A story about a Florida football player...
Story on 10/05/07:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/2007-10-05-florida-joiner_N.htm
[Owner] Stan Forron said he has had as many as 30 cars removed from his towing business over the last 20 years and never seen anyone arrested and charged with burglary.
"What he did was wrong," Forron told Florida Today. "We're not saying he's an angel and shouldn't pay. But why all of a sudden is he being arrested for something that happened numerous times throughout the years and nobody else has been arrested?"
According to a Gainesville Police Department incident report, teammate and fellow senior safety Kyle Jackson drove Joiner to the towing company.
Forron, who owns the facility, says that Joiner had actually talked to the dispatcher who was working and had made arrangements to pick up the car. The employee left to get some food and the gate to the company was left open. Joiner showed up to pay the towing bill, waited for some time and said he got impatient and decided to go ahead and take the car and worry about the bill later."
Another take (on 10/05/07):
http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20071005/BREAKING/71005011
But the property's owner, Stan Forron, later said the incident was a mistake. Joiner was supposed to show up and get the car but came later than expected. The employee was not on duty at the office at the time, he said. Forron also said the towing bill has since been paid.
Police reported Joiner had been at the impound lot at about 4:30 a.m. Two calls from employees reported Joiner was trying to take the car from the lot and asked police to hurry to the location. The calls identified Joiner by name and said he was with the Gators, according to recordings released by police.
Story on 10/06/07:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=92918&ref=rss
According to Gainesville Police, Joiner pushed open an electric gate, got into the car and started to drive off. When Joiner stopped to close the gate, he was confronted by a witness who called police.
Shortly after Joiner's arrest, Forron said the player had arranged to pay the bill and pick up the car. But Forron said no one was around to take Joiner's money, so he must have thought it was OK to take the car and settle up later.
"He was a perfect gentleman," Forron said. "That had a big influence on why I wanted (the charge dropped). If he had been yelling and screaming, they wouldn't have been dropped."
------------------
Short story, plain and simple.
Student-athlete shows up at a towing yard at 4:30 in the morning on Tuesday to get his girlfriend's car. He walks in, gets in the car, and drives out. If he hadn't stopped to close the gate, it wouldn't even be in the news.
But, let's get this straight. If you, I, or anyone not a student-athlete (at least on the Florida team), especially any normal black person (who are more readily accused of crimes than whites, it's a fact.), were to have walked into a business and taken off with a seized piece of property, we would be in jail. At the very least.
Someone made calls as soon as the news broke. Police knew it was Joiner before they even responded, due to info from the towing company employees. How many police in Gainesville don't know a star football player? And how many police don't know influential people? Like boosters, like attorneys, etc.
The criminal got away with breaking the law. Regardless of whether the owner of the towing company wanted to press charges, the guy still trespassed and stole (it is stealing when you take your own property after it's been seized) property. How can that NOT be intent? (Regardless of whether he made an arrangement to show up to get the car, going in in the middle of the night hours after he was supposed to, without notification of those who were on duty, is still criminal trespass.)
It's another case of someone famous or important getting what they want, regardless of the law. From the stories early on, he wasn't supposed to play on Saturday, but yet there he was, playing in the fourth quarter.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
In Jacksonville
I'm just gonna be randomly posting things that tick me off, worry me, and just generally drive me nuts...
Today...
The lack of a healthy vision for the future of the city.
Don't get me wrong. Our illustrious Mayor wants the city to prosper. Our City Council wants the city to prosper. Our state government wants our city to prosper (although they don't want local government to determine what happens locally). My fellow citizens want the city to prosper.
Yet...
JTA trumpets the BRT (bus-rapid transit) system;
JEA continues their pollution and destruction of the environment;
City vehicles mostly remain gas-powered instead of shifting to hybrids;
new government buildings are not designed to be green and older ones are rarely (if ever) updated to be green (reduce dependence upon electricity).
What does this mean?
BRT may be coming whether it's good or not. Simply put, I believe that this is the wrong route to go. These buses will run on diesel fuel. Not electrical. The city killed its electric trolley system decades ago, replacing them with diesel buses. This has caused incessant pollution and drives up city bills as prices rise. Will diesel powered faster buses be any different? No. Personally I'm wondering if this drive for the BRT system is in any way related to the fact that one of the most powerful local families is the Peyton family - of which our current Mayor is only the most notable one - owns Gate Petroleum, a large petrochemical firm which owns and operates hundreds of gas stations. I wonder where the city will be purchasing its gas?
Why not build an electrical transportation grid that funnels travelers from outlying areas to those stations where they can hook up with the already extant Skyway?
The JEA is one of the largest polluters of the St. Johns River, if not the largest. This is known to many, yet the EPA and the state have only slapped the JEA on the wrist when it has come to light. The river is being choked with green algae coming from farms and septic tanks, yet JEA's plant emits more mercury into the river and the area than any other plant in the state. One chokes off life in the river, the other kills life, causing birth defects and other problems in general.
