Written by Billy Townsend
Enforcing “life begins with conception” requires surveillance of every pregnancy and a death investigation of every miscarriage. Tell us how you plan to do it in a press conference, Sheriff Judd.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd oversaw a 70 percent Polk County murder rate spike in 2020 — the largest of any big county in Florida. All he could think to say or do about it was pleading with people to chill out and “eat a moon pie.” [2021 was bad too, but we haven’t seen the official numbers yet.]
And Sheriff Judd is so afraid — or so sympathetic — to cop-beating Capitol Lynch Mob fugitive Jonathan Pollack of unincorporated Lakeland that he refuses to lift a finger or open his mouth in public to help the FBI catch him.
By striking contrast, Sheriff Judd believes very strongly in criminalizing women and girls — including rape and incest victims — who end pregnancies, along with anyone who helps them.
Sheriff Judd believes in it so strongly — and has so little to do here in Polk County — that he traveled to Hillsborough County a few days ago to help Ron DeSantis campaign for the 2024 GOP presidential campaign, yet again, in his disgraced uniform.
This time the DeSantis ‘24 campaign officially spit on the sovereignty of the people of Hillsborough County by illegally removing twice-elected State Attorney Andrew Warren. DeSantis did this because he supposedly does not consider Warren bloodthirsty enough in prosecuting rape victims who end their pregnancies. But DeSantis actually did it just to own the libs and out-position Trump in ‘24. (Does anybody really think DeSantis would have any problem with any abortion that would personally benefit him or his family? Selfishness is the only DeSantis ideology.)
Warren had signed a complex statement about applying “discretion” in prosecuting pregnancy termination cases. Read it yourself.
DeSantis removed him for it.
We’ll see if Florida’s corrupt and captured state courts uphold the decision. If so, it effectively ends the right of the people of any county to elect any of their own local officials. You should pay attention, Joe Tedder, Lori Edwards, etc.
But that’s a discussion for another time.
Too afraid to answer, Sheriff?
What I want to know now as a citizen of Polk County — as a husband, father, brother, and son — is how Grady Judd plans, operationally, to enforce the criminalization of rape victims and other women who end pregnancies at scale.
So I sent the sheriff and his spokespeople some specific questions several days ago. Here they are:
The sheriff obviously takes the punishment of girls and women who have abortions very seriously. I have questions:
— Has he detailed an abortion hunting unit yet? Will it be similar to child protection units? How many detectives/deputies will be committed to it?
— Has he begun to collect data from hospitals on pregnancy and miscarriage? He needs to verify that every miscarriage is, in fact, a miscarriage, correct? Are the hospitals cooperating?
— Does the sheriff consider every miscarriage or non-viable fetus after 15 weeks a death investigation?
— Why does the sheriff consider Jonathan Pollock and his many relatives not worth helping the FBI or having a press conference to denounce the people obviously helping cover for him?
I’d like answers to these questions. I’m sure the sheriff will be lobbying the governor soon to illegally remove local elected officials he doesn’t like from office, too. People should know his standards.
You’ll be shocked to learn that the big talking, camera-hog sheriff, who left his jurisdiction to help illegally fire another county’s elected official, hasn’t worked up the courage to answer my questions in writing.
I expect he never will. Prove me wrong, Sheriff Moon Pie.
And let me ask Grady’s deputies something: is hunting rape victims who end pregnancies so your boss can preen on TV what ya’ll signed up for when you went into law enforcement “to protect and serve?” Look at what your boss says he expects to make you do.
Every miscarriage demands a death investigation if “life begins at conception”
If the sheriff doesn’t have these plans in place, DeSantis should also remove him office for laxity in enforcement — along with every other law enforcement leader who doesn’t have abortion hunting units in place.
If the sheriff isn’t going to track every pregnancy and investigate every miscarriage after 15 weeks, he’s not enforcing “the law” and should be removed from office under this new DeSantis “standard.”
