on and root out corruption,” Dowdell said. “We want to government to recognize the contract we call the constitution, and start obeying the law. It’s very simple.”

His proposal failed due to the tie vote.

Tea Party activists have been trying to set up common law grand juries, which don’t actually carry any legal authority, for years in hopes of convicting — and hanging — President Barack Obama for treason.

Dowdell, state coordinator of the right-wing National Liberty Alliance, claims a common law grand jury was already operating in Manatee County, Florida, but he offered no proof.

“I can’t talk about it,” he said. “Everything is secret. In order to keep innocents who may be investigated from being damaged, whatever a grand jury does is secret.”

Wayman, the charter board member, posted a petition Oct. 12 on her Facebook page calling for Obama’s arrest on murder and treason charges, and she has also posted videos questioning whether mass shootings were staged in Sandy Hook and Oregon.

She also promotes the pro-gun extremist III Percent group and warns against a United Nations takeover of the United States through its non-binding Agenda 21 agreement.

Fields, the other charter board member, expresses conservative political views that are a bit more mainstream — with posts expressing his love for guns, law enforcement, the military, Glenn Beck, Andrew Breitbart and Ronald Reagan — but he also voted for Dowdell’s measure.

“If someone brings an idea that we can do, that’s something we should take a look at,” Fields said.

 “I’ve seen the federal government grabbing more rights away from people. They bribe states into federal control. The Charter Review Board should not be acting like the County Commission and protecting the status quo. And I don’t think (the people’s common law grand jury) has anything to do with sovereign citizens.”

The other members of the board are also unaware of the links between common law grand juries and the sovereign citizen movement — which federal authorities consider a domestic terrorist threat.

“That’s the antithesis of what I’m all about,” said Donna Barcomb, the Republican chairwoman of the charter review board, told the Herald-Tribune. “I don’t think board knew anything about that concept. It was a group of individuals who presented a concept to the board. That’s what the Charter Review Board does — not leaning one way or another. Frequently, the board will look at something and determine if it’s appropriate or in the best interests of the county. For the most part, and I include myself in this, we’re completely ignorant about the concepts.”

She said the charter board could recommend a ballot initiative that would put Sarasota County in line with all other Florida counties, which appoint charter board members instead of electing them.

However, just about 200 miles north, sovereign citizens are threatening to arrest or physically harm elected officials in Dixie County, Florida — where a Tea Party activist was arrested after trying to turn a legitimate jury into a common law grand jury.

“I’m getting harassing emails and threatening faxes saying they’re going to arrest me,” said Dana Johnson, the clerk of courts, told the Herald-Tribune. “This one says they want info on bonds and oaths. There are further demands. I’m concerned about my safety. The local sheriff has alerted (the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) and the FBI. Anytime they come up on our public agenda we have security with us at all times.”

Terry Trussell, who helped organize the failed Operation American Spring rally to drive Obama from office, has been charged with 14 counts of impersonating court officials.

“Once Trussell got selected to serve on a legitimate grand jury, it became the perfect storm,” Johnson said. “From that point, he’s taken it on his own authority to create a sovereign citizen board of common law grand jurors. I am constantly scared.”

The Dixie County sheriff, who said he’s known Trussell all his life and is acquainted with Dowdell, said the anti-government activists had asked him to help with their indictments.

“I said any order has to be signed by a judge — whether it’s a warrant or whatever — it’s got to be a legal court document,” said Sheriff Dewey Hatcher. “They ‘indicted’ everyone from the governor and (Attorney General) Pam Bondi on down to the president of our school board, and they said the school board attorney should be fired.”

The sheriff said he has not arrested anyone in connection with those indictments.

[crossposted from the raw story]

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

"I’LL HANG YOUR FAMILY FROM A TREE”

Says Lisa Marie Elberson – A Florida woman who is facing multiple charges after she was recorded on video shouting racial slurs and chasing black children with a baseball bat — but her husband said that she did nothing wrong.

According to The Orlando Sentinel, a 16-year-old resident of Lake County told deputies that that 29-year-old Lisa Marie Elberson chased him down a street in their neighborhood with a baseball bat and spat on him and his friends during an argument on Sunday.

A report filed by the Lake County deputies said that the incident began with a dispute between Elberson’s husband and one of the teens, which later escalated when Elberson picked up a black Louisville Slugger and began chasing the kids.

Video recorded by one of the teens showed Elberson shouting racial and homophobic slurs.

