Police Point Gun At Six-Year-Old Boy — and More…
It’s 6:27 p.m. — Sheila Carey and her two children are riding in a rented limo, a special treat to celebrate their outstanding report cards. They’ve just dropped off their friend, eleven-year-old Shanyia Winn, who is now home alone taking a shower. A few minutes later, at 6:29 p.m. — the limo is stopped at gunpoint and surrounded by Key West police officers. The mother is thrown to the sidewalk and handcuffed. Her six-year-old son and eleven-year-old daughter are seized by the officers, guns pointed at their faces.
Shanyia Winn
At about the same time police officers are pounding on Shanyia’s door, “When I came downstairs there was a policeman at every window with a gun pointed at me so that if I moved or my dog barked, I was going to be dead,” says Shanyia.
The police officers say they were looking for a man named Marvin Smith and for a gun. The problem is, at the time the police claim to have been looking for Smith, they already had him in custody at the police station. And the gun? Apparently no one ever actually saw the gun and it might very well never have existed.
It was the third of last April. According to the police report obtained by The Blue Paper, not much happened. A limo was stopped on Fleming Street. As to the raid on Shanyia’s house, it is barely mentioned. “As we approached the apartment,” wrote Officer David Hall in his report, “a juvenile female walked out of the apartment. She immediately started telling us that Smith and Taylor got into a heated argument in front of her residence.” But Renatta Winn, Shanyia’s mother, says that report is a fabrication. “And there were a lot of people out and a lot of children,” she told us on the phone, “When I arrived, detective Leahy had a shotgun pointed at Shanyia’s face and all of the officers had guns pointed at her and everyone saw it.”
Shanyia Winn and grandmother Donna Winn
“All those guns. Anything could have happened – an accident. A gun could have fired,” says Donna Winn, Shanyia’s grandmother, who lives nearby and was Shanyia’s first relative on the scene. “They pointed their guns at my grandma and kept her away,” says Shanyia.
Similarly the officers’ description of the raid on the limo makes no mention of its occupants. Sheila Carey, who was in the limo, showed us the happy photos she took with the kids that day and the scars she still has on her knees three months later from her fall on the sidewalk. We asked six-year old Zentavious if he had been afraid, “They had really big guns. I was scared.”
So what caused KWPD officers to treat children so harshly? From the police point of view everything seems to revolve around one puzzling character: An ex-drug dealer recently released after thirteen years in a federal prison. A thirty-nine year old black man named Marvin Smith.
Sheila Carey
Marvin had rented the limo as a special treat for the children. “Marvin would do anything for the kids,” says Sheila Carey, Marvin’s girlfriend. But the man is also surrounded by the scary aura that comes with a long prison term. On March 23, after a dispute in a nightclub, Marvin was attacked by six men on Duval Street. They beat him and sliced him several times with a knife, somehow he managed to disarm them and to escape, covered in blood.
In spite of the fact that the records show that Smith was cooperating with the police by identifying the assailants, one veteran officer, Sergeant Pablo Rodriguez, was convinced Marvin was out for revenge and that he had a gun.
He was not the only one concerned about that risk. “It was only a rumor,” says Commissioner Clayton Lopez, “but yes, I was worried about it and I called Donie Lee [Chief of Police]. But I asked him to handle the situation with the utmost sensitivity.”
And here we are at 6:27 p.m. on April 3rd. Marvin has gotten out of the limo he rented for Sheila’s children. They had stopped on Emma Street, dropping Shanyia off, who walked back home to apartment 10E in Fort Street Village. Sheila leaves with the limo and the kids. Marvin gets into an argument with another young black man, Johnny Taylor. A woman who heard the rumor about the gun calls 911, even though she says she hasn’t seen a gun herself.
It is clear from the 911 audio that Marvin is arrested on the street seconds after the limo left. He is taken into custody without incident. And that’s where the troubling questions arise. If Marvin was in custody was the paramilitary raid on Sheila’s limo and Shanyia’s home justified?
