Joe Momma

[Stephanie Gibson]

I received an email a few days ago from Officer Cody Long which had me a bit riled up. No, not an apology, oh no, it was only a polite response to my enquiry about the Shop with a Cop program. I didn’t expect a response from him of all people. Honestly, I have been battling the urge for the past few days to respond directly and go all 'Joe Momma' on him… [Warning: as a few can attest, it is not my best side but can be a very effective side when I only think about results I want.] Instead, I have decided to donate in the name of the good cops that have supported my family over the past 2 years.. And leave karma to deal with the rest in her own time..

Sent via Paypal:
I would like to donate $40 bucks in honor of Officer Cooper and Officer Fischer for the compassion and support they have shown my family. May others learn from their example, especially those that have strayed from their humanity and wish to find their way back. I am not interested in the tee shirts so please sell or donate them elsewhere.

P.S... Officer Long, it is Ms. Gibson to you. Thank you.

[Unregistered]

I received an email a few days ago from Officer Cody Long which had me a bit riled up. No, not an apology, oh no, it was only a polite response to my enquiry about the Shop with a Cop program. I didn’t expect a response from him of all people. Honestly, I have been battling the urge for the past few days to respond directly and go all 'Joe Momma' on him… [Warning: as a few can attest, it is not my best side but can be a very effective side when I only think about results I want.] Instead, I have decided to donate in the name of the good cops that have supported my family over the past 2 years.. And leave karma to deal with the rest in her own time..

Sent via Paypal:
I would like to donate $40 bucks in honor of Officer Cooper and Officer Fischer for the compassion and support they have shown my family. May others learn from their example, especially those that have strayed from their humanity and wish to find their way back. I am not interested in the tee shirts so please sell or donate them elsewhere.

P.S... Officer Long, it is Ms. Gibson to you. Thank you.

K-9 handler, enough said !!!!!!!!!!

[Stephanie Gibson]

Yesterday was a good day.. Joe and Erik went fishing in the morning.. his first time in over 2 years. He didn’t actually fish but he went and that is good progress. He got out of the house, near the water that he has fished for 25 years. We had dinner and sangria in the afternoon. Joe had a few beers. Donna came down for the afternoon, we hit the new and improved doggie park (Job well done North Port). It was a very good day.

Today, not so much. He didn’t sleep last night. It was a long night, he was rocking to the once country, now classical radio station. When I finally got to sleep, he took off walking. So it begins again. The last period he got through himself.. working it out with his muttering and pacing in the yard. His left toes are still numb and curled in, his gait is different. He has to tug his flips flops on. He walked for an hour.. The giggle in his eyes gone from the night before, he looks tired and slightly tormented. He is visiting the place he goes when I cant each him. He is amused and almost child-like. He s restless though.. coming and going all day. I hold my breath and wait for him to come home.. terrified someday he wont.

Please keep an open heart, should you see him wandering about.. Thank you.

[Stephanie Gibson]

Today, I have nothing but time on my hands, as we work through Joe’s current spell. He pushes me away in these times. He just tunes out into his own world. He will not sleep. He will not eat. . (I did manage to bait him with Publix carrot cake by leaving it out on the counter, my lost mouse could not refuse. Score one for momma.) He torments within his own mind then bursts into giggles that later he will try to mask, as if the laughter came out of nowhere and catches him off guard. It begins to piss him off, he coughs and pretends it was intentional, his torments increase. He really battles himself. You cannot imagine how that feels to a momma who watches helplessly. His attentions go elsewhere, I wish I could go there with him, to understand, to help him but I can’t. I am here, to watch and wait, to pray.. to call 9-1-1 if he goes to deep into that place…

While I wait, I consider how to change things, how to fix things clearly broken. I cannot change the road Joe leads me down but I can take on other things. I am very fortunate to have the job and flexibilities that affords me the dollars and time to care for him. Most are not that fortunate. They end up on the streets as fodder to those who would abuse them.

I do not know how police commands work. I do not know the good, from the bad policies and practices. I don’t pretend to know the complexities of the bargaining process. I do know this City has some serious issues to be corrected. I think we are missing accountability from Leadership. While my introduction to paying attention began at the PD, my concerns grow broader as I see where our government’s time and efforts are being directed. I watch the Commission bicker. The new City Attorney stepping in to greatly reduce our rights to access and influence. The day I decide to raise hell at City Hall, I will be sure to have cameras rolling so you can demonstrate to the world how your Napoleon rules can trump my First amendment rights. .. ohh better bring a forklift.. =)

The ever growing cost of Public Records is my first pet peeve, after the disturbing patterns of treatment toward the mentally ill. In the early days after Joe’s first event, I spent my hours roaming the net trying to find a magical pill that would cure my son, the system. What I have found is the ugly truth, there is no simple answer, except one. Take care of what and those you can.