“I’ll hang your family from my tree,” she said at one point.

Elberson’s husband told WFTV that his wife used the n-word but he insisted that she never did anything wrong.

The husband said that his wife had taken the bat from his son to prevent it being used against the teens.

“So he wouldn’t hurt the boy, to make sure that everything was safe, and that all that was going on was to talk,” he argued. “He really doesn’t have nothing on her. He don’t have nothing. All he has is my wife yelling at him. And that’s all she did.”

The video, however, convinced Lake County deputies that a crime had been committed.

Deputies showed up at Elberson’s job later that evening and arrested her on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, child abuse and simple battery. Bond was set at $5,000.

VIDEO 1

VIDEO 2

Congratulations Lisa Marie Elderson, you are the world most despicable human in the world today! Enjoy asshat! 

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

JUDGE TO DELAY FLORIDA ELECTIONS DUE TO GERRYMANDERING?

Last month, a Florida trial court held that the state’s gerrymandered congressional maps — maps that enabled Republicans to capture 17 of the state’s 27 U.S. House seats despite President Obama’s victory over Mitt Romney on the very same day — violate the state’s constitution. On Friday, Judge Terry Lewis issued a new order suggesting, without outright concluding, that the unconstitutional maps may not be used in the 2014 election. Indeed, Lewis floats the possibility that he may order Florida’s 2014 congressional elections to be delayed, at least in some parts of the state.

Although top Florida Republicans have indicated they will not appeal Lewis’ original order declaring the state’s maps unconstitutional, they asked him to delay the impact of his decision until after the 2014 elections, essentially allowing one more slate of lawmakers to be elected using the illegal maps. In his original order, Lewis determined that two districts were drawn in order to transform a bloc of four districts “from being four Democratic performing or leaning seats in early maps . . . to two Democratic and two Republican performing seats in the enacted map.” Thus, if the old maps are allowed in 2014, Republicans will likely gain two more seats in the House than they would under lawful maps.

In Friday’s order, Lewis orders the state legislature to “submit a remedial or revised map no later than noon on August 15, 2014.” Though Lewis does not reveal what he will do next, he does note that “[t]here is authority that both justifies pushing back the November 4th election date and suggests that logistically, it can be done. Under the circumstances before me, I believe that the law requires that I at least consider the possibility.”

The authority he refers to is a 1982 case where a court ordered Georgia congressional races delayed after the state drew two congressional districts that violated the Voting Rights Act. If Lewis were to take a similar action in this case, that could mean that he would order congressional races delayed in the districts most impacted by his decision, while allowing elections in the rest of the state to move forward on schedule.

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

AGENDA 21 MEETS STAND YOUR GROUND

Jose Antonio Fernandez is not your ordinary tea bagging nut job, no this numbnutz is ready for a straight jacket with a padded cell.

Jose Antonio Fernandez, 54, found that out the hard way Tuesday when he stepped up to the microphone - that threatening to shoot members of the Miami-Dade County Commission will land a guy in jail. Fernandez warned that if the county were to take his property, he would have "the right to shoot every one of you."

"Shoot 'em," he said.

According to the Miami Herald, Fernandez, sporting a prominent beard and a T-shirt that read "No to United Nations Agenda 21," accused the commission of "confiscating the land of small farmers."

The Miami Herald reports: 

Fernandez lives just outside a rural South Miami-Dade enclave locked in legal battles with county environmental regulators over wetlands violations. The small nurseries and farms just east of the Everglades and west of Krome Avenue in the Las Palmas community - known as the 8 ½ Square Mile Area - have repeatedly run afoul of the Division of Environmental Resources Management. 

A judge ruled in 2011 that Fernandez's nursery - which was on a separate property from his home - owed the county $316,000 in restitution that Miami-Dade has yet to receive.
The home, which is not in Fernandez's name, is scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure auction this month. 

An undated photo in Google Maps purportedly of Fernandez's home shows a sign affixed to a tree outside that reads, "DERM must be stopped."

The true tragedy here in this instance is - that this dipshit is in more trouble for talking about shooting someone than he would be if he actually shot some one and said he was afraid and stood his ground.

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

OPPPPPS, DNA Evidence Overturns Conviction Of Florida Man Who Spent 28 Years On Death Row

In 1986, Paul Christopher Hildwin was one of two suspects in the murder of a Florida woman named Vronzettie Cox. The other suspect was Cox’s boyfriend, a man named William Haverty. Yet Hildwin was convicted in large part because of DNA evidence found at the crime scene — semen found in the victim’s underwear and saliva found in a nearby rag — which was recently discovered to belong to Haverty and not Hildwin. At the time of the trial, outdated scientific evidence falsely linked this semen and saliva to Hildwin.