Now, there was still the gun issue. But no one at the scene had seen a gun. Neither the limo driver, nor the 911 caller, nor Taylor [the victim] provided statements about seeing a gun. Yet, Sergeant Pablo Rodriguez would inform Officer Hall that at around 6:30 on the 3rd of April, Laetryce Smith, Johnny Taylor’s girlfriend, had told him that Smith had pulled a gun on Taylor and herself. While we were researching this story, Police Lt. David Smith informed us that he believed Johnny and Laetryce had provided written statements about the gun. But no such reports exist on the record.
“We never told Pablo Rodriquez about a gun,” says Laetryce. Marvin Smith claims Sergeant Rodriguez made it all up so they could send Marvin back to prison.
Sheila Carey’s children, Zamyrie and Zentavious
The case about Marvin Smith having a gun would be dismissed by a federal judge two months later on May 30, 2014, so apparently there was no gun.
True or not, based on questionable police work, KWPD terrified a bunch of pre-teen school children who will always remember how the good police were apparently ready to shoot them dead for no understandable reason and certainly through no fault of their own. [We will let the readers ask themselves whether they believe the same tactics would have been used had those children been white.]
“What our police don’t understand is that the context they are operating in is a lot closer to Mayberry than to NYPD Blue,” says Commissioner Lopez, “Something needs to slap them back to reality, but I don’t know who or what could.”
His view echoes the rising anger in Bahama Village. “They try to be something they’re not. They could never pull this stuff in a big city. Try that in Miami. They would get shot,” says Donna Winn.
Several of the stories we’ve come across would make one question whether some of these officers have any communication skills at all. On October 17, 2009, four KWPD officers had a warrant to arrest 23-year-old Shimika Clark for theft. At the time she lived with her grandmother, Yvonne Edwards, in a small house in a back alley in Bahama Village. Since the officers were waiting in ambush in front of Edward’s house when Clark showed up, one would think they might have arrested Clark before she went inside. Instead, four police officers decided to dress in S.W.A.T. team uniforms, slip “hoods” on their heads, and then storm grandma’s house without knocking. While yelling profanities, they used a taser on the 23–year-old, who had rushed into the bathroom in terror, shackled her up, and dragged her out of the house.
Granted the hoods were not white and pointy, but one would think that white police officers, given the history of this country, would have more sense than to put hoods on before forcing their way into a black grandmother’s house. “What is it with these police guys,” said a teenage girl we talked to, “they get bored and they go, ‘let’s play dress up and go terrify some black people?’”
Renatta Winn and her daughter Shanyia moved to Jacksonville a week later: “I don’t feel safe in Key West. How could they treat children like that? Shanyia was born with a heart murmur. She couldn’t catch her breath.” Renatta told us she wanted to take her daughter inside to help her calm down but that Detective Leahy would not let her do that unless she agreed to let him search the house. “He came in. He didn’t find anything.”
Shimika Clark also moved out of Key West after her ordeal with the four hooded police officers who reportedly had said to her, “You are lucky we didn’t shoot you.”
“It is extremely difficult to strike a balance between the need to stop the drug dealing and maintaining respect for the community,” says Commissioner Lopez, “The solution is better communication, not militarized police and more Gestapo tactics.”
Unconscionable behavior on the part of the Key West Police. They’ve been watching too many crime shows on TV. For shame!
WTF??? Wonder how much more of this behavior by the KWTD will be tolerated. Can you imagine how many more incidents are out there that the people are terrified to talk about??? Mayor Cates and Donie Lee allow this to go on. Is Key West under martial law? Please, all get out and vote, Key West needs a new Mayor to start with. Look at what happened to Charles Eimers and Matt Murphy. Mayor Cates turns a blind eye to everything.
Does this really surprise anyone? KWPD is apparently the place for “wannabe’s” that most likely couldn’t get hired by a real police department. Most likely they had no homeless to kill, so they decided to practice their “harrassment techniques” on some one in Bahama Village.
