{"id":39763,"date":"2023-12-04T11:48:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T16:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=39763"},"modified":"2023-12-04T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T16:49:12","slug":"grady-judds-spy-plane-was-removed-from-the-consent-agenda-now-delay-the-vote-and-provide-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/12\/04\/grady-judds-spy-plane-was-removed-from-the-consent-agenda-now-delay-the-vote-and-provide-details\/","title":{"rendered":"Grady Judd’s spy plane was removed from the consent agenda. Now delay the vote and provide details."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The sheriff must publicly explain what his spy satellite can see; and who has access to the feed at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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Would you trust\u00a0me\u00a0with my own personal, military-grade spy satellite, with which I can track your license plate and movements and actions in real-time, with no oversight and no written rules or guidelines of use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who would you trust less? Me or Sheriff Grady Judd, who loves a prurient press conference the way most people love a spouse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you trust\u00a0anyone\u00a0\u2014 much less a bunch of young men \u2014 with the capability to snoop silently from above on any intimate moment on your property with detailed imagery or look into your bedroom through a roof with thermal technology? Do you trust political allies\u00a0of the Zieglers\u00a0with this kind of intrusive, personal space-invading capability?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are questions I would like to ask the Polk County Commission on Tuesday about the $3-$5 million spy plane Grady Judd wants the taxpayers to buy him so he can spy on them without any apparent oversight or explanation. Unfortunately, work commitments I cannot avoid will prevent me from attending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could attend if the vote is delayed to the next meeting, as it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delay the vote. Make Grady explain the plane\u2019s capabilities and oversight to the public, in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know that the Kodiak 100 \u201cIntelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance\u201d platform, which can \u201cloiter\u201d for hours at a time above your house undetected, can do all of what I theorized above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I don\u2019t know that it can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I do know that Grady Judd is an aggressive, camera-lusting politician with dictator instincts before he\u2019s a law enforcement officer; that he campaigns in uniform; and that he insults and disparages the citizens he is supposed to protect if they are not politically correct in his view; and that he does not believe he ever has to explain himself to the public as long as he can try to entertain them with tired, lurid provocation.  There are many other places all of this is documented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s important and good that GOP County Commissioner Bill Braswell says he has asked to remove the spy plane from the County Commission\u2019s consent agenda for its Tuesday meeting. Braswell told me this Saturday evening. He said he actually asked to remove it Friday after the County Commission briefly touched on it at an \u201cagenda study\u201d meeting without the sheriff present.\u00a0Here\u2019s the link\u00a0to the meeting video. The discussion starts at 55:56.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions the sheriff must answer personally<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removing the spy plane from the consent agenda forces elected county commissioners to consider it as its own agenda item. When buried in consent, it\u2019s approved without discussion along with many other \u201cminor\u201d or perfunctory items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that Grady and whoever put the commission agenda together buried this expensive spy plane on a list of perfunctory, no-need-to-discuss items shows how little confidence they have in their ability to justify it it to the public who must pay for it \u2014 and suffer the intrusion on its constitutional rights to privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiding this on consent protects the spy plane and sheriff from public scrutiny by giving the public no real notice that this is happening. It is hard to rearrange one\u2019s schedule to miss work on a 48-hour whim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the questions I would ask tomorrow at the commission meeting if I could attend:<\/p>\n\n\n\n