Moreover, Republicans clearly plan to make all of Florida’s 80,000 annual abortions criminal if Ron DeSantis wins re-election.
Not one Republican I’ve seen will say they won’t. And they just keep repeating the nonsense phrase “life begins at conception,” which means they consider all terminated pregnancies pre-meditated child murder. That is what fetal personhood means.
I’ve found, over the years, that Sheriff Judd is willing to write big checks with his mouth that he’s unwilling to cash with actual enforcement when called on it.
Well, as of last week, the sheriff’s big mouth clearly prioritizes the rights of a rapist/ incest dad to reproduce over a girl’s or a woman’s right to live. That’s just a cold fact and a big check. He was happy to cheerlead while DeSantis cashed it for him in Hillsborough County.
But Grady is the sheriff of Polk County.
And back here, he’s quiet as a church mouse about his support for rapists’ pro-creation rights — and the policing resources required to enforce them.
Editor’s Note: The views expressed by Billy Townsend do not necessarily reflect those held by the staff of the Lakeland Gazette. The Gazette provides a venue for people to express their opinions concerning any subject matter and presents this as “opinion,” not news.
I thought it was satire but no. Sherriff Judd gave full run of the county to the political muscle enforcement arm of the Democrats. I’m just one case letting 75 armed officers, 2 armored vehicles, 2 helicopters & 1 surveillance plane. Surround a house at 5:30 AM flash bang the house. Take young children & women at gunpoint & handcuff and make stand outside in thier night clothing, while sending in drones & flash bang grenadines in the house. All that muscle & money to get 1 young kids for what amounts to trespassing & disorderly conduct. Something that anywhere else in the USA would be a bench warrant served by one officer. Then the FBI intimidating other family & friends looking for information on one person who has never been in trouble & does lots of charity & mission work. And endangering him by calling him armed & dangerous with no evidence to support the claim. It’s craziness coming into our county & I wish Sherriff Judd would stop them from harassing his people & handle it himself and send them home to DC, Admittedly by the FBI that all those involved are good law abiding citizens & serve the community & never been in trouble. But they must be punished for showing up on Jan 6, and An example made of them. Because the DOJ can’t have people questioning weather DC HIDING EVIDENCE OF A STOLEN ELECTION. Weather it’s true or not, they don’t want it questioned. As for the Abortion claims, I don’t believe you can say that old standard argument that raped or incest pregnant women can’t get abortions because it’s just not truthful !
Please learn to spell and use proper grammar. Your ignorance is shining like a light.
Yeah, he likes to toot his horn and watch himself on TV, but what he really loves is that check that he gets from the NRA, the pubs are bought and paid for with the blood money of the NRA!
Show me the evidence. This is not true. And the PCSO does not do raids without justification.
So Jim, can you enlighten us all to what is so bad about the NRA? Please elaborate on the accusations that you are throwing out there? What blood money? Or are you just repeating Liberal talking points because you cannot think for yourself?
Billy Townsend is a radical liberal who is 100% a lunatic! Abortion is murder Billy. Stop worshipping Satan and get your head into the bible. Life begins at conception, day 1. So, killing the child inside is still murder and we cannot take another life illegally. Your articles are a joke and people think that you are crazy. Your writing is just your thoughts with baseless facts and continued nonsense. We would love for you to move out of Lakeland and just move to Tampa to be with the liberals who love Biden and this wonderful economy. If you think that Biden is legit, I have some swamp land here in Polk County that I’d like to sell to you for 3 million dollars. You are just an idiot.
Couldn’t find anything in the bible about life beginning at conception. You must have the GOP version.