Terrifying presentation. The last paragraph of your article leaves me wondering if the raid was about a suspected gun, or about drugs? I, too, wonder if such a raid would have occurred in a white home?
Back in 2003, Celebrate, I think it was, although perhaps it was another small KW newspaper, but not the blue paper, asked the mayor candidates what they felt needed to be done re Bahama Village? Back then, tension between city police and Bahama Village residents was very high. I replied that only KW police officers approved by Bahama Village elders should be allowed into Bahama Village. The newspaper reported what I said and that I was the only candidate who answered the question; the other five candidates said they didn’t have any thoughts, or didn’t want to touch it. Incumbent mayor Jimmy Weekley won that election,
Horribly unprofessional. If I could suggest one thing, TRAINING! When one of these yahoo baby cops that have no idea what they are doing and have no people skills gets hurt or sued it will be the fault of the bosses that continue to let this go on. If all stems from no accountability at the top.
KWPD has yahoo cops who have been on the force a good while. Some of them got on top of Charles Eimers.
This article doesn’t read like it’s about poorly-trained cops. It reads like its about cops gone berserk, a law unto themselves. In this case and in another case.
I wonder what the blue paper had to do to get this far into the case? Did the KWPD investigate itself in this case. Was Police Chief Donnie Lee interviewed by the blue paper about this case?
Congratulations once again to the Blue Paper for its investigative reporting. Serpico would be proud.
ko..not only watching too many crime shows but ‘play acting’ these shows too..much to the detriment of our citizenry. and clayton asks
““What our police don’t understand is that the context they are operating in is a lot closer to Mayberry than to NYPD Blue,” says Commissioner Lopez, “Something needs to slap them back to reality, but I don’t know who or what could.”
well i know who and what and that is fire the damn idiot chief and hire one that is a strong defender of the constitution and one who will not tolerate such keystone cops moronic dangerous actions and weed out the psychopaths that are very apparent on the force and put them in a cage where they belong and bring some order and proper training to the remainder of the force. simple as that and there are many certified people that can do the job. there is your head scratching answer clayton…all thats lacking is the commission’s will to do it! the kwtd [kw thug dept] as named in a prior issue’s comments is an out of control terrorist mob that needs a damn harsh cleansing in light of all that has come out this year starting with the eimers case last december.
Naja, for now off the record. Is there a back story in this situation involving Clayton Lopez? Did he instigate the raid on the home? If so, was it because he thought it was a drug house? Or because the thought Marvin had a gun? Lots of people in KW have guns.
Commissioner Lopez stated he received a call while he was in Tampa at an affordable housing seminar from someone he knows and trusts who told him they had heard a rumor about Marvin Smith having a gun and saying he was going to seek revenge against the men who had severely beaten him about ten days previous. Lopez says he called the Chief – asking him to check it out but to handle the situation with the utmost sensitivity. Commissioner Lopez says he knew nothing of the limo raid or the home raid until months later when Marvin Smith showed up at a district six meeting and told what had happened. The mom in the limo incident [Marvin Smith’s girlfriend] had tried to file a complaint with the CRB, but Sue Srch was out of town when she made that attempt – and she never followed up thereafter. Marvin did make a complaint to KWPD – probably about a month ago, but Alyson Crean informed me yesterday that there was no investigation into that case. No one said anything about drugs. It would be a big deal for law enforcement if Marvin truly had a gun – he is a convicted felon. No one we spoke with states they saw a gun and there are no statements on the record [other than Rodriguez’ hearsay that is denied by those he claimed said so] about anyone seeing a gun.
Looks to me maybe Donie Lee needs to go see Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry, and have him write lots of scripts for lots of estrogen supplements for Donie’s officers, maybe it will mellow them out. I found myself thinking today, the way your articles describes the raid reminds me of how I hear meth users behave.
Please be aware why this is happening.The federal government does not want the friendly, protect and serve local Andy Griffith cop. They want a no nonsense kick down the door cop that will enforce their filthy lawyer made laws.
