FL Sheriff Felony Arrested/Suspended 4 Protecting Citizens’ 2A Rights

[JayC]

Police officers do this every day...  day in and day out...  ever heard of a warning instead of a ticket?  Letting some kids go who bought beer but hadn't been drinking?  Catching some kids on lovers lane and not arresting them for indecent exposure?

 

How is this any different?  The Sheriff looked at the situation and applied common sense that the person in question had no criminal intent, and ordered his deputy to let the guy go...

 

Unless there is some documentation to indicate a bribe, kickback, or special treatment (son of a local politician), then what exactly is the problem here?

 

I'm really less concerned here with this particular law and this particular person who was carrying than I am with the concept of a single LEO deciding that a law that was properly passed by the state legislature is "unconstitutional". I suspect that this law in FL has been on the books for a while (maybe a long while) and has held up to scrutiny; probably in one or more state courts -

 

I'm no expert on what a Sheriff can or can't do in FL but if one man can decide not to enforce a law, passed by the state's legislature that he swore to uphold when he took office, to me, seems like a bad precedent and outside of his authority. 

 

[RobertNashville]

Police officers do this every day...  day in and day out...  ever heard of a warning instead of a ticket?  Letting some kids go who bought beer but hadn't been drinking?  Catching some kids on lovers lane and not arresting them for indecent exposure?

 

How is this any different?  The Sheriff looked at the situation and applied common sense that the person in question had no criminal intent, and ordered his deputy to let the guy go...

 

Unless there is some documentation to indicate a bribe, kickback, or special treatment (son of a local politician), then what exactly is the problem here?

A felon in possession of a firearm or someone carrying a firearm without permission (which I believe in this case is a felony)  is not a "ticket-able" offense.

 

In any case, I think you are missing the point, or at least the point I was making which has really nothing to do with this particular Sheriff.
 

Edited August 23, 2013 by RobertNashville

[DaveTN]

Maybe one of the TN cops has already commented and I missed it, but what kind of discretion do you have? When I started as a cop we had discretion on all misdemeanors. I saw discretion removed on two misdemeanors while I was there; DUI and Domestic Violence.

 

But we also couldn’t cuff someone unless they were under arrest and if we cuffed them we couldn’t release them without Command approval. Obviously from what I see today that is not the case anymore.

 

We didn’t have discretion on felonies; only the DA could dismiss that.

 

Which also really has nothing to do with what this guy is accused of. 

[East_TN_Patriot]

You raise good points, ET, but I have more respect for the judgement of a local sheriff than I do most congressmen and the

current president.

 

"The events began when Floyd Eugene Parrish, a Florida resident, was arrested and detained by one of Finch’s deputies for carrying a firearm without a permit on March 8th, 2013. In the state of Florida, this lands you a 3rd degree felony charge. Finch released Parrish because, in his assessment, Parrish was not a violent criminal and was acting innocuously. Finch called the clerk and told her not to draw up arrest documents until he was there to assess the situation. Note, Parrish had not been officially booked into jail- only detained."

 

Not knowing the process like you do, it appears to me he wanted to review this event before any arrest was made, due to the deputy's

history. Whether or not that is the correct action to take may be another matter, altogether. It could very well be a "good ole boy"

situation down there, but until I read that somewhere, I couldn't convict the sheriff.

I understand your point about having all the facts, but the fact remains that the arresting deputy had already made an arrest, transported Mr. Parrish, completed a complaint affidavit, and Mr. Parrish's property had been collected and his info entered into the logbook.  That is booking unless there is some sort of definition of "booking" specified in Florida law that I am not aware of.  I have asked a local reporter to see if the sheriff had issued a memo or general order telling his officers to not enforce firearms laws, issued one following the incident, or if anyone else had been arrested and charged for a similar crime under his tenure that did not result in preferential treatment.  

