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County Jail Deputies Still Have Supporters

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 23, 2008

Failure To Communicate?

Regarding the wheelchair-dumping incident at the Orient Road Jail:

Who was the officer that brought the paralyzed man to jail? Was the victim carried to the arresting officer's car? Was he carried into the jail? Was there any communication between the arresting officer and the booking desk or was he just brought in and left sitting there?

GLENDA GARCIA

New Port Richey

Too Quick To Condemn

The video of the incident showing what happened to the young man in the wheelchair would shock anyone with a sense of fairness and justice and I too was upset at what was shown. However, I am withholding my judgment of the matter until we finally hear the other side of the story.

Why? I have watched the TV program on truTV and "Jail" locally on Channel 38 where they show the kinds of things that happen during bookings at jails all over the United States, including the facility at Orient Road.

In many cases, cooperation by those being booked is not given and, in fact, many persons are downright obnoxious and violent toward those in authority. The fact that those persons of responsibility at the jail have not yet been allowed to tell their story about what this young man's attitude was over being booked into jail concerns me.

It is very hard for me to believe that the woman being charged is as bad as she appears in the video when all of her past evaluations by her supervisors have been so high, including reported commendations.

It seems unfair to me that all of the various TV and published news media are so quick to condemn with only half the story. I think the video should have been withheld for release until the investigation had been completed and the whole story could be told.

CARDIN A. HESSELTON

Seminole

A Rush To Judgment
The word is out now with all that have broken the law and await arrest, booking and, bond or no bond, that if you get under a jail deputy's skin and get them to do what is perceived by the media as an inhuman act, you can sue the county, the sheriff, the deputy and anyone that the members of the legal profession feel has more than a couple of dollars.

How many of the good citizens of Hillsborough County would take that thankless job dealing with the elements of society that think the law does not apply to them?

We are forgetting one thing - they are human, and no amount of training will prepare them for that one moment that a lawbreaker gets under their skin and they commit the unthinkable act that changes their life forever.

Remember, without the street deputy, jail deputy, and all members of the law enforcement community and the firemen, when that line of defense is lost, we will all be at the mercy of the predators and wish we would not have been so fast to rush to judgment.

VINCE BENTIVEGNA

Tampa

Chance To Volunteer

As we hear more reports of Hillsborough County jail inmates being abused and more lawyers step forward to criticize the Sheriff's Department, it is time for the trial lawyers to perform some meaningful pro-bono work.

Let's have some trial lawyers volunteer to work beside detention deputies in our jails. If an inmate becomes combative or uncooperative, the lawyers can step in and show the deputies how to handle the situation.

This should reduce, if not eliminate, abuse of inmate complaints in addition to letting trial lawyers serve a useful purpose.

R.J. McDARBY

Valrico

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