Hildwin has now spent nearly three decades on death row for a crime that he most likely would not have been convicted of if the DNA evidence were available during his 1986 trial. On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court acknowledged this reality, holding that “the totality of the evidence is of ‘such nature that it would probably produce an acquittal on retrial’ because the newly discovered DNA evidence ‘weakens the case against [the defendant] so as to give rise to a reasonable doubt as to his culpability.’”

At the time of Hildwin’s trial, the prosecutor’s theory was that the semen and salvia found at the scene of the crime belonged to a “nonsecretor” — a person who does not secrete blood into their other bodily fluids. Hildwin is a nonsecretor while Haverty is a secretor. After Hildwin’s conviction, however, this claim was disproven. Years later, DNA testing of the evidence left over from the trial proved that it belonged to Haverty and not Hildwin, undermining the prosecution’s case to such a degree that the state supreme court determined that a jury probably would not have convicted Hildwin.

Yet, while the doubtful conviction against Hildwin was ultimately thrown out — the state now has the option to retry Hildwin, if they choose — the events that led to Thursday’s Florida supreme court decision demonstrate just how difficult it is to attack an erroneous conviction, even when that conviction is fatally undermined by DNA evidence.

In 2006, after testing proved that the DNA evidence found near the victim did not belong to Hildwin, the state supreme court voted 4-3 not to overturn his conviction. Hildwin’s attorneys then had to return to court to earn him the right to compare the now-unidentified DNA to profiles in an FBI-maintained DNA database — and throughout this litigation Hildwin remained behind bars and on death row. Hildwin did not ultimately receive confirmation that the DNA evidence found on the scene belonged to Haverty until 2011, five years after the Florida Supreme Court denied his earlier request for a new trial. Thursday’s order came two-and-a-half years after he obtained this evidence proving that crucial DNA evidence actually belonged to the other suspect in Cox’s murder.

And, for all of this time, Hildwin has been on death row, serving time for a crime that he most likely could not have been convicted of if his jury had known in 1986 what we now know.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

FLORIDA'S "THREATENED USE OF FORCE" BILL

JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON

Attempts to roll back any of the Florida Stand Your Ground law’s most incendiary elements have foundered more than two years after the death of Trayvon Martin. But a bill to expand the law passed Thursday, mere months after it was introduced.

The National Rifle Association-backed bill would expand Stand Your Ground-like protections to those who point a gun at an attacker or fire a gun as a self-defense threat or warning, expanding the scope of the discretion judges and juries retain to exempt shooters from criminal charges for gun violence. The final bill also includes a provision to keep Stand Your Ground records secret.

The “Threatened Use of Force” bill passed the Senate Thursday 32-7, and will become law if signed by Gov. Rick Scott. The bill initially gained traction after Republicans exploited the outrage over the 20-year prison sentence for Marissa Alexander, who fired a warning shot during an altercation with her abusive husband. The bill was then dubbed the “warning shot” bill, because a judge rejected Alexander’s move to invoke the law. But opponents were quick to point out that injustice in Alexander’s case hinged in large part on a draconian mandatory minimum sentence that required the 20-year prison term, insensitivity to domestic violence, and racial disparities that are already baked into the existing Stand Your Ground law.

Rather than protect those like Alexander, the law is likely to expand immunity for violent conduct in as vague and sweeping a manner as Florida’s existing Stand Your Ground law, and could represent the newest mechanism for encouraging even more vigilantism.

A new amendment that made its way into the final bill would also make secret all records from Stand Your Ground cases, meaning that the records would be sealed in cases where charges are later dropped, and those who are granted immunity would have their records expunged. But the law also means that media outlets seeking to document the impact of the law would not have access to any records.

Dream Defenders Legal and Policy Director Ahmad Abuznaid called this a “double standard,” pointing out that no legislation in Florida protects young children arrested for offenses that often amount to disciplinary violations. “If the legislature is concerned with expunging criminal records, they should start with the tens of thousands of students who were arrested in school for minor misbehavior last year or the many people of color unable to vote in Florida because of a broken criminal justice system – not defendants with an itchy trigger finger and unchecked biases against black and brown people,” he said in a statement.

