Polk Sheriff Grady Judd announces that he’s coming for your pregnancies and miscarriages

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.

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.