Please be aware that several officers from every department are sent to Quantico Virginia, FBI headquarters for brainwashing. It is there where they are taught to hate the public. You will never read about this or see a story of what I just said on any of the mainstream media.
Where is the Chief Executive Officer of Key West? How about the Commanding Officer of the Para-military agency storming the grandchildren’s house?
It appears that City Commissioner Clayton Lopez is an incompetent and amateurish city official. His disturbing and dangerous actions depict a public official who does not have his hand on the pulse of the city or his community. He needs to watch the video and apologize to the children and grandmother; as he simultaneously calls for the Mayor’s impeachment and Lee’s resignation.
Lopez conveyed sensitive and fraudulent intelligence, Lopez called it a ‘rumor’, to an individual who has demonstrated a marked inability to marginally govern and control the rogue elements within his police force.
This misinformation came within a trigger squeeze of killing little boys and girls, along with their grandmother.
As a standing KW City Commissioner (Lopez) made this comment concerning his police department: “Something needs to slap them back to reality, but I don’t know who or what could.” Really…!
Sir, I want you to immediately petition the President and Justice Department to investigate and review the practices of the KWPD.
Please advise them of the urgency of your request, for if the barbarism of this force is left unchecked, the loss of innocent life is imminent.
Wow!, I’m from Saginaw, Michigan. Statistically one of the most violent cities in American. Yet week after week I read crazy violent stories of the KWPD. Shocking!
Hire more female cops. They are less corrupt.
John, the victims here will have to file a complaint with The FBI corrupt cop( complaint) section.
The other sad thing is if these people had dogs the police are trained to shoot and kill them.The police like to shoot peoples pet dogs for fun.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCNNiRfQiTg
The readers’ comments echo typical remarks heard throughout town. The KWPD is not a major city tactical police force AND SHOULD STOP ACTING LIKE ONE! Too much testosterone, too many weapons, too many COPS shows watched, too little common sense, too much bullying, too little oversight.
FIRE THEM!
john if i may be so bold to add to your
“Please advise them of the urgency of your request, for if the barbarism of this force is left unchecked, the loss of innocent life is imminent”
as was amply illustrated in the murder / manslaughter of mr. charles eimers by the unclean hands of the police involved.
How long does this island have to endure the incompetence of the KWTD? Our sh*th**d Mayor and Commissioners are absolutely worthless. It’s obvious that Donie Lee may be the worst Chief of Police in the country but our fearless leaders sit on their hands and do nothing. We need to keep applying pressure until the bums do something. I will never let up until we get a new Police Chief and the thug officers are gone and hopefully behind bars. Mayor Cates prohibits negative posts to his Facebook page and Margaret Romero thinks our police did nothing wrong in the Eimers murder so I know who I’m voting for.
If the FBI is as described, what’s the point of trying to get the FBI to investigate KWPD for behaving as FBI is described?
If I were Commissioner Lopez and was in Tampa at an affordable housing conference and received such a call, I would have asked for the name and phone number of the person who had spread the rumor, so I could call that person and hear the basis for the rumor. I would want that information for myself and for Chief Lee.
I’m still wondering why Clayton told the blue paper,
““It is extremely difficult to strike a balance between the need to stop the drug dealing and maintaining respect for the community”?That’s what caused me to ask Naja, was this a raid about a gun, or was it a raid about drugs?
Clayton added, ““The solution is better communication, not militarized police and more Gestapo tactics.”
I doubt better communication will slow down revved up kW cops like the ones this article depicts, and like the Charles Eimers blue paper articles depict.
Why are those cops still in uniform, is my question? What does those cops still being in uniform say about Chief Lee, the City Manager and the City Commission, which consists of the mayor and six city commissioners?
Why did the blue paper have to break this story? Why didn’t Chief Lee, the City Manager and the City Commission break it? Same question for the Charles Eimers story. I’m sure Naja and Arnaud and Dennis Reeves Cooper can add many more cases to my question.