Last summer, Dream Defenders led a sit-in at the Florida Capitol that lasted more than eight days imploring repeal after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin. But those efforts have been summarily rejected, even after a review panel was commissioned to identify flaws in the law. That “farce” panel stacked with many of the original proponents of the law did not even consider studies finding that the law is associated with a significant increase in homicides, has a disproportionate impact on African Americans, and does not appear to deter crime at all. The NRA continued its lobbying on this warning shot bill even as trial was underway for the killing of another Florida 17-year-old, Jordan Davis.

Over the past two years, Florida courts have granted immunity under the Stand Your Ground law to “a man who went back to his car to get a gun, and another who shot an acquaintance for threatening to beat him up.” And just last week, an appeals court ruled that a prison guard could invoke the law to defend allegations that he severely beat an inmate on the job. There is another new compromise bill advancing in the Senate intended to make some reforms to the law, but even that bill would make the legal process even easier for defendants.





NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

DUNN SAYS HE IS LIKE A RAPE VICTIM

MICHAEL DUNN CONVICTED MURDERER

In newly released audio of phone calls made by Michael Dunn while in jail, the man who shot 17-year-old Jordan Davis after a loud music dispute claiming self-defense said he was both the “victor” and the “victim,” compared himself to a rape victim, and made racially charged comments about his fellow inmates.

Recordings of nine calls from December 2012 released by the State Attorney’s Office Monday follows the earlier release of letters from Dunn disparaging African Americans. In one, he said, “The more time I am exposed to these people, the more prejudiced against them I become.” A jury found Dunn guilty Saturday on several counts of attempted second degree murder for shooting ten rounds into a car full of teens, but the jury was deadlocked on the question of whether Dunn was guilty of first degree murder for shooting and killing Jordan Davis.

In a call to his fiancée Rhonda Rouer, Dunn said:

I was the one that was being preyed upon and I fought back. It’s not quite the same but it made me think of like the old TV shows and movies where like how the police used to think when a chick got raped going, “Oh, it’s her fault because of the way she dressed.” I’m like, “So it’s my fault (laughing) because I asked them to turn their music down. I got attacked and I fought back because I didn’t want to be a victim and now I’m in trouble. I refused to be a victim and now I’m incarcerated.”

Dunn doesn’t explain how he was “attacked.” The shooting occurred after Dunn pulled up in a Jacksonville convenience store next to a sport utility vehicle with several teen boys. Tension erupted after he asked the boys to turn down their music. Dunn says he shot into the vehicle in self-defense because Davis threatened to kill him from within his vehicle and held up a gun, but no gun was found anywhere at the scene.

“I’m the fucking victim here,” he said, laughing, during one of the phone calls. “I was the one who was victimized … I’m the victor, but I was the victim too.”

During the call with Rouer, he also complained about being in a jail cell by himself, saying, “But I guess it would be better than being in a room with them animals.” He added a short while later, “I was in a room with three black guys,” CBS News reports.

At a trial that aped that of George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin, Dunn claimed self-defense and invoked the state’s Stand Your Ground law. “If Michael Dunn was in a public place where he had a legal right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force,” his lawyer said during closing arguments. One recent study found that white defendants with black victims are far more likely to have their killings deem “justified” under the Stand Your Ground law.

Prosecutors plan to seek a retrial on the first degree murder charge.

The reality, with Dunn facing decades behind bars, is that rape is a high probability for this murderer while he isStab in prison. How apropos it is!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

MICHAEL DUNN GETS HIS DO....SORT OF

CONVICTED MURDERER AND RACIST MICHAEL DUNN

A Florida jury could not reach a verdict on the most serious charge facing Michael Dunn, a first degree murder charge for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis after a dispute over loud music at a Jacksonville convenience store. Nevertheless, Dunn is all but certain to face a lengthy prison sentence as he was convicted on three counts of attempted second degree murder — one for each of three of Dunn’s friends who were also in the line of fire as Dunn fired ten rounds into their sport utility vehicle.

The judge declared a mistrial on the first degree murder count, leaving prosecutors the option of seeking a new trial.

The Florida shooting was the most prominent fatal shooting of a teen in self-defense since the death of Trayvon Martin drew national attention to Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. The law was also cited in Dunn’s trial.

The shooting occurred after Dunn asked the boys to turn down their music while parked next to him in a Jacksonville convenience store parking lot. His fiancée, Rhonda Rouer, says the last thing she heard him say was, “I hate that thug music.” Rouer was in the convenience store when she heard gunshots, and when she ran outside, he told her to get in the car and they drove away.

