Two white men shot dead in Newtown

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110416/BREAKING/110419612/2416/NEWS?Title=Sarasota-homicide-update-victims-did-not-live-in-the-area

Way to go BB It's a sad day when two young men on vacation men are gunned down in Sarasota. It's too bad the cops are not allowed to be cops anymore...

What in the world were they doing up there? I was going to make an assumption,but I'm sure everyone would guess what it was. Instead I'm hoping that, for some reason, it would have been wrong. I hope it would have been. Find these scumbag killers and fkn hang em! WTF is going on in this world!

A 16-year-old teen was arrested this weekend in connection with the shooting deaths of two British men.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110416/BREAKING/110419612/2416/NEWS?Title=UPDATE-Arrest-made-in-Sarasota-homicide-

What does it matter why the two murdered men were in Newtown? If a turist(s) was gunned down on Arlington St. would our papers and PIO ask what were they doing on Arlington St.?

It doesn't matter. Those two men were victims no matter what their reasons for being in the area yet our city and media are taking away from the victims' senseless deaths by blatantly implying that they had no business being in that part of town. We are always told that Newtown is a community in Sarasota like any other community until someone is murdered then it's the victim's fault for being in "that" part of town.

Not to mention, not even 24 hours later another person gets shot off of 29th St. with 15 cops two blocks away on Mlk Blvd.

Let's blame the victims not the fact that the ridiculous increase in gun violence in the city/ wild west.

"UK friends killed in Florida gangland" this is the headline in the The London Times. lets keep cutting Bartolotta. this will be great for tourism in the future.

Bobo will destroy this community, and then move on to the next community, where he will start his process over.

[COPONE]

Our city has really become a joke. Since when, as along as I can remember in recent years, that the Mayor speaks at a news conference concerning a double homicide. In addition, they've turned a double murder into a political issue, an economic issue, a social issue, and a miniority issue, not to mention a police staffing issue.
You could have a perfect city and still have had this happen.......let's not dwell on the outside the box issues, and dwell of keeping this thug in jail and convicted with the death penalty.

The killing of two men from Britain in Sarasota over the weekend and the subsequent arrest of 16-year-old Shawn Tyson are getting prominent attention from British tabloid websites, sparking concern that international tourists might be scared away from visiting the area.

A judge today ordered the boy held as a juvenile until prosecutors decide whether to charge him as an adult, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reported.

....This morning, Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirschner appeared at a news conference of local, state and international media to address tourist concerns.

Kirschner said he wanted to assure visitors that Sarasota is not a dangerous place and the killings of the Cooper and Kouzaris was an isolated incident which "does not speak for the city as a whole."

Sarasota tourism officials moved quickly to counter any negative reaction to the shootings from Great Britain, said Virginia Haley, president of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The agency today had its public relations firm in London contact major tour groups there to let people know the killings were an isolated incident.

Various British tabloids describe the neighborhood as crime-ridden, notorious for gang activity and a gangland hotspot.

The Guardian said Kouzaris was on a three-week vacation and had been traveling since 2009. The paper cited Kouzaris' Facebook page that showed he had visited Bali, Laos and South America.

He recently returned to Great Britain before leaving for America with Cooper, the paper reported.

The Mirror said Cooper was a tennis coach who took a two-week vacation to the United States.


http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/apr/18/181429/sarasota-tourist-shootings-make-headlines-in-briti/

The News, national and international, have made this a big story that could economically hurt Sarasota. I would hope city leaders would address it.

Under a bold headline "Gunned down in the Ghetto," British tabloid Daily Mail devoted its whole front page to the weekend double murder, which also drew prominent and sometimes salacious coverage in other British national newspapers and in TV and radio broadcasts.

The harsh descriptions have put Sarasota officials into full damage-control mode to protect the city's reputation as a sunny, sandy tourism haven.

Mayor Kelly Kirschner spoke on BBC radio, and in Britain, a city-funded PR firm is working to combat the image "that a pair of British tourists were slaughtered after being lured into a car and taken to a gang of killers in a deadly ambush," as one British newspaper reported.