The problem is at the top, the City Commission. The City Manager answers to the City Commission. The Chief of Police answers to the City Manager. That’s the way Key West’s government is set up.
Maybe the City Commission just doesn’t want to be bothered? Maybe they don’t want to scare off tourists? Maybe they just don’t care?
They should be outraged over this blue paper article. Commissioner Lopez ought to be demanding an investigation of Chief Lee and his police department over this case. Same should have happened over the Charles Eimers case.
I’d say the State Attorney should be all over this newest reported revved up cops case, but I’m reluctant to encourage that before I see what the Grand Jury does in the Eimers case, and what the State Attorney then does with the Grand Jury’s findings and recommendations, if any.
It may be the only leverage citizens have to stop this kind of behavior by KWPD is to vote its elected officials out of office, as their seats expire, assuming they run for reelection.
It also may be that packing Old City Hall at each city commission meeting and using the ending 3 minutes allowed to each citizen to speak to the Commission about anything, is a good way for outraged citizens to give the Commission a piece of their minds.
What I don’t know is, how many citizens really are outraged by KWPD behavior and the City Commission not intervening? Are they a few, many, a great multitude?
Are they willing to pack Mallory Pier and Duval Street by the hundreds, or more, as happened this afternoon during the Peter Anderson wake at Mallory Pier and then the parade up Duval Street to South Beach, where Charles Emers learned all about KW police last Thanksgiving Day?
I saw Clayton Lopez at South Beach this afternoon. I hope while he was in Tampa, Clayton learned something that can be used to create a lot of affordable rental housing in key West.
I can’t imagine going to the mainland to try to learn how to face and deal with what’s staring me dead in the face in Key West. The solutions are here, in Key West. Tough rows to hoe, though.
Well, well, well Commissioner Lopez. You called Donie Lee and asked him to handle this with the utmost sensitivity? Really?? You could not possibly have believed that would happen. Did you really and truly trust that Donie Lee and his rabid swine pack would behave with the utmost sensitivity??? You live in Bahama Village. These are your friends and neighbors, your family. You HAVE to know what goes on there with the KWTD. On a daily basis. I used to believe you were the voice of the people, that you had a real interest. What happened to that? These people trust you. They trust that as a commissioner for the people, that you will represent them and their best interest.
Again… What happened to that?
Arnaud Girard called me yesterday evening, but I didn’t see the missed call until 11 p.m. and waited until this morning to call him back. We ended up having a long talk, ranging from his and Naja’s not having wanted to report on police stories as their predecessor Dennis Reeves Cooper had done, to the various police stories the blue paper has broken and continued to cover, to the lack self-regulation/correction/discipline within the KWPD, to the lack of pubic expression of concern by Key West city officials, which is their approval of how KWPD behaves.
I said, Clayton Lopez nailed it when he said Gestapo tactics. But it’s been going on a long time in Key West. It was happening in Bahama Village when I ran for mayor in 2003. It’s been happening in KWPD’s dealing with homeless people, and in KWPD’s dealings with other people. And the city officials are okay with it; otherwise, they’d be raising hell about it.
I said, from blue paper readers’ comments to police misbehavior articles, what’s got blue paper readers up in arms is cops committing crimes against citizens and nothing is being done about it. I said, I view civil litigation against the city arising out of police misbehavior as a diversion from the real problem: cops committing crimes against citizens, and nothing being done about it by city officials.
I said, all the blue paper can do is investigate and report the police misbehavior cases fate arranges for the blue paper to engage. It is criminal prosecutors’ job to prosecute. I said, I don’t see the city officials changing, but it might change KW cops’ behavior if some of them get put in prison, which sends a message to the rest of the cops that they are not bullet proof, they can be sent to prison, too.
I said, that’s why I keep focusing on the criminal side of the cases the blue paper is breaking, and not on the civil litigation side.