Dunn claimed he saw a gun and believed the boys were armed and dangerous. But police found no gun in the car. He said he heard Davis threaten to kill him, and responded by rolling down the window of his car and asking, “Are you talking to me?” Dunn and Rouer spent the night in a hotel, as planned, and their testimony differed about what happened that night, and in the days that followed. Dunn’s friends testified that they knew him as a calm and non-violent man.

During closing arguments, prosecutor John Guy told jurors, “Jordan Davis didn’t have a weapon. He had a big mouth. And that defendant wasn’t gonna stand for it. And it cost Jordan Davis his life.”

Dunn’s lawyer Cory Strolla cited Florida’s Stand Your Ground law in his closing argument, “His honor will further tell you that If Michael Dunn was in a public place where he had a legal right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force.” As in the George Zimmerman trial, the Stand Your Ground law was included in the jury instructions.

Alluding to public controversy of the law, Strolla added, “It’s not because I wrote it. It’s not cause I like it. We’re not here to change it and we’re not here to fight it. We’re here to apply it.”

When asked about the relevance of the law to this case during a press conference, Strolla told reporters that he “strategically” decided not to seek a separate Stand Your Ground hearing that could have given Dunn immunity before trial, because of the national media attention. He claimed the law was therefore not relevant to the case. But the jurors were nonetheless advised to consider the law when deciding Dunn’s guilt, by both Strolla and in the jury instructions.

Just prior to the trial, the State Attorney’s Office released a set of letters Dunn sent from prison revealing significant animus toward blacks. “The more time I am exposed to these people, the more prejudiced against them I become,” he said in one. “This jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs,” he said in another. The letters did not come into play during trial. But they reveal the sort of racial undertones that have been prominent in many Stand Your Ground cases. One study found that white defendants with black victims are far more likely to have their killings deem “justified” under the Stand Your Ground law.

How apropos - the jail he lives in now is filled with, in his words 'blacks that act like thugs' - says the guy who murdered a person because their music was too loud.

Bottom line, if your African American in Florida, be wary, be very, very wary of whites toting guns!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

YOUR MOVE FLORIDA.....AND WE ARE WATCHING!

One of George Zimmerman’s terms for making bail after his arrest for allegedly pointing a shotgun at his girlfriend mean he cannot access any firearms. But Florida law should have required officials to suspend his gun license regardless of the bail hearing, even if determining whether officials are following that law is difficult in Florida.

According to a Florida statute that states the Department of Agriculture “shall, upon notification by a law enforcement agency, a court, or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and subsequent written verification, suspend a license or the processing of an application for a license if the licensee or applicant is arrested or formally charged with a crime that would disqualify such person from having a license under this section, until final disposition of the case.” Zimmerman’s arrest for aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, is a disqualifying crime.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees concealed carry weapons permits, could not confirm any details about Zimmerman’s license because an individual’s information is exempt from public record.

Enforcing the statute is another matter entirely. Many states issue concealed carry permits through a law enforcement agency. In Florida, it’s a civil agency, Agriculture, which creates an extra reporting step that leaves room for miscommunication and mistakes. A 2007 Sun-Sentinel investigation found that concealed carry permits had been given to “1,400 people who pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies, 216 people with outstanding warrants, 128 people with active domestic violence injunctions and six registered sex offenders.” While felons are prohibited from owning weapons, gaps in background checks likewise led to3,479 arrests of felons carrying illegal guns in 2012. In fact, Florida’s lax laws means it often supplies out-of-state permits for people who would be rejected in their home state.

In 25 states outside Florida, a person with Zimmerman’s record — his shooting Trayvon Martin and history of domestic abuse, and two incidents of domestic violence just this year — would likely not be eligible to carry a concealed weapon in the first place.

When Zimmerman was charged for Martin’s death, activists demanded that Governor Rick Scott suspend Zimmerman’s concealed carry permit. Scott’s administration refused, arguing that “short of a permit holder being convicted of a felony, the state does not have the authority to revoke a permit.” One condition of Zimmerman’s bail had been that he could not access guns or alcohol.

Since he was acquitted of charges over Martin’s death, Zimmerman legally bought himself a new assault rifle and shotgun that he reportedly has had with him in the car, in his holster, and in his home.