I am all for officer discretion under most circumstances, but that way of exercising discretion - if it was actually discretion - is simply inappropriate.  He should have gone to the judge or prosecutor and said his office no longer wanted to pursue charges on that case.  When I wanted to dismiss a traffic citation or a criminal charge (that only happened once) I had to go through those steps and submit paperwork explaining why I chose to dismiss the charges.  The law is supposed to be applied equally without personal favor and I really don't believe for a second this was simply a Second Amendment issue.  Again, do you also respect a law enforcement official's decision to NOT enforce immigration laws or drug laws?  

This is an issue that is very simple in my book.  If you or I, or an ethnic or racial minority, had been caught under similar circumstances, would we have gotten the same treatment? I am confident the answer to that question is no.
 

In addition to trying to obtain information through a local news reporter I have started the process to obtain information under Florida's "Sunshine Law".

Edited August 25, 2013 by East_TN_Patriot

[East_TN_Patriot]

Police officers do this every day...  day in and day out...  ever heard of a warning instead of a ticket?  Letting some kids go who bought beer but hadn't been drinking?  Catching some kids on lovers lane and not arresting them for indecent exposure?

 

How is this any different?  The Sheriff looked at the situation and applied common sense that the person in question had no criminal intent, and ordered his deputy to let the guy go...

 

Unless there is some documentation to indicate a bribe, kickback, or special treatment (son of a local politician), then what exactly is the problem here?

It's different because the man had already been arrested, taken to jail, a complaint affidavit had been written, his name written into the jail log, and the sheriff showed up with the arrested man's brother who called him in the middle of the night.  You don't think that's evidence of inappropriate use of his authority?  Question, how many people do you think have the immediate ability to call the county sheriff in the middle of the night and have enough sway to get him out in the middle of the night to take a trip to the jail and unarrest a convicted felon who was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon?


 

[Chucktshoes]

UPDATE:

 

Reports are that Sheriff Nick Finch has been found not guilty and has bee reinstated by Gov. Rick Scott.

http://www.wtxl.com/news/local/jury-finds-liberty-co-sheriff-nick-finch-not-guilty/article_26546cb2-4249-11e3-a874-0019bb30f31a.html

[whitewolf001]

UPDATE:

 

Reports are that Sheriff Nick Finch has been found not guilty and has bee reinstated by Gov. Rick Scott.

http://www.wtxl.com/news/local/jury-finds-liberty-co-sheriff-nick-finch-not-guilty/article_26546cb2-4249-11e3-a874-0019bb30f31a.html

 

Here-here! Cheers to that man for doing what was morally right!

[Chucktshoes]

Here-here! Cheers to that man for doing what was morally right!

Let's not forget the jury as well. Whether it was a lack of evidence, poor prosecution or jury nullification, they did the right thing as well.

[Guest carter]

 (that I suspect he swore an oath to uphold).

 

they're a lot of people that took a sworn oath to uphold constitutions but put them down daily and try to change them... lets arrest them all! 

[No_0ne]

You raise good points, ET, but I have more respect for the judgement of a local sheriff than I do most congressmen and the

current president.

 

"The events began when Floyd Eugene Parrish, a Florida resident, was arrested and detained by one of Finch’s deputies for carrying a firearm without a permit on March 8th, 2013. In the state of Florida, this lands you a 3rd degree felony charge. Finch released Parrish because, in his assessment, Parrish was not a violent criminal and was acting innocuously. Finch called the clerk and told her not to draw up arrest documents until he was there to assess the situation. Note, Parrish had not been officially booked into jail- only detained."

 

Not knowing the process like you do, it appears to me he wanted to review this event before any arrest was made, due to the deputy's

history. Whether or not that is the correct action to take may be another matter, altogether. It could very well be a "good ole boy"

situation down there, but until I read that somewhere, I couldn't convict the sheriff.

I don't know anything about Florida sheriffs, but here in Tennessee, being elected to county sheriff has often been a prelude to felony convictions and long prison terms...

[Guest 6.8 AR]

We've had a good Sheriff or two in Montgomery County.