I said, for example, looks to me cops committed crimes against Charles Eimers on South Beach last Thanksgiving. Then, cops committed more crimes right away: intimidating witnesses at South Beach, not interviewing witnesses, filling out false incident reports, obstructing justice, trying to get rid of the corpus delecti, Charles Eimer’s body, to the extent of not notifying his family and sending the body to a morgue for cremation, hoping the body would be gone by the time anyone knew Eimers had died. All of those crimes should be prosecuted; cops should go to prison for those crimes.
Will that happen? I have no clue. It may well hang on what the Grand Jury does, and that may hang on what the Assistant State Attorneys chose to put before the Grand Jury, and what the Grand Jury itself choses to investigate, and the disposition of the Grand Jury toward wayward cops. Hopefully, the Grand Jury’s disposition is different from Police Chief Donnie Lee and his city official bosses’ disposition.
Meanwhile, I told Arnaud, I hope he and Naja will continue reporting anything fresh which comes to them about the police misbehavior cases they already broke, and any new cop misbehavior cases which come to them. And keep investigating and reporting other cases of critical concern. Cases the Citizen, the Keynoter, the Weekley Newspapers do not investigate and break, and probably wish the blue paper did not investigate and break.
After all, this is “paradise”. We want tourists to come here and spend a lot of money. We don’t want them to know they can end up dead and buried here. We don’t want tourists to know we have S.W.A.T. teams who go into black neighborhoods wearing hoods. We don’t want tourists to know we have S.W.A.T teams who go into black neighborhoods and set off flash bombs in homes after being told there are babies in those homes. We don’t want tourists to know we have S.W.A.T. teams who going into black homes and stick guns in children and old women’s faces. We don’t want tourists to know we have cops who taser people in the back without warning.
We don’t want tourists to know that, underneath its well-groomed facade, Key West is a RICO operation being run by KWPD and its city bosses.
Perhaps some blue paper readers do not know Arnaud attended law school in France, graduated, and is not a new kid on the law block, but like me, not being licensed to practice law in Florida, goes about it in a different way, which is legal.
Did I also forget to mention that we don’t want tourists to know our waters are infested with MRSA, a horrible flesh-eating bacteria – google-image MRSA, see for yourself what local divers and physicians, and Arnaud and Naja know can happen to people who go into our ocean with a nick or a cut in their skin.
Replace the whole police force!
There are many professional, hardworking, honest police officers working for KWPD and we should all be grateful that they are there for us when we need them. Howevever, it is becoming more and more evident that there are a small number of officers whose behavior needs to be looked at – seriously looked at. And I’ll venture to bet that the officers who try to do their jobs professionally are even more interested than the rest of us in seeing some bad apples removed from the force. Nothing good will come of bashing an entire police force. The fact that nothing is being done about what is likely a handful of bad cops is where we should focus our concern. When public officials learn that citizens and visitors are dying and being seriously injured while being placed under arrest, that innocent elementary school children and grandmas are being held at gunpoint, and that homes of African American residents are being stormed by hooded officers dressed in S.W.A.T. gear – possibly just for the fun of it, then SOMEONE in charge should be seriously looking into it. All we’ve heard from the Police Chief is that from what he can tell his “officers have behaved appropriately” [think Charles Eimers and Matthew Shaun Murphy]. The Chief also announced last week at the CRB meeting [not long after Matthew Shaun Murphy’s fiance left the podium in tears because it was all just too emotional for her] that he is working with FDLE to REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT for an FDLE investigation when someone is seriously injured by police officers. And all we are getting out of our City Manager, Mayor and City Commissioners is SILENCE and INACTION. All we are getting out of FDLE and the State Atorney’s Office is whitewashing. I encourage everyone to communicate with public officials about their concerns. ~ Naja Girard
I agree, Naja, there are good police officers in KWPD. But of the 13, or was it 14 officers involved in just the Charles Eimers incident, how many filed incident reports which did not get contracted by the bystanders’ video? How many then came forward and told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Perhaps we will have a sense of that when – and if – the FDLE report and the Grand Jury findings are made public.