Since writing this blog, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed that it moves to suspend a license for permit holders charged with felonies once the department learns of the charges. License holders receive a notice of their suspension by mail.

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

DON'T YOU JUST HATE IT WHEN AN EXECUTION GETS IN THE WAY OF YOUR FUNDRAISER

FLORIDA ATTY GEN PAM BONDI

Earlier this year, in a land littered with palm trees, pristine beaches and radical tea baggers, an Attorney General and Governor Skeletor pushed for a bill that would speed up executions. The bill, Florida’s Timely Justice Act, restricts ‘frivolous’ appeals by death row inmates and sets competency standards for lawyers. Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi, was one of the most staunch advocates for the bill’s passage and supported Skeletor’s decision to sign it into law. Opponents of the bill said that it could cause innocent people to be put to death. After all, sometimes it takes years and years for a person to be exonerated; Seth Penalver for example sat on Florida’s death row for eighteen years before he was set free. Bondi and other supporters of the law said that it is all about getting justice for the families. Nothing is more important than seeing justice done….well, nothing except campaign fundraisers, that is.

On August 19th Rick Scott informed the Florida State Prison Warden John Palmer that he would be moving Marshall Lee Gore’s execution 6 p.m. Sept. 10 to 6 p.m. Oct. 1 at the request of the Attorney General. On August 20th Molly McFarland, the deputy press secretary for the Attorney General’s office, said that the September execution date conflicted with a previously scheduled event but did not say what that was.

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The event that Bondi felt was so important that she must delay the execution of a man convicted of murdering two woman was a ‘hometown campaign kickoff’ at a waterfront home in Tampa. Bondi’s press team was quick to explain away the rescheduling and try to make it seem like a responsible decision on Bondi’s part:

In light of the seriousness of any execution, it was very important to Attorney General Bondi that she be available personally to carry out her office’s duties in the execution process,” McFarland said in an email. On Friday, Jennifer Meale, a spokeswoman for Bondi, reiterated that the fundraiser was on the calendar before Gore’s execution had been planned for the same night.

Rick Scott, however, sensing the media shit storm that was about to rain down made sure to be very clear he had no idea why Bondi wanted the execution moved:

“Her office contacted my office and asked for a postponement, and that’s what we did. No, I did not know (the reason). We set the date,the attorney general’s office asked for a postponement, so we went along with that … When another Cabinet officer asks for something, we try to work with them.”

On Monday Bondi issued a press release in an attempt to smooth the feathers she ruffled with her selfish move:

“As a prosecutor, there was nothing more important than seeing justice done, especially when it came to the unconscionable act of murder,” Bondi said. “I personally put two people on death row and, as attorney general, have already participated in eight executions since I took office, a role I take very seriously.”

“The planned execution of Marshall Lee Gore had already been stayed twice by the courts, and we should not have requested that the date of the execution be moved.” 

Nothing is more important than justice being served, except of course collecting money from donors so that you can be reelected. The contrariness, that Bondi pushed and pushed to get the Timely Justice Act signed into law and then actually pushes an execution back to accommodate her campaign schedule? The whole point of the law was to get justice for the families of the victims.

It doesn't matter if you believe in the death penalty or not, this is one more very clear example of how the American Taliban could give two shits about their duties as public servants.

Congratulations Pam Bondi, you are today's worst person in the world!


NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

FLORIDA TEA BAGGERS ADMIT TO VOTER SUPPRESSION

Floridians endured election chaos and marathon voting lines this year, largely thanks to reduced early voting hours, voter purges, and voter registration restrictions pushed by Republican legislators. In an exclusive report by the Palm Beach Post, several prominent Florida Republicans are now admitting that these election law changes were geared toward suppressing minority and Democratic votes.

Former governor Charlie Crist (R-FL) and former GOP chairman Jim Greer (R-FL), as well as several current GOP members, told the Post that Republican consultants pushed the new measures as a way to suppress Democratic voters. Crist expanded early voting hours in 2008 despite party pressure, but Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) targeted early voting almost immediately when he took office in 2011. Scott’s administration claimed the new laws were meant to curb in-person voter fraud, despite the fact that an individual in Florida is more likely to be struck by lightning than commit voter fraud.

