Beyond diversity, hiring officers who know and understand the community, asking officers to build better relationships with neighborhoods they serve, reducing officers’ use of aggressive arrest tactics and increasing officer training is shown to be more effective than changing the color of the ranks.
Rights & Liberties
Does Diversifying Police Forces
Two Attorneys Disbarred Over “Unprecedented” DUI Set-Up of Opposing Lawyer in Big Case
The Florida Supreme Court unanimously supported the disbarment of Robert D. Adams and Adam Robert Filthaut of Tampa for their role in setting up the drunken-driving arrest of an opposing lawyer during a high-profile case.
Florida Continues to Suppress Lethal-Injection Records in Face of Challenge by Death Row Inmates
Lawyers for seven Death Row inmates and the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona in June filed a subpoena seeking years of records related to Florida’s triple-drug lethal injection protocol, including the types of drugs purchased, the strengths and amounts of the drugs, the expiration dates of the drugs and the names of suppliers.
Devil’s Gambit: Sacrificing All Else to Ensure Trump Picks for the Supreme Court
To some Republicans, keeping Hillary Clinton from appointing new justices is worth letting everything else go to hell. The government, the country, maybe the world and certainly the court.
Masked Man Who Taunted Lamb at Sheriff’s Forum Is Unmasked as Whisenant Supporter
Richard Rubin, a twice-arrested local resident and supporter of Mark Whisenant’s sheriff’s campaign, attempted to rattle candidate John Lamb Monday evening by riding masked and in camouflage and holding up a sign claiming Lamb and his family did not live in the county, a false claim.
My Mother, Stopped for Driving While Black
The mistreatment of black people by police officers isn’t new, nor is it surprising, argues Milen Mehari. According to the Justice Department, black people are almost four times more likely than whites to experience the use of force during police encounters.
Racism Allegations Against Jacksonville Judge Hulsey Enter Case of Black Man on Death Row
Other black defendants whose cases were overseen by Hulsey “are living with the fear that the proceedings were infected by racial prejudice,” but questions about Hulsey’s impartiality also affect “the public at large and all residents of Florida,” lawyer Martin McClain wrote.
Florida’s Only Openly Gay Lawmaker Describes a Rick Scott More Accepting of LGBT
In the days after 49 people were killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Gov. Rick Scott privately expressed some support for gay rights to the state’s only openly gay state lawmaker, David Richardson.
Appeals Court Upholds Red-Light Cameras But Urges Florida Supreme Court to Rule Decisively
A court upheld Aventura’s program, which relies on police, not the private contractor, to make decisions about ticketing motorists. But the court wants the supreme court to decide the issue more finally.
In Bunnell, 100 Black Marchers Chant for “All Lives,” For Unity, But Also For Looking Inward
The Black Lives Matter-themed march Sunday evening around Bunnell was itself a display of the harmony it called for, though it clearly didn not get participation from the county’s whiter surroundings.