Watchdog

The Watchdog: Putting Advocates in Our Place?

In its Sunday, March 25 editorial, the Ledger, headquartered in Lakeland, was prudent to counsel Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd to take seriously the alleged abuses of children in his jail. The charges were brought forward in a federal class action lawsuit by the highly regarded Southern Poverty Law Center. I, too, was disturbed by [...]

(Read more…)

The Watchdog: “School Shootings: Let’s Not Forget the Others”

The massacre at Columbine High School in 1999 was at the time the worst school based shooting in America. It was not the first, however, and many shootings and deaths have occurred since. While several countries have suffered similar horrors, America ignobly leads the world with 45 of 59 school-based shootings (76%) as referenced on [...]

(Read more…)

The Watchdog: More Abuse in Juvenile Justice?

THE WATCHDOG – MORE ABUSE IN JUVENILE JUSTICE? “Two weeks ago, 6 youth in the juvenile unit were in a fight. After the fight was over, Polk County officers came to the dorm armed with a chemical agent believed to be pepper spray. An officer first sprayed the youths that were in the day room. [...]

(Read more…)

The Watchdog – The Deanne Roberts Story

UPDATE The memorial service for Deanne Dewey Roberts will be available for viewing today, Wednesday, on the internet thanks to a live streaming opportunity. The address will be: http://www.chappellroberts.com/serviceThe site will be live on Wednesday morning. The stream should be live by 4pm. According to Chappell Roberts, they plan to stream the service, then move [...]

(Read more…)

The Watchdog: Juvenile Justice Official Subject of Critical Report

A little more than a week ago, the Miami Herald’s Carol Marbin-Miller published a story about a report issued in June by the Inspector General of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), detailing the financial dealings of a program known as the Girls Advocacy Project (GAP) and its CEO, Vicki Lopez-Lukis. Lopez-Lukis is a [...]

(Read more…)

Sign On to Protect Cristian Fernandez

**LATEST UPDATE: Plea deal ‘very close’ in Cristian Fernandez murder case** State Attorney Angela Corey (R-Jacksonville) has in her authority the decision to try Cristian Fernandez as a child or as an adult for the crime of murder. Cristian is 12 years old. This is NOT a case involving a 17-year-old who has committed a [...]

(Read more…)

Numbers Too Legit to Quit – Part Two

The new faces of poverty are children who have fallen in astounding numbers from the middle class due to home foreclosures and the long term unemployment of their parents. Having lost most or all of their possessions, they are living in cars, in cheap hotels dotting declining neighborhoods, or in a single room courtesy of [...]

(Read more…)

← Previous Entries