City commission moves “equity” items to Monday
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
Since they had so much on the agenda, the Gainesville City Commission moved three “equity” items – Public Recognition of Black Lives Matter, Responding to Racial Tension in the City, and Request to Convene a Citizen Police Review and Reform Recommendations Panel – to a meeting that will be held (virtually) Monday at 10:00 a.m.
After hearing a presentation from Sheriff Darnell, the commissioners voted to:
- Send a letter to the 8th Circuit Court, thanking them for removing their mugshot website, and a second letter to Gannett and the Gainesville Sun, asking them to review their policies on the use of mugshots. (They talked about thanking the Sun for no longer running their mugshot website, but they decided the Sun’s policies on the use of mugshots were not as strong as they’d like them to be.)
- Send a letter to Sheriff Darnell, asking her to remove photos from the jail website.
- Give direction to the City Manager to instruct the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) to end “perp walks” and only use mugshots in press releases when GPD is trying to locate a fugitive.
After discussing the current COVID-19 situation with Dr. Michael Lauzardo of UF, they decided the following:
- Ask staff to bring back information on how to establish a moratorium on enforcing the City’s open container ordinance.
- Instruct City staff to start proactively enforcing the face mask order, hand out masks, and work with the County on enforcement.
- Ask the County to add to their Emergency Order that public establishments must include either a hand washing station or hand sanitizer upon entrance or prominently displayed at the entrance.
- Ask the County to reduce the number of people allowed in bars and only allow service while seated (the second piece is already in the County’s order).
- Send a letter to the local legislative delegation, asking them to cooperate in helping them promote mask-wearing policies.
They set the maximum Fire Assessment Fee for the next fiscal year at $133, the same as the current amount.
They also voted to move forward with a plan to convert the Deerhaven 2 plant to dual-fuel so it can run on either coal or gas, and they passed a resolution urging Florida legislators to approve Medicaid expansion.
Let me get this
Straight…They Don’t want to enforce open bottle laws?
Did they really think this through? Will this result in more displays of public drunkenness? I’m envisioning more public urination as a result…panhandlers begging for money while
Drinking a beer…
They sure got some messed up priorities… Enforce mask ordinance, don’t enforce open
Container law…Can they enforce the litter laws when
It comes to those dadgum face masks? Are those masks
Considered environmental hazard and need to be disposed
Of properly? The masks might be more dangerous than
Those plastic straws! Can they burn those disposable
Masks in the biomass plant? We need to do something
With all those dirty masks. I don’t think they can be recycled.
Can we use them as biomass fuel instead of burying them in
A landfill? Yuck!
Alachua County Jail needs to become more politically correct and inclusive to avoid upsetting Gainesville Commissioner Hey-Santa’s Little Helper.
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The current 6-17 mug shots on the Chronicle shows that of the 12 people booked, nine are black, three are white, and only two are female. This is not a proper diversity mix.
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Census figures show Alachua County is 70% white, 20% black, 5% Asian, and 5% other.
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In the future the police need to do a better job to provide their taxpayer paid for arrest services to all demographic groups. Next week’s mug shots should include 14 white people, 4 black people, one Asian and one other, with of course a 50-50 male-female mix. In particular, the police are currently underserving the white female population as they perform their arrest services.
No O.W.—-That’s why they don’t want to print mugshots anymore…
It shows how the police are prejudiced against blacks.
Using your thinking, the SA office just needs to drop
all cases proportional to race…problem solved.
I hear things will be so much better after secession in our new libertarian Utopia of Springs County. I hear the police will be the most fair and balanced in the USA, and will operate on a strict demographic quota system: they will shoot four innocent white people in the back for every innocent black person they shoot in the back. Springs County, a true land of equal opportunity, where the conservative Republican government will put the Order back in Law and Order, because it is what they do best.