When will this monopoly clean up their act? They're even planning on giving ALL of their employees a bonus, when they're raising electrical rates for the entire area TWICE in the coming year. (If you pay attention, they say they're raising rates to expand production for the future in one line while saying that the increase reflects rising fuel costs in the current year.) In addition to the several rate increases in the past five years, the City government wants to add a 3% surcharge to get the CITY more money. JEA has been running a huge profit for the past couple of years, and yet the City is broke and trying to prop itself up on the backs of residents who already struggle.
Most of the City's vehicles remain dependent upon fossil fuels instead of moving to hybrid engines.
Why aren't all COJ vehicles based on alternative fuels, whether electrical or hybrid? The city chooses to raise fees but does not invest in alternative fuels which can reduce the dependence on fuel costs in the future.
Last,
Although the push for greening buildings has been going on for over a decade in many cities around the world, Jacksonville is finally appropriating money to study the feasibility of greening itself.
Just as an example, the Better Jacksonville Plan built six new libraries for the Library system (unlike Peyton's recent presentation which said BJP paid for six libraries AND the Main Library). Not a one was green.
TTFN...
Today...
The lack of a healthy vision for the future of the city.
Don't get me wrong. Our illustrious Mayor wants the city to prosper. Our City Council wants the city to prosper. Our state government wants our city to prosper (although they don't want local government to determine what happens locally). My fellow citizens want the city to prosper.
Yet...
JTA trumpets the BRT (bus-rapid transit) system;
JEA continues their pollution and destruction of the environment;
City vehicles mostly remain gas-powered instead of shifting to hybrids;
new government buildings are not designed to be green and older ones are rarely (if ever) updated to be green (reduce dependence upon electricity).
What does this mean?
BRT may be coming whether it's good or not. Simply put, I believe that this is the wrong route to go. These buses will run on diesel fuel. Not electrical. The city killed its electric trolley system decades ago, replacing them with diesel buses. This has caused incessant pollution and drives up city bills as prices rise. Will diesel powered faster buses be any different? No. Personally I'm wondering if this drive for the BRT system is in any way related to the fact that one of the most powerful local families is the Peyton family - of which our current Mayor is only the most notable one - owns Gate Petroleum, a large petrochemical firm which owns and operates hundreds of gas stations. I wonder where the city will be purchasing its gas?
Why not build an electrical transportation grid that funnels travelers from outlying areas to those stations where they can hook up with the already extant Skyway?
The JEA is one of the largest polluters of the St. Johns River, if not the largest. This is known to many, yet the EPA and the state have only slapped the JEA on the wrist when it has come to light. The river is being choked with green algae coming from farms and septic tanks, yet JEA's plant emits more mercury into the river and the area than any other plant in the state. One chokes off life in the river, the other kills life, causing birth defects and other problems in general.
When will this monopoly clean up their act? They're even planning on giving ALL of their employees a bonus, when they're raising electrical rates for the entire area TWICE in the coming year. (If you pay attention, they say they're raising rates to expand production for the future in one line while saying that the increase reflects rising fuel costs in the current year.) In addition to the several rate increases in the past five years, the City government wants to add a 3% surcharge to get the CITY more money. JEA has been running a huge profit for the past couple of years, and yet the City is broke and trying to prop itself up on the backs of residents who already struggle.
Most of the City's vehicles remain dependent upon fossil fuels instead of moving to hybrid engines.
Why aren't all COJ vehicles based on alternative fuels, whether electrical or hybrid? The city chooses to raise fees but does not invest in alternative fuels which can reduce the dependence on fuel costs in the future.
Last,
Although the push for greening buildings has been going on for over a decade in many cities around the world, Jacksonville is finally appropriating money to study the feasibility of greening itself.
Just as an example, the Better Jacksonville Plan built six new libraries for the Library system (unlike Peyton's recent presentation which said BJP paid for six libraries AND the Main Library). Not a one was green.
TTFN...
Monday, August 27, 2007
New Orleans two years later....
The nightmare for some continues. The hope and the future are there for others. The only absolute truth to come out of the past two years: Naw'linz will never be the same.
(Unless you count corruption, death, meaningless reform, lily-white portions and ghetto-ized others.)
Evacuees stay put in trailers from the Advocate's website.
CNN's report on the second anniversary
Keeping Up is Costing More from the Times-Picayune.
New Orleans Residents, Lacking Aid, Press Recovery from Bloomberg News
Some people can recover. Others struggle to get close to where they were. Others still, knowing what is behind them is much worse, accept what they can and try to deal with it.
Sigh...
(Unless you count corruption, death, meaningless reform, lily-white portions and ghetto-ized others.)
Evacuees stay put in trailers from the Advocate's website.
CNN's report on the second anniversary
Keeping Up is Costing More from the Times-Picayune.
New Orleans Residents, Lacking Aid, Press Recovery from Bloomberg News
Some people can recover. Others struggle to get close to where they were. Others still, knowing what is behind them is much worse, accept what they can and try to deal with it.
Sigh...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)