Okay...
So, Polk county is close to my area. I actually know and have met the Sheriff and while he's a great guy and think he actually does a a pretty great job, I sometimes think he's trying to be too big for small town if that makes sense. FL is pretty conservative and many have very straight opinions on what is "right" and what is "wrong."
So this leads to the article of the author of the pedophile book who was arrested by the Polk County Sheriffs office.
This is how it was done:
Quote:
The Ledger reports that Phillip Greaves, the man arrested last December by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office over his book The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct, was sentenced today to two years probation after pleading no contest to charges of “distributing obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors.” Greaves will serve his probation in Colorado, the state he had been living in prior to being escorted onto a commercial airliner in the early hours of Dec. 21 by two detectives from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The arrest had been orchestrated by outspoken Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who had an undercover detective request a copy of the book through the mail. “Make sure he autographs it,” Judd said.
When the book arrived, two detectives flew to Colorado and supervised local authorities as they took Greaves into custody.
Because of Florida Law, we can arrest this guy.
But he lives in Colorado. And SOLD the book from Colorado to Florida. The Sheriffs intention of buying that book was to solicit the guy out of Colorado jurisdiction and into Florida jurisdiction for the sole purpose of arresting the guy because he didn't think the book was right.
Now... whether the book is right or wrong is irrelevant here. Well, mostly irrelevant and I'll explain why below.
I don't agree with the Sheriff. While his intentions may seem good, who GAVE him the right to use tax-payer money to carry out this undercover operation when it didn't directly impact the towns citizens.
If this book did impact the town citizens (which it hasn't yet other than general outrage that many people of many different towns/cities/states felt) then should it come down to a citizen vote or shouldn't a citizen first approach the sheriffs office and say "hey, i'm offended by this and it's causing me harm because of this and I need you do something about it?
Only if the book is relevant to the citizens, should he have arrested the guy.
But he didn't. And I don't like that he's using FL money, that County's money, those Citizen's resources and time to bring down a bad guy from some other state.
Should the money be used for other things that the county needs? And if he did get approval for this thing... shouldn't the citizens have a right to voice their opinions?
So what are the expenses associated with this cost. Well enough to do this: Chartering a private plane to bring him to FL. Undercover officer time etc.
Not to mention, the article asks about first amendment rights for the author and if the were infringed upon. While I'm not sure that they were infringed... I do believe that that the Sheriff manipulated the system to get what HE and the Sheriffs department wanted.
Quote:
Which leads to the most puzzling line of the Ledger article: “Taking the plea puts to rest First Amendment questions that were being raised by Greaves’ lawyers.”
Certainly, that’s what the Polk County State Attorney’s office would argue, but Lawrence Walters, an attorney who operates under the domain www.firstamendment.com and has represented others arrested in Polk County on obscenity charges, doesn’t think so. We asked him for a comment following the decision, and this is what he wrote:
Unfortunately, the Sheriff and the State Attorney were able to manipulate the system in such a way so as to keep Mr. Greaves in jail long enough so that a guilty plea to a felony appeared to be a good option. The First Amendment violations occasioned by this arrest and prosecution will go unaddressed, as many have been in the last two decades in Polk County, Florida.
“Church and State,” indicates that the Greaves arrest was just a slight variation on an old formula for the Sheriff, who has waged a remarkably successful crusade against “obscene materials” for over two decades.
https://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage?tc=ar
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Any opinions on this. Do you agree that a sheriff from FL had any right to arrest a guy from Colorado without direct public harm to it's county?
I'm not arguing whether the book in question is right or wrong. If you want to discuss that, there is a different thread already on TFS for it.
I want to know more about the situation of the author's arrest.
Jun 18, 2011 @ 00:14:19
