Disasters / Emergencies, Justice, Police

LOL-Flori-Duh: Sheriff Who Threatened To Arrest People Seeking Shelter Has Already Been Sued

This spun up more quickly than a category five.

By  
on

Thing that is NOT a jail.

In the ramp up to Hurricane Irma, the Polk Country Sheriff’s Office tweeted out a series of, well, threats to people who might seek shelter. We covered them here. They threatened to check IDs, they threatened to arrest people with outstanding warrants, they threatened to deny shelter to sex offenders, even though “getting decapitated by a flying roof” is not an approved punishment for sex offenders released from prison.

Because this is Florida, there was some question as to whether the Polk Country people were merely tweeting out meaningless threats to their own citizens, or whether they actually intended to follow through on these (probably unconstitutional) arrests.

Andres Borreno, a risk manager with Nexus Services, decided to check it out. His organization provides legal services, and he was in Florida to help undocumented people find shelter from the storm.

Before sending his people into a potential trap, he went to a Tampa elementary school that was serving as a shelter and, sure enough, Borreno was told that he’d have to submit ID and submit to warrant and background checks.

He sent his people to Osceola County instead, and sued the Polk County Sheriff, Grady Judd, for turning emergency shelters into “unlawful pedestrian checkpoints to conduct suspicionless warrant/criminal background checks on human beings desperate for shelter.”

Judd has not responded to the lawsuit, but his spokesperson spoke with NBC:

Sponsored

Carrie Horstman, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said Monday that Judd was in hurricane recovery mode and hadn’t read Borreno’s lawsuit.

“We are only responding to breaking news media inquiries and focusing on getting emergency information out to the public,” she said.

Oh, NOW he only has time to focus on getting emergency information out to the public. When the storm was bearing down on the county, he had enough time to tweet threats to people who needed emergency information, but now he thinks his job is to help people with their safety.

Judd’s threats and officials carrying out those orders seem to me like a textbook Fourth Amendment violation. Hurricane relief should not be probable cause for a search. AND… since much of Florida was under an evacuation order, there’s an entrapment angle. AND… if there is a compelling state interest at play, it’s not in keeping people safe from those with outstanding warrants, it’s in keeping citizens safe from hurricanes.

But mainly, Judd’s actions represent terrible disaster relief. The last thing you want in these situations is people staying where they shouldn’t. Even if you don’t think that #UndocumentedLivesMatter, surely you think the lives of the rescue workers do. Judd’s tweets put the lives of every rescue and aid worker at risk, because he put them in a position where more people might need rescue and aid.

Is it a Constitutional offense? I think so. Is it a fireable offense? God I hope so.

Sponsored

Florida Sheriff Sued Over Tough-on-Crime Approach to Hurricane Irma [NBC News]

Earlier:

Florida Cops Wants To Use Hurricane To Make Arrests

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

Topics

, , , , , ,