Thou shall not kill
Jeremiah 1: 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
It also says in Deuteronomy 24
16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin
thank you.. god bless
Not if you’re Jewish and in this country, we have a first amendment freedom of religion and in MY religion, life begins at birth. Totally unconstitutional to push your Christianity on others.
if anyone takes this lunatic seriously needs to be medicated and committed! Billy Townsend is a liberal twit with anger issues. He is fake news and just a pain in the ass. His articles are always false and not fact based. His thoughts are of an athiest and Satanist. God says that a baby is life. Life begins at conception! Abortion is murder. I guess Billy cannot add 2 plus 2! And DeSantis never said that he is running for president. He is running 2022 as the Governor Billy is such a liar! This article should be taken down because it is just lie after lie after lie. Billy needs to move to NY where he will be with the likeminded in The Village. He can be gay, proud and loud all he wants in NYC!!!! Shut up Billy because Lakeland is sick and tired of your BS and lies!
The last time I checked love is love and it doesn’t matter who you love. Now, if you had any common sense and weren’t 100% blind and naive you would see that Grady Judd is a brown nosed Trump, DeSatan ass kiss. If a woman miscarries she goes through so much emotional trauma, not to mention the natural trauma that she has to endure while going through the actual miscarriage. How dare ANY MAN tell a woman that had a miscarriage that he is going to launch a death investigation. Our 8th amendment (guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment) to make a woman go through that is in fact cruel and unusual. Rich, white, straight men still trying to control women and their rights. By the way I am a straight, white, woman that is open minded, I have no use for close minded asinine comments.
At the end of a diatribe of closed-minded statements, Jasmine professes to have no tolerance for closed-minded people. How ironic.
You mean like your asinine close-minded long winded ignorant comment?
Billy is entitled to his opinion, such as it is.
Since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, each state and county has to wrangle out what the limitations are for legal abortion in their localities. Some states shall remove legal sanction for abortion altogether, while others will allow it under certain conditions.
Since conception via rape is rare and statistically accounts for few pregnancies, painting a picture of a Polk County rife with dozens of pregnant rape victims being hunted down by sheriff deputies is the kind of emotional argumentation best left to the Lunatic Left.
Sober analysis of the issue of just how many women who end up becoming pregnant due to rape yearly in Polk County will produce a number so low as to not be a sufficient basis for crafting public policy.
Voters vote and send lawmakers to the state house to craft laws and to Washington to do the same at the federal level.
Because the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion to the states by overturning Roe, who you vote for as your lawmakers is more important than ever when it comes to the abortion issue.
Sheriff Grady Judd neither writes laws nor does he interpret them. His job is to enforce the laws as written. If Florida or Polk County lawmakers have passed a law stating since life begins at conception, having a miscarriage should result in a criminal investigation by local law enforcement, I must have missed that.
It appears to me Billy is seeing something that isn’t quite there. It doesn’t logically follow that a belief that human life begins at conception means every miscarriage has to be investigated as a potential criminal act.
This appears to be the worst sort of emotionally charged rhetoric designed to provoke a response rather than illuminate a real issue.
Our very own Sheriff of Nottingham!
That was the most intelligent, composed response to this I’ve ever seen. Absolutely spot on! THANK YOU!
Any newspaper who would have Billy Townsend on its staff is worthy of the designation of “Mullet Wrapper of the Year” if their is such a thing. This man has personally attacked the head of one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the Nation. Has Billy Townsend no shame. Polk County is blessed to have such a fine Sheriff as Grady Judd.
Billy Townsend is NOT on our staff
It sure looks like he is.
It literally says “LETTERS” in all caps. Lol are you unfamiliar with letters to the editor?
Then why isn’t he going after the Pollocks? If he were more than a republican “Big Shot” he would. But he’d rather do it the PUTIN WAY!!!! Selective criminalization. F..k the people and the democracy. I want another paycheck from NRA !!!!
It’s about time someone called out the b.s. going on in Polk county. Grady Judd is a Tyrant! Total abuse of power and just trying to get his name on the news again. Ridiculous!
I can see Tara doesn’t understand how to fact check. This is why our country is i the shape it is in, because people just blindly believe everything on the internet.
Well said Lynn.