I pulled a multi-year set of mentally ill calls by NPPD after I learned on LeoAffairs that No Po is quite crazy. Apparently, the guy knew what he was talking about. The City of North Port has a very high volume of Baker Act calls. Nearly 400 each year. That is over one call a day. I also pulled the related Use of Force against the mentally ill and I found some very disturbing patterns that needs to be recognized and addressed. Instead of directing taxpayer dollars to a very real problem, we rubberstamp a $200,000 SRT to increase the use of force and our Chief alludes to ISIS? Come on folks, we know you will face a mentally unstable person each day, wouldn’t our dollars be better directed there? On Crisis Intervention Team training, a 40 hour course that teaches our officers how to deescalate and reduce the force needed which has proven to less injuries to the ill and the officers. What about investing $200,000 into body cameras that will protect the officer, the citizenry and the City’s coffers as well. I am willing to bet by the time all of the Federal lawsuits settle.. we could have paid for all of the above and then some. Instead, I have to lay our hundreds of dollars to pull records for research to prove what frankly someone in the Admin. p should have recognized and already done. Is this why we want to push all the settlement approvals to Lewis? Keep all that dirty laundry up under the proverbial rug? The rug needs a good beating.

So todays rant comes to a close.. Captain Morales presented it. Chief passed it on to City Hall. The Commission rubber stamped it. City Hall is responsible for cleaning this mess up. I would have declined Chief Vespia’s SRT. At a minimum I would have delayed it until I was satisfied that the issues from past scandals had been addressed including the practices surrounding the K9 team, the Explorer program and the treatment of the mentally ill. I would have expected he would have been insisting that the core problem be identified and meaningful solutions be brought back for review. Perhaps, we could find meaningful change in the Org Structure… no wait, we sacrificed how many years of experience from screwing over the Lieutenants? We replace them with less experience, but doing virtually the same job. Our officers raises were delayed by years. We dumped the evidently successful ACO to save 11K .. exactly what problem did that solve? Hmmm in the Sept 2014 Draft the CPSM praised the LTs, so how does that change a month later in the final report? Do I have all the answers.. not even close. Something clearly stinks here and someone smarter than I needs to call them on it.

I do know enough that we better start holding those accountable and not hiring PR staff just to happy up the reputation… Instead lets simply recognize what is broken, fix it to stop the disasters from continuing, and move on with our head a little higher in pride in an improving City.

[Stephanie Gibson]

For the past few days, I watched and waited. I first notice something is amiss when my scheduled shows didn’t record. I knew then, Joe was deconstructing his room again. Clothes dumped in the garage, tv cable box unplugged… I used to try and stop him but now I let him go through it. Later, he took off on foot.. I did a perimeter check.. Pulling out the hard drive and dvd components that he neatly arranged in the garbage can. I find the rest of laptop pieces and tuck them out of sight until it is time to go through the reconstruct phase of the spell. He slept last night and the mood settling, distracted but in a happier place, closer to peace. We are working on putting everything back together again.. At least the house will get dusted in the process… =)


I tried to spend an evening understanding the recent PD reorganization to address some serious issues.. From my perspective, it appears to have been hastily deconstructed and reconstructed as it does not to appear to resolve the reasons we went down the $60K outside study for. For the life of me, I cannot see how any of the changes will address any of the original issues. It seems we have a bridge to nowhere…


Recently, Chief Vespia invited me to publically share my story at an acute care meeting to be held at PD. I accepted and did so. In fact, in the spirit of transparency, I will continue to share so your officers come to know Joe as an individual and his ways, to see the real plight of this side of the very real issues of LEOs and the Mentally Ill.


So now I will ask the same of you Chief Vespia, can you publically share your positions on a myriad of issues.. I am interested in your position on body cameras and CIT... but I think a good place to start would be to help us understand the Reorganization how and whys here. Certainly, your staff and the public are at a loss to understand maybe you can build a bridge here for us follow to where you are trying to take us. So I would challenge the PD Admin to use this forum or facebook or the Herald Tribune to open a transparent conversation about the Reorganization with the public, press and officers whose morale is in sore need of improvement. Explain to us how wiping out the protected Lieutenant position and replacing with a lateral position of Commander lesser experienced resources and one former LIEutenant will improve the scandals that have plagued this department too long without anyone being held responsible for their actions? Perhaps, we are all wrong and it was not a PR stunt, to rid the City of the costly LTs class, leaving the implication they were the root cause of all the problems the PD has endured and the rest of the dirty scandals will remain under the filthy rug… We both know that is not the case and I for one, will not be hushed..

