{"id":39698,"date":"2023-12-02T12:10:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T17:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=39698"},"modified":"2023-12-02T12:10:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T17:10:58","slug":"take-air-grady-judds-5m-loitering-spy-plane-off-the-consent-agenda-county-commissioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/12\/02\/take-air-grady-judds-5m-loitering-spy-plane-off-the-consent-agenda-county-commissioners\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Air Grady Judd’s $5M “loitering” spy plane off the consent agenda, county commissioners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sheriff Showtime is about to spend up to $5M of your money on something built to surveil you. And the County Commission has buried it deeeeeep in its consent agenda. Nice job, George, Neil, etc. LOL.\\<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By BILLY TOWNSEND<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is item <\/a>23:3901<\/a> <\/strong>on the Polk County Commission\u2019s consent agenda for December 5th\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Request the Board approve a transfer from reserves to the Sheriff\u2019s Budget for the purchase of a Kodiak fixed-wing aircraft and imaging system. (Up to $5,000,000 one-time expense)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s it. LOL. There is no other explanation on the agenda item. And it is literally buried at the bottom of the consent agenda. See below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That means your Polk County Commission plans to approve this \u201cfixed-wing aircraft and imaging system\u201d along with the rest of the consent agenda as its first official act during Tuesday\u2019s meeting with\u00a0zero<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0public discussion or questioning or explanation. Petty dictatorships are funny things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t even have enough information to know what type of \u201cKodiak fixed-wing aircraft and imaging system\u201d Sheriff Showtime is forcing us to buy so that he can \u201cimage\u201d us more crisply.\u00a0My best guess is this, the Kodiak 100.<\/a>\u00a0See\u00a0the video and info here<\/a>\u00a0and below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can loiter virtually undetected for up to 10 hours at very slow speeds\u201d<\/strong> seems noteworthy \u2014 as does the ISR acronym, which means \u201cIntelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA stealthy and effective ISR tool\u201d for what missions, exactly, Grady?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So let\u2019s recap: Grady is about to spend $5M of your money on a Kodiak platform so he can loiter over your backyard pool undetected for hours and \u201cimage\u201d you and your loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe, it will \u201cloiter\u201d over the next peaceful protest he pretends is a riot and \u201cimage\u201d your faces so he can order deputies to hunt you down like he did with the panty-tossing lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the \u201cimaging\u201d technology see through walls and read thermal signatures inside homes, in bedrooms, etc.? I bet it can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are all as plausible as any other ISR \u201cmission\u201d Grady has told us he plans to fly with this $5M dictatorship toy. (He has told us about\u00a0none<\/em><\/strong>.) Keep in mind, this is the same Sheriff Showtime\u00a0who claims body cameras on police officers are an invasion of the public\u2019s privacy.\u00a0<\/a>LOL. It seems like a fleet of drones would at least be cheaper than this Rolls-Royce of government snooping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly, I suspect this plane comes from the same tendency to dictatorship, personal indulgence, and self-aggrandizement that leads Grady to surround himself with a cordon of deputies at any outdoor public event to prevent Antifa from making a run at him or something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What an over-the-hill joke he is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the point of your public existence, Neil Combee, Martha Santiago, George Lindsay, Rick Wilson, and Bill Braswell?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would appeal to the sense of shame or dignity or, even, perish the thought, duty<\/em><\/strong> elected Polk County commissioners might feel to represent the public\u2019s fiscal and privacy interests in this dictatorship toy transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what\u2019s the point?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to tell<\/em><\/strong> George Lindsay a $5M domestic spy plane purchase shouldn\u2019t be on the consent agenda? I have to tell<\/em><\/strong> Bill Braswell that he should at least make Grady explain exactly what he plans to do with dictatorship toy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is beyond embarrassing. George and Neil, I know you hate each other. But is there any chance either of you would have let a $5M spy plane pass on the consent agenda a decade ago? What happened to ya\u2019ll? You were formidable once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dudes \u2014 and dudette \u2014 I went toe-to-toe with Grady Judd at the peak of his power in public after Parkland and won<\/em><\/strong>. Polk County public school teachers are not<\/em><\/strong> packing heat today. And nobody\u2019s punished me for it yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This deteriorating shell of Grady\u2019s former self is not worth your fear. Do your jobs. Make him justify his $5 million dictatorship toy in public. And if he doesn\u2019t have a good explanation, tell him No for once in his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheriff Showtime is about to spend up to $5M of your money on something built to surveil you. And the County Commission has buried it deeeeeep in its consent agenda.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[6925,6924],"class_list":["post-39698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","tag-county-commissioners","tag-take-air-grady-judds-5m-loitering-spy-plane-off-the-consent-agenda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39704,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39698\/revisions\/39704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}