Could be worse
Could have been plotting to become a big snake...
Mayors having a right 'mare in Florida: Acting mayor arrested weeks after boss also arrested
Democracy, eh? It's all fun and games until your elected mayor allegedly opens fire on the SWAT team come to arrest him, which is precisely what cops accused him of doing in the Floridian city of Port Richey last month. And now the acting mayor has been cuffed too. The Tampa Bay Times reports that 64-year-old Terrence Rowe was …
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Tuesday 19th March 2019 01:51 GMT fidodogbreath
Re: unlawful use of a two-way communication device
"Now, three weeks later, Massad has been re-arrested and charged with obstruction of justice. And the acting mayor, Terrence Rowe, 64, has also been charged as the two were heard plotting about either discrediting or retaliating against a police officer Massad said was involved in the arrest. They were heard discussing it on a recorded jailhouse telephone line." source
Apparently when Florida Men work together, the stupidity becomes additive. Or maybe it starts some kind of feedback loop.
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Friday 15th March 2019 14:58 GMT WolfFan
If Florida Man did not exist
We would have to invent it.
I love Florida and Florida Man. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/florida-man
I still say that the guy who threw the baby alligator into the window of a Wendy's drive-thru was an even better Florida Man than this guy. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-alligator-wendys-criminal-case-plea-20160531-story.html
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Friday 15th March 2019 15:27 GMT Fred Goldstein
We *are* talking Florida here. Look, most of the people I run into have an "above-average" intelligence. Somebody has to be below average. That's what Florida is for. They have two fetishes. One is being stupid, or at least electing stupid people. The other is guns. It's a deadly combination, but the NRA and its sponsor gun makers make out like bandits there. As do the bandits. At least the old mayor had apparently once been a doctor, just a bad one. And this being America, without an NHS, a lot of people depend on whatever medical help they can find, and can't afford a real doctor. He was probably better at it than the faith healers that are so popular in the American south.
Vermont, on the other hand, is not stupid, just snowy. Like other New England states, its Towns do not have mayors, as the executive is handled by the Select Board and the legislative by Town Meeting (everyone who shows up votes). And they do make good cheese. So there's nothing a mayor does there that a goat can't do. And come spring, the goat can help keep the lawns and weeds in check.
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Friday 15th March 2019 22:39 GMT Anonymous Coward
These guys don't seem to have wasted £60 million on a bridge to nowhere, haven't recently insulted a foreign president with whom we might have wanted a trade agreement, didn't stir up mentally unsound people with right wing anti-immigrant propaganda and probably don't take a quarter of a million a year from tax avoiding newspaper owners while promoting policies that just happen to suit them, so they really are not in Johnson's league.
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This post has been deleted by its author
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Saturday 16th March 2019 13:48 GMT James O'Shea
It's not a stretch. Caligula wanted to make his fav horse (Incitatus) a consul, on the grounds that this would improve both the intelligence and the overall sense of humo(u)r of the Senate. The Senate was Not Amused®, so he didn't quite dare. Their reaction did make his point for him, though. (yes, it was possible to troll before there was an Internet. Several Emperors, Kings, Popes and other prominent persons were quite good at it.)
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Tuesday 19th March 2019 11:22 GMT TRT
Re: "It seems knowledge of the NT is sadly lacking these days..."
Well, it might not be called that any more, but it's still current and an ongoing concern. Many people live by the code even if they don't realise it. The sign of the cross, although reworked many, many times throughout history, is still easily recognisable in our everyday lives. As it says in the good book... “If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.” NT 17763.379
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Saturday 16th March 2019 13:55 GMT James O'Shea
Re: "He socialized with people of dubious repute,"
He was notoriously fond of wine and, ahem, 'loose women'. One of the things which really offended the then Pope was when the movie "Jesus Christ, Superstar" portrayed Mary Magdalene as m'man Yeshua's girlfriend. It didn't help that the actress was Asian.
Exits, to "I Don't Know How To Love Him".
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Friday 15th March 2019 18:54 GMT disgruntled yank
"He enjoyed intoxicants. He owned guns. He socialized with people of dubious repute."
And we are supposed to think worse of him? Reading "had the use of" in place of "owned", this describes quite a large portion of the military and police forces of most countries I could name. I don't in general think worse of them, provided always that there is a suitable interval between intoxicant and gun use.
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Friday 15th March 2019 20:11 GMT Version 1.0
It's just Florida - this is not news
This is just normal everyday stuff - when I lived just down the road from Port Richey back in the 90's I remember reading in the paper about an incident at the local emergency room on Christmas Day, some poor lady had thought her pet parrot was having trouble breathing so she had tried to give in artificial respiration but it had chewed half her face off ...
If you like this kind of thing then read Carl Hiaasen's novels ... at least 80% of the incidents in his "fiction" stories happened in real life.
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Saturday 16th March 2019 13:31 GMT John Savard
What, no impeachment?
I'm quite surprised the police could just go in and arrest a city's mayor. Surely they would have to wait for the aldermen to impeach him first? Maybe this time, the mayor really was involved in criminal activity, but next time, the police could just arrest a mayor on false charges because they didn't like his politics. The police have to be kept strictly subordinate to the elected representatives of the people.
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Saturday 16th March 2019 18:42 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: What, no impeachment?
Not really, no. In most countries, and I'm assuming in the US too, only the head of state has any level of immunity. (and maybe close friends where the head of state can either influence the judicial process or just have the relevant people shot to make it go away.
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Monday 18th March 2019 12:43 GMT imanidiot
Re: What, no impeachment?
AFAIK a mayor doesn't have any sort of immunity from getting arrested or prosecuted. Is there even anything preventing the arrest of the POTUS in the theoretical case he actually provably murdered someone? Sure, you'd have to impeach him before he stops being the POTUS, but is there anything preventing his arrest? I'd have a hard time everyone would sit on their hands and let him climb aboard air force 1 giving everyone the finger and fly off to someplace else.
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Monday 18th March 2019 18:38 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: What, no impeachment?
Is there even anything preventing the arrest of the POTUS in the theoretical case he actually provably murdered someone? Sure, you'd have to impeach him before he stops being the POTUS, but is there anything preventing his arrest?
Unsettled legal question, I believe. There has been some debate on whether POTUS can pardon him- or herself. You might think that a pardon would only apply after conviction (and thus after impeachment by the House and trial by the Senate), but presidents have issued pre-conviction and other sweeping pardons in the past, and thus far no one's tried to challenge them in the Supreme Court.
Arrest does not require conviction, but there's little point in trying to arrest a president who's been proactively pardoned for any applicable offense. Unless you want to roll the dice on SCOTUS overturning the pardon.
Combine that with the fact that the president controls the armed forces and is protected by the Secret Service, and that the vice president (who would promptly move into the Oval Office) is likely to side with the president, and my guess is that law enforcement officers would be reluctant to try it.
A POTUS who openly committed a serious crime and tried to remain in office could well precipitate a constitutional crisis. That scenario is not inconceivable, particularly at the present historical moment.
The US is still a relatively young country and there are more than a few corners of the law which have not been adequately explored.
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Monday 18th March 2019 18:43 GMT Michael Wojcik
Missed one
The mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts, was recently removed from office and reinstated in the same election.
See the link for other amusing anecdotes about recent mayors of Fall River.
Fall River is not a large city, but it's big enough for this result to be notable. It's also known for a few other former inhabitants. Oh, and this, which is pretty cool even if you're not into military stuff.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