When I spoke on the phone with Arnaud yesterday morning, I said it might get the mayor, city commissioners and city manager and attorney’s attention, if steamed up citizens pack Old City Hall during a city commission meeting, and sit through the entire meeting glaring at folks on the other side of the wooden rail, and when time for closing citizen comments comes, whenever that is, each steamed up citizen spends 3 minutes letting the folks on the other side of the rail know how they feel about what you wrote above and have been reporting. City commission meetings, including citizen comments, are televised live on Channel 77, isn’t it? And later can be brought up and watched online, yes?
You are right. Unhappy citizens need to start speaking out to the city officials. They need to put their names and faces on their protests. And they need to be Key West residents or work in Key West. I told Arnaud, for example, that I doubt city officials care what John Donnelly contributes to the blue paper about KWPD wrongdoing, because John lives on Key Largo. Arnaud said he had not known that’s where John lives.
It may be, Naja, that nothing will cause the city officials to change they way the respond to the kind of KWPD you and Arnaud are investigating and reporting. I mean, if they have not come around yet, what’s to cause me, you, or anyone to expect they ever will come around?
These KWPD cases are not being put to the mayor candidates (so far) at candidate forums and debates. I have interjected the Eimers case during opening and closing remarks, and sometimes in answering questions about homeless people. That tells me the folks who put on those forums and debates are not concerned about KWPD. The Lodging Association, the Chamber of Commerce, Pirate Radio, the golf course community. I wonder if there will be a KWPD question at Hometown PAC’s forum this evening at Tropic Cinema?
Even so, it’s important to keep putting KWPD wrongdoing into the bright sunshine, so KWPD and the city officials don’t get clean away with it. But for you, Naja, and Arnaud, that’s what would have happened in these awful cases.
In my opinion, you and Arnaud have taken the blue paper to a level far beyond its previous incarnation. You didn’t wish to do police stuff. You had no beef with KWPD when you took over the blue paper. You are not reporting from a position of having a grudge against KWPD. You are putting yourselves in KWPD’s cross hairs nearly every week. I still say a Pulitzer is in order.
Read this somewhere on facebook 🙂 Sums it all up rather simply.
“good cops who protect bad cops are not good cops”
During a candidate forum this past Monday night, Hometown PAC’s chairman Todd German announced someone from Islamorada had notified him there was no sound on the livestream broadcast.
When I talked on the phone with Todd Tuesday morning, he said they hoped the sound could be put into the video of the event, which they had intended to put on Hometown’s website in the next day or so – http://www.hometownkeywest.com. I said there was a reason for the sound not being in the video.
Actually, there were three reasons:
(a) Hometown had two cruise ship lovers on their panel, John Dolan-Heitliner and Jennifer Hulse, whom Hometown had staunchly defended having on the panel. Hometown via Todd German and Sheldon Davidson.
(b) None of the Hometown panelists asked a question about the Charles Eimers case, nor about the behavior of the KWPD in various other cases also broken by Key West the Newspaper – http://www.thebluepaper.com.
(c) Instead of putting Naja Girard, blue paper co-publisher and president of Last Stand, on Hometown’s panel, where she could go after the police, cruise ship and other environmental and prickly city issues, Hometown put Naja on a candidate forum panel next week, which is for:
JUDICIAL CANDIDATES, GROUPS 1 AND 4, MONROE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES, DISTRICTS 1, 4, AND 5, AND PRIMARY CANDIDATES FOR THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION FOR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Those races and offices have little, if anything, to do with Key West government policies, operations, etc.
To date, not one question as been asked at candidate forums about KWPD or Charles Eimers. To date, I am who interjected those issues into candidate forums.
All excellent points. This needs to be nipped in the bud by the Chief asap. Are those cops on meds?
Clayton, my friend, I totally agree with your assessment. However, it would be helpful if you’d take a more proactive stance in city government to do something about the murderous thugs who roam our streets in dark blue polyester with weapons and really bad attitudes.