Cartwright: Gainesville residents don’t need more intrusion into personal spaces
Letter to the editor
On November 20, Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said, “A thing that leaps out at me is, this year, we have three homicides, and two of them were domestic violence. And so, over the next year or so, I really want to delve into… what we can do to help those numbers go down… I want to work with everybody we can, to help reduce domestic violence in our community, as well as suicides… So those are a couple of things you’re going to hear me talk about more over the next year.”
Ward didn’t mention anything about reducing taxes, fighting public corruption within the City organization that arrests men for domestic violence, reducing pay for parking, which is having a negative impact on small businesses downtown, etc. This virtue signaling will result in increased arrests in domestic violence cases, which carry a low threshold, if any, for an arrest, let alone a conviction.
The residents of Gainesville, Florida, don’t need more government intrusion into their personal spaces, such as bedrooms, kitchens, cars, yards, and wallets. It’s not appropriate to jump off-topic and discuss arrest quotas, which some believe are a way to undermine the U.S. Constitution under the guise of public safety. This would infringe upon the freedom-loving American people’s God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Let us not forget when the former Waldo Police Department was disbanded because it/they were conducting/running an UNLAWFUL traffic ticket quota in the name of PUBLIC SAFETY in this blue county.
Telfred Cartwright, Gainesville
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LGBTQ and Liberal women commit more DV than any other category. It isn’t the men anymore, its the women.
Link please
If you say so, does that make it true? Because I work with DV daily, and you are so wrong.
Ward is exaggerating an age-old issue to pander to feminist voters while hoping to increase government intrusion. We all see the disgusting amount of local arrests of child predators. The city and county commissioners have never once mentioned this during their meetings. You know why?…because children cannot vote.
You’re on probation for committing domestic violence, and have an injunction for protection against domestic violence entered against you — may be it’s just me, but I think you’re pretty biased about this and are more concerned about your wellbeing than that of real victims.
The domestic violence reports against the writer of this article are very, very concerning; ripping his wife’s hair out, his wife and daughter leaving and living in their vehicle out of fear, beating the girl because she wants to go to a football game….no wonder he doesn’t want the law cracking down. He shouldn’t be out and about as it is! Sicko…and, he has some nerve to write to the editor about it.
Indignation: You’re innocent until proven guilty… and there’s lots of innocent people doing time for some other persons crime.
I’ve heard the following scenario many times:
The woman calls the cops and lies and says that “he hit me”, then the cop takes you to jail…then the judge orders that you can’t go to your house that you are paying for, you can’t have access to your firearms, you have to surrender your concealed weapons permit, you can’t see your kids, you’re in jail until you can post bond, you have to wear an ankle bracelet….
Legal council is expensive and many don’t have the money to defend themselves properly in a court of law and end up getting the shaft.
He entered pleas to domestic violence (criminal charges), and there was an evidentiary hearing before a judge who determined he had in fact committed horrible acts of domestic violence. The presumption of innocense does not apply here.
In this case, he did have enough money to hire and be represented by a private attorney. He still lost in one case and pleaded in the other.
Property taxes went up. DV goes up. Household finances shrink. See where I’m going with this?
I can see this being a problem coming home from a hard day’s work and finding out your spouse voted for him.
Nope. A properly raised man will never act violently toward his wife and/or kids no matter for whom the wife voted and no matter how bad their finances are. Same goes for wives
Arrest quotas do not require evidence nor probable cause and are UNLAWFUL and illegal and which I’m quite sure are responsible for many politically uninformed University of Florida students being arrested too here in Gainesville, Florida by members of the City of Gainesville Police Department for revenue purposes in guise of public safety.
The City Commission might be able to control what happens on the sidewalks but they cannot control what happens to couples or people behind closed doors. Harvey is going out on a limb here and just adding to the non issue catagory that the Commission wastes time talking about. What they should be talking about is how to get all the ratepayers outside the City Limits the right to vote on what happens to GRU during special elections that are one sided.
Writers 2024 arrest report:
https://www.gnvinfo.com/content/files/2024/09/24-13136.pdf
Really? And then the comments section fills up with anti-women sentiment?
As to what governments – and volunteers – can do for victims of domestic abuse, they can provide shelter, counseling, and legal representation. Women particularly who suffer from it often live in fear of being beat up, so just protection from brute force can free them.
Thanks for that link. There is something deeply wrong with our justice system when a person like Vic1 in the linked report lives most of their adult life in mortal fear because she knows the system can’t protect her.
Volunteers might also consider helping Vic1 buy a gun and learn how to use it.
Cartwright, either you have not done your research on the requirements for law enforcement to arrest in Florida domestic violence investigations, (which are very strict and pro arrest for the primary aggressor), or you are here just TROLLING at this point.
If you actually think there is low to no threshold for making an arrest you have some serious research to do. The conviction rate mostly lies with the victims of DV. If the victim refuse to cooperate after the arrest it can be much more difficult to get a conviction.
There is nothing Harvey can do from his chair regarding how the state operates. He cannot change legislation nor can he legislate GPD to do much to interfere with people’s lives before they call the police. Really he can only get the city to provide additional resources for the victims of DV, if they are willing to accept help in the first place.
What an odd position to take. There is no equivalency between intimate partner violence and parking… we are truly lost as a society.
Once you have a chance to escape a violent marriage, you grasp any kind hand willing to help. The police in Georgia came to my home and offered help. And did so over a period of months. My life is saved and I have been productive as a citizen. Thank God for a helping hand. I have been safe for thirty years.
Yep. So true.