[Unregistered]

For the past few days, I watched and waited. I first notice something is amiss when my scheduled shows didn’t record. I knew then, Joe was deconstructing his room again. Clothes dumped in the garage, tv cable box unplugged… I used to try and stop him but now I let him go through it. Later, he took off on foot.. I did a perimeter check.. Pulling out the hard drive and dvd components that he neatly arranged in the garbage can. I find the rest of laptop pieces and tuck them out of sight until it is time to go through the reconstruct phase of the spell. He slept last night and the mood settling, distracted but in a happier place, closer to peace. We are working on putting everything back together again.. At least the house will get dusted in the process… =)


I tried to spend an evening understanding the recent PD reorganization to address some serious issues.. From my perspective, it appears to have been hastily deconstructed and reconstructed as it does not to appear to resolve the reasons we went down the $60K outside study for. For the life of me, I cannot see how any of the changes will address any of the original issues. It seems we have a bridge to nowhere…


Recently, Chief Vespia invited me to publically share my story at an acute care meeting to be held at PD. I accepted and did so. In fact, in the spirit of transparency, I will continue to share so your officers come to know Joe as an individual and his ways, to see the real plight of this side of the very real issues of LEOs and the Mentally Ill.


So now I will ask the same of you Chief Vespia, can you publically share your positions on a myriad of issues.. I am interested in your position on body cameras and CIT... but I think a good place to start would be to help us understand the Reorganization how and whys here. Certainly, your staff and the public are at a loss to understand maybe you can build a bridge here for us follow to where you are trying to take us. So I would challenge the PD Admin to use this forum or facebook or the Herald Tribune to open a transparent conversation about the Reorganization with the public, press and officers whose morale is in sore need of improvement. Explain to us how wiping out the protected Lieutenant position and replacing with a lateral position of Commander lesser experienced resources and one former LIEutenant will improve the scandals that have plagued this department too long without anyone being held responsible for their actions? Perhaps, we are all wrong and it was not a PR stunt, to rid the City of the costly LTs class, leaving the implication they were the root cause of all the problems the PD has endured and the rest of the dirty scandals will remain under the filthy rug… We both know that is not the case and I for one, will not be hushed..

actually stephanie, he promoted two of the Lts to commander, one other refused to be demoted and resigned and another in the drop retirement, who by the way is a great guy and leader, was demoted with 22 yrs on and put on days. No the problem was not with the Lts who by the way were forced to work day shift only, as are the commanders now. Nothing has changed, his cronies got promoted and given huge raises. There is no explanation or reasoning other than retaliation and retribution against those who dare defy him, A child's mentality at best.

[Unregistered]

actually stephanie, he promoted two of the Lts to commander, one other refused to be demoted and resigned and another in the drop retirement, who by the way is a great guy and leader, was demoted with 22 yrs on and put on days. No the problem was not with the Lts who by the way were forced to work day shift only, as are the commanders now. Nothing has changed, his cronies got promoted and given huge raises. There is no explanation or reasoning other than retaliation and retribution against those who dare defy him, A child's mentality at best.

Actually he promoted 1 lieutenant. Another refused to cowtow to him and be a non-protected suck ass. One retired rather than get demoted to sergeant and the other was also denied promotion and was demoted to sgt. There were over 40 years of service to NPPD in just 2 of those Lt's that were denied the new position. Think about this, every leader should be able to mentor their people to move up and take on supervisory positions within their departments. Apparently this isn't the case with Keven as he had to go outside the department for several positions to fill his new top heavy plans while shorting the road and detective bureaus. The people that had proven to be leaders were tossed aside without cause because he felt they didn't do what he did to get to his position by sucking ass. Don't blame those lieutenants for his screw ups he just found a way to screw the pooch by failing to fund their position.

[Unregistered]

Actually he promoted 1 lieutenant. Another refused to cowtow to him and be a non-protected suck ass. One retired rather than get demoted to sergeant and the other was also denied promotion and was demoted to sgt. There were over 40 years of service to NPPD in just 2 of those Lt's that were denied the new position. Think about this, every leader should be able to mentor their people to move up and take on supervisory positions within their departments. Apparently this isn't the case with Keven as he had to go outside the department for several positions to fill his new top heavy plans while shorting the road and detective bureaus. The people that had proven to be leaders were tossed aside without cause because he felt they didn't do what he did to get to his position by sucking ass. Don't blame those lieutenants for his screw ups he just found a way to screw the pooch by failing to fund their position.

How is it that this does not raise serious leadership questions at this department? 3 of 4 top ranking officers did not move up. One chose to retire, on refused the promotion, and the other was not chosen. Makes you wonder why the 4th was and took the promotion. There are some really large red flags there.

[Stephanie Gibson]

Maybe they needed to keep his LIE skills around?

[Unregistered]

Maybe they needed to keep his LIE skills around?

All admin did was fill the spots with yes men. The three bald ones don't have any balls and will not stand up for anything. They will do as told because they are weak.