"We're seeing these sensational stories coming out of some of the British tabloids that this is a gangland type of thing and rampant violence," Kirschner told BBC radio.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110419/ARTICLE/110419438/2416/NEWS?Title=Tourism-officials-scramble-to-protect-Sarasota-s-reputation-in-UK

WOW, how many people in that area need to die before the city puts enough police there to make a difference? Maybe Miss Langston and all her posse can fix the problem. Maybe since Freddd is leaving someone can finally help and fix the problem.....

I see Kelly Kirshner's pearly white azz out in the projects every Fri., Sat., and Sun., let's not forget Ladies Night and any night Club Manhattan has anything going on, oh wait no I have NEVER seen any elected official out in the area described in these articles. Frankly the British Newspapers have described the area much more honestly than I have ever read in any of the local news papers. The place is a dump, the individuals out on the street between 0000 and 0500 are mostly scum bags/criminals, there are multiple zoning violations/city code issues that are repeatidly sent to Mr. Gillespie, and we know how that goes down, right into the circular file. We have no CRT/NET/SCU/Saber/Community policing units working past midnight to address when the actual crimes occurs. The City is all about APPEARENCES and not addressing the actual issue. Well I guess a nice kick in the junk from the International press was in order. You earned it Kelly and Klan, great job! I wonder what new retarded policing ideas City Hall will come up with now, I would hate to live in a Southside neighborhood because any policing services they had are about to be once again gobbled up by the black hole of the City: Gangland Newtown, land of welfare, housing projects, and dope dealers! I love it! Cause it's true............

Hey I agree with everything you had said except the SCU/CRT poke. The SCU guys don't mind working late on the block since they all have spent the majority if not entire career in Newtown. However, as shown last weekend and I'm sure a repeat this weekend, SCU along with K-9 and Traffic, for at least Sunday since only SCU is re-assigned for both nights both weekends, will babysit "the block." What is interesting is that last weekend on Friday night only 5 patrol cars were seen for a period of almost 9 hours on MLK way. I would think this was a big deal aside from the fact that the radio was dead and NO self-initiated activity was heard.

I have talked to those guys and they don't mind the constant re-assignment, but it would be nice that while those guys acted as glorified baby sitters because the new LT's are playing chicken little and are afraid to have any accountability and thus slide it onto the specialty units, that patrol, me included, handled our Zones.

I know for the new guys this might have something to do with the FTOs but zone integrity is non existent. Just because the city and administration hates the Sarasota Police Department doesn't mean we have to screw our fellow officers. Just a thought.

This Department has become a cesspool.

Before this turns into a SCU bashing tread. The SCU members are very productive, knowledgable, and motivated. It is not up to them when they work, it is up to thier Chain of Command. It is not a mark against the members of the Units, however their hours are a misuse of out very limited manpower and all but nonexistant specialy Units. Not only does our most productive unit go home prior to when the majority of major criminal activity occurs, so does our Newtown, and Downtown walking beat units. These are issues at the Shift Commander/Division Commander not the individual Officer level. It would greatly enhance our police presence when it needs to be present to have our some of our best players in the game when the real problems start, not in bed for 2 - 3 hours.

***** all you want to, the issue here is bad supervision as allways. I have worked with other agencys during sweeps and warrant round ups, and guess who is running the show, yep Captains and lT'S. Where is Bonner going to be or Boyd for that matter on Sunday night. I bet not on the block. So when it goes bad and it's going to go bad we will be up there all five or six of us trying to handle 1000 people. It should be a department wide sweep all hands on deck, bring the van and flex cuffs and start making trips to the jail. But as normal we won't and all HELL will break loose. I hope no one gets hurt and we all go home safe. Please watch out for each other and be safe. Remember no one in the command staff cares, thier pensions are full to the top and they have health insurance for life. We are all alone up there and then they will Monday morning quarter back us on anything we do.

It's gone viral. Here's British news:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379046/Florida-Britons-searching-meal-early-hours-missed-turning-It-cost-lives.html