About Me

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I retired after completing 38 years as a law enforcement officer in the State of Florida. I began my law enforcement career with the City of Miami, where I served for nearly 27 years before serving with a state agency for 11 1/2 years (part of that time as Interim Inspector General). During my career with Miami I worked in uniform patrol, the detective bureau, and the 911 center. I was also a member of the first law enforcement crew to respond to New York City on September 11, 2001. From January 2007 to April 2011 I also served as a commissioner on the state commission that governs the certification of law enforcement, correctional and probation officers in the state. I am a Past President of the Florida State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police (President 2004-2006); I was an employee representative with Miami FOP Lodge #20 for almost 21 years (6 years serving at the Chief Steward). I have worked on legislative issues at all levels, worked on political screening committees. I’m a past member of the Dade County Republican Executive Committee, and have been an advisor/ law enforcement liaison for a presidential candidate..

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Even Devastating Floods Can't Escape Politics!

First let me say that I'm not a Ted Cruz supporter and will not vote for the Senator to be President (unless it's him or Secretary Clinton). Having said that, I have been seeing posts today regarding Senator Cruz asking for flood assistance for Texas while he voted against Hurricane Sandy Relief Legislation. These posts have been photos and had negative captions and some calling the Senator a hypocrite. People are gladly posting these and are either unaware, or have chosen to ignore the reason why Senator Cruz and others voted against the legislation.

Senator Cruz was one of those that wanted a "clean" bill to vote on, which means no amendments attached, in other words legislation ONLY providing disaster relief for those impacted by Sandy.  According to a non partisan, independent study of the Hurricane Sandy relief legislation referenced in a January 2013 Time Magazine article there were ninety-two (92) non disaster related amendments "attached" (filed) to the Sandy Relief legislation.  They included $118 million dollars for upgrades to AMTRAK not related to storm damage, elimination of all foreign aide except to Israel and Pakistan, NASCAR Corporate Tax credits and much more.

 

The intent of Disaster Relief Legislation should be to provide monies to help those that were devastated by the storm, not a way for members of Congress to get monies for "PET" projects for their area that taxpayers would normally be against.

 

The problem with taking such a cheap shot at a candidate as is being done to Senator Cruz right now is that it takes away from what the concern should be, that is providing help to those that have lost their homes and in some cases loved ones.  The other problem is that later if one comes up with a legitimate complaint or issue of the candidate people won't give it the attention that maybe they should because your credibility is lacking with this kind of attack. 

 

We need to quit being Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, etc and start being good citizens!  We've got to quit having the goal of beating the other "guy" at all costs and instead set the goal of helping the other "guy" succeed along with us.  We need to take a trip down memory lane to when the prevailing philosophy was Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, instead of this screw the other guy I'm winning!

 

That's My Opinion, What's Yours?

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