Happy New Year Everyone!
This Blog will be of a slightly different tone than my past blogs.
This Sunday, my family and I decided to go for a fishing day at John U. Lloyd State Park down here in South Florida and became targets of a traffic ticket entrapment scheme. My family and I drove into the entrance of the park when suddenly I saw a police vehicle from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) on the side of the road with its flashing lights on. I slowed down and pulled over slightly as I passed the vehicle. Immediately, there was another officer standing in the middle of the road, directing me to turn off the road into a parking lot. Another officer came to my window and asked me why I failed to slow down and move over when I saw the police vehicle on the side of the road. When I answered that I did, he asked me for my license and registration. He walked away and while I was waiting for him, I noticed there were four cars in front of me, also waiting or speaking with officers….and I also noticed 3 more cars pull up behind me with officers approaching those cars. At this point, I started feeling like something was amiss. After about 10 minutes, the officer returned to my car with a $165 traffic ticket that stated “25 in 35, Failure to Move Over.” I was very angry. I came to this park to have a relaxing day with my family fishing and end up with a $165 ticket for doing nothing wrong and EVERYTHING RIGHT!
Needless to say, I left the scene and parked a ways off but watched. For 3 hours, this crew of officers pulled over car after car after car. They must have written between 50 to 100 tickets during the time that I watched.
There were around 10 officers involved in this sting operation. I inquired a number of them of their names and Id numbers. Some were friendly and cooperative and others were threatening and uncooperative. .
I believe that myself and many other people were innocent prey of an unethical, abusive entrapment sting and these officers and this event need to be investigated, these officers need to be reprimanded and/or punished and we, the innocent citizens, need to be exonerated of these traffic tickets.
The next day, I wrote a letter describing the situation and sent it to our local newspaper (The Sun-Sentinel), Ch. 4 News, Ch. 6 News, Ch.7 News, Ch.10 News, Ch. 33 News and to the person in charge at the FWC.
The day after that I received a call from a reporter at the Sun-Sentinel. He told me that this was a story he had been working on and that my letter tied all together for him. He interviewed me and this Sunday there will be a full spread in the Sun Sentinel.
Never remain quiet when you feel something is wrong. BE BOLD! STEP UP! SPEAK UP! Change is only made by the BOLD!
With Love and Appreciation,
Dr Barry