Current party members and consultants confirmed the motive was not to stop voter fraud but to make it harder for Democrats and minorities to vote:

Wayne Bertsch, who handles local and legislative races for Republicans, said he knew targeting Democrats was the goal. “In the races I was involved in in 2008, when we started seeing the increase of turnout and the turnout operations that the Democrats were doing in early voting, it certainly sent a chill down our spines. And in 2008, it didn’t have the impact that we were afraid of. It got close, but it wasn’t the impact that they had this election cycle,” Bertsch said, referring to the fact that Democrats picked up seven legislative seats in Florida in 2012 despite the early voting limitations.

Another GOP consultant, who did not want to be named, also confirmed that influential consultants to the Republican Party of Florida were intent on beating back Democratic turnout in early voting after 2008.

A GOP consultant who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution said black voters were a concern. “I know that the cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves,” he said.

Though the state ultimately went to President Obama, the Republican effort to suppress votes was largely successful. A post-election report found that new voting restrictions led to a huge increase in provisional ballots, which are cast when there is some question of the voter’s eligibility.

While crying voter fraud, the Florida GOP had to confront its own scandal when a voter registration firm they hired turned in hundreds of fraudulent registration forms in several Florida counties. The GOP hastily cut ties with the group when the state opened a criminal investigation into their operations.

 

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Zimmerman Back In Jail, But For How Long

In Florida, nearly 70 percent of people who invoked ‘Stand Your Ground’ walked away scot free

It took 44 days before George Zimmerman was arrested for Trayvon Martin’s death because police claimed he was “standing his ground” when he fatally shot the teenager. But these kinds of delays are not all that uncommon under the ALEC-sponsored law, a new report by Tampa Bay Times concludes. The report finds that in nearly one-third of 200 Stand Your Ground cases, the defendant had initiated the fight, shot an unarmed individual or first pursued the victim, and were never even charged with crimes.

Additionally, Stand Your Ground has allowed police a wide latitude of interpretation, resulting in uneven enforcement for whites and blacks. Some of the report’s findings include:

Nearly 70 percent of those who have invoked “stand your ground” to avoid prosecution have gone free.
 
73 percent of those who killed a black person walked away without penalty, while 59 percent of those who killed a white person went free.
 
Attorneys are increasingly invoking Stand Your Ground in ways state legislators didn’t originally intend, and use of this defense has grown five-fold in nonfatal cases between 2008 and 2011.
 
Among the incidents where defendants walked free: “One man killed two unarmed people and walked out of jail. Another shot a man as he lay on the ground. Others went free after shooting their victims in the back.”
 

There are three times more concealed carry permits in Florida since 2005, when Florida passed the law.

In Florida, the number of Stand Your Ground cases is on the rise, being invoked in cases with both minor injuries and where the defendants shot a person who was unarmed or whose back was turned. As Tampa Bay Times writes, “If you claim ‘stand your ground’ as the reason you shot someone, what happens to you can depend less on the merits of the case than on who you are, whom you kill and where your case is decided.” For George Zimmerman, these inconsistencies have played out in national media, but many times these cases escape notice and even police records.



NFTOS
STAFF

WAS THERE EVER ANY DOUBT?

Bill Maher got really fired up on his show last night over the Trayvon Martin shooting, and tore into George Zimmerman for his pithy defense of his actions that night, bluntly calling him a “big fucking liar.” Maher showed the tape of Zimmerman, which proves the claim that Martin didn't have broke his nose and severely gashed head. Maher thought Zimmerman’s claim was completely ridiculous, and asked if the tape was definitive proof that Zimmerman was lying about the struggle.

BILL MAHER




There's never been any doubt at NFTOS about the guilt of this schmuck named George Zimmerman.

Where is the justice Florida? Indict this man NOW!



NFTOS
Editor-In Chief
Roger West

"STAND YOUR GROUND" HOODIES KILL!

Miami Heat Pays Tribute With Hoodie To Trayvon Martin

Stand-your-ground law

We can't say we weren't warned.

Back in 2005, opponents of Florida's first-of-its-kind "stand your ground" law said it wouldn't be long before we'd see shootouts in the streets — all in the name of self-defense.

Arguments over something as trivial as exceeding the 10-item limit in a grocery store's express lane could escalate to deadly violence, or in Tryavon Martin's case a small bag of skittles.

Prodded by their NRA masters, lawmakers waved off those predictions as exaggerations. Then they overwhelmingly passed a bill that took the "castle doctrine" to infinity and beyond. The "castle doctrine" used to mean you could use deadly force if someone attacked you in your home. "Stand your ground" not only absolved the homeowner of any obligation to retreat, it extended that concept outside the home.