If Billy Townsend is not on your staff then why did you publish such garbage that comes out of his mouth!!!! He got called out from the school board and now jealousy has showed his face. Right down pathetic.
It’s his point of view that got you to comment on our website. Think about that!!!!!
Well, we do have to respond and point out the sheer ignorance of this fake story.
It’s all about the clicks, Tabitha. They don’t care if it’s true or not so long as people are clicking on their site. Sad isn’t it?
I wonder if Mr Judd is spending that much time training his Deputies on a active shooter scenario. Or are they going to run like the Officers in Texas.
You should try to approach a Polk County school with ill intentions and that ignorant question would be answered. This is just another liberal hack job going after conservatives. Stop believing everything you read on the interwebs. Geesh
Just one of the many things that needs to be pointed out on Grady Judd’s actions, abuse of power and downright murderer. He specifically targets drug dealers, and uses every excuse possible to shoot and kill them first. Somethings gotta be done and someone has to have enough courage to stand up against him. Otherwise it’s going to continue to keep happening.
Ok Billy, name one instance, just one…..that PCSO shot a drug dealer instead of arresting them? Just one unjustifiable instance? Because of what I do for a living, I know for a fact your comment is 100% false.
In most communities, the death of a drug dealer is preferable to the multiple deaths of young adults due to fentynal-lacing and murders/injuries inflicted by crazed meth addicts. Keep up the good work Sheriff Judd!
This is just a nut job trying to make a name for himself. This article is all opinion, no validity or facts.
Townsend is entitled to his own opinion, not his own facts. Irresponsible move publishing this trash
Oh good grief Townsend, get a grip, write a book.
It is sad that we have so much crime in Polk County, yet, harassing women and medical professionals is a priority. Her body her choice.
Who is harassing women and medical professionals? All I ever see in regards to any of that topic is the anti-abortion protesters that show up at the Lakeland Clinic once a month. I just ignore them.
If we take away good men like Grady Judd from you bleeding heart liberals you would be over run within weeks if not days with crime that you then begin to complain about! The sad thing in this country is that people like you Mr. Townsend, take for granted the good men and women that keep this country free and running smoothly just so folks, like yourself, can take advantage of it and disgrace it!! You journalists, and I do mean you journalists, think that all anyone wants to see anymore is every evil thing you can portray in front of the world! Evil is all you want to broadcast. Here’s an idea, how about you stop complaining and help the rest of us find resolutions to issues instead of just whining about it! This article is based on absolutely NO facts at all! Other than Grady Judd did say eat a moon pie! That was a good sheriff stating in laymen terms for everyone to just calm down and get along! There is a reason the man has been sheriff for so long…he’s good at what he does and he is loved by the people of his county! Who is your idea of Sheriff? John Kerry or Hillary Clinton! I will be sure to never waste my time again reading any of your opinion pieces (that was my fault).
It is generally agreed that any and all opinions have a right to be expressed and I understand that some that are printed by the Gazette might generate clicks that also, might generate future advertising dollars. However, because of your printing Townsend’s article, I will look at any future articles with considerably less credibility than I might have had in the past. That is sad because I was hoping that the Gazette might be a reasonably accurate source of local news. Now, I do not!
It’s a letter. He has the right to express his opinion. Just like you do. Townsend does not work for us. Printing a controversial letter is sometimes important to do because the Ledger won’t do it.
This author is a clown and apparently has never studied logic.
The nutcase that puts this rag on the Internet just plain doesn’t like Sheriff Grady Judd. And, that’s his opinion to have whether it’s right or wrong. It’s just that no matter what Judd may or may not do is irrelevant since it’s going to be wrong in his eyes regardless………..the thing is, the majority of Polk Countians like and trust him, as do I. I guess the majority must be wrong about Judd since we think (unlike the author of this drivel) that Judd does a damn fine job. I guess the author doesn’t realize that LEO’S have to enforce the law whether they approve of the law or not.