Gov. Jeb Bush couldn't sign the bill fast enough.

Seven years later, those warnings so casually dismissed by Bush and the Legislature are taking shape.

Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin is dead, and Central Florida is the focus of an international spectacle, quite possibly a result of Florida's politicians deciding to become the 21st century's Wild West.

Tea bagger radical ideology and laws - the likes of this extreme OK Corral style mentality, comes with severe consequences.

Trayvon is not be the only victim here.

 I haven't heard of any fatal disputes over the grocery check-out line, but in 2010 an unarmed man was shot and killed at a park near Tampa in a dispute over skateboarding rules. The victim's 10-year-old daughter watched her father die.

NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer wouldn't comment about the Trayvon Martin case when contacted Monday. I don't blame her. There is no good way for gun proponents to spin the death of an unarmed teenager.

Justifiable murder law tripled when this bill passed!

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Self-defense has always been an acceptable reason for police and prosecutors to dismiss charges or not bring any in the first place. Nobody wants to see someone who was genuinely in fear for their life end up in jail because they took action to protect themselves or others.

Florida is among 21 states with a "Stand Your Ground Law," which gives people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight.

I had a disagreement with a fellow Facebook'er this evening.

"If the kid had been white":

If this kid had been white would this had happen? Do I really need to explain this?
The 911 tapes clearly depict Zimmerman [shooter] saying to dispatcher "fucking coons"!

The shooter was also told that if he was chasing the perp to stand down [I guess perp to Floridians and Zimmerman means black kid with hoodie toting skittles].

Lets be clear readers, if the kid was white this story would never exist, as the white kid would be home today using the bathroom to "unload" his skittles in the toilet, Trayvon Martin had to deposit his skittles in a diaper at the morgue!

This law, this unwarranted death, these police, are all encapsulated in a nasty stench! This entire story makes me angry, sick, and ashamed to say that this is the country I defend everyday!

The Castle Doctrine has to be addressed! This will not be the only case of horrible death attributed to the Stand Your Ground law. [which, by the way, was heavily promoted by the NRA to get passed - you know - the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” freaks.]

This law at best is very vague, this law takes America back to the days of the OK Corral, or the times of the old Wild West. Nothing good can come from shoot first and ask questions later.

In the name of justice, arrest this asshat vigilante named George Zimmerman!

RELATED: Man lives to tell of Florida "Shoot First" horror


NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Florida Joins Wisconsin In Union Busting

Florida City Paying $2,500 A Day To Radical Union-Busting Firm To Stop Workers From Organizing:

All over the country, right-wing lawmakers are waging a war on Main Street America’s labor rights, purporting to do so out of a desire for fiscal restraint (while also backing budget-busting tax breaks for the wealthiest among us).

Now, the city of Winter Park, Florida, is going to new lengths to stop nearly 150 city workers from joining a union. Apparently more concerned with stopping the union than saving money, Winter Park hired consultants at Kulture LLC, “a firm specializing in labor relations” at the rate of $2,500 a day to persuade workers to vote against organizing this summer:

Winter Park is paying a consultant $2,500 a day to help the city’s staff dissuade about 150 city workers from joining a union. [...] Employees in the public works, parks, fleet maintenance and water departments are likely to vote in June or July on whether to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as AFSCME. In the past few years, the city has done away with longevity bonuses and pay increases because of the economy. [...] Members of AFSCME have criticized the use of tax money to pay a group that they say has a politically right-leaning agenda.

A spokesman for the city told the Orlando Sentinel that it didn’t “do a political background check” on Kulture before hiring the firm and that the city just wants to inform workers about their options. Yet a cursory look at Kulture and the activities it conducts shows what the firm is all about: union-busting.

Kulture’s website is replete with right-wing ideology. It hosts op-eds claiming that sweatshops are an opportunity for the “third world poor” and bragging that the “labor movement is dead.” Its webpages direct users to far-right sources of information such as the Ayn Rand Institute and The Federalist Society. It also hosts the anti-union laborunionreport.com, which hosts anti-labor articles and a monthly “anti-union report.” The organization’s CEO, Peter A. List, has said that “unions are a by-product of a bad relationship.”

“We’re basically hiring them to make sure that factual, accurate information is given to our employees before they make a vote on whether or not to join a union,” says Winter Park spokeswoman Clarissa Howard. But one has to wonder how hiring a radical, Ayn Rand-promoting anti-union organization will do anything but try to scare workers into submission.

NFTOS