Sarasota Herald-Trib's former editor arrested

Sarasota Herald-Trib’s Tom Lyons bashes LEOaffairs: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs. ... /605110424 (http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060511/COLUMNIST36/605110424)

Newsflash for Tom Lyons: Janet Weaver, former Exec. Editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune was arrested by Tampa police Tuesday for drunk driving.
:mrgreen:

Now what a few individuals type on these boards is being taken as the word of the majority and gives the press ammunition to fire at all of law enforcement.

As for the article about the SPD Lt. and the sig-51, I hope another LEO has enough respect never puts me in that situation where I have to do my job. All LEO’s want respect, but have to give respect to get it in return from me.
:?

Mr. Lyons,

This is in response to your article about Lt. Bonner and his run-in with Sarasota Depuites on Siesta Key.

First of all I think I can assume with absolute certainty that you were not present at Gilligans Bar when this incident occurred. Therefore you cannot say to what extent Lt. Bonner struggled with thoe deputies. He may have just stepped backward a couple of times or maybe he moved his arm away as the deputies tried to grab an arm to lead him out of the bar. Whatever the extent he struggled it wasn't enough to be charged with.

In over a decade of law enforcement I have encountered various degrees of resistance from people whom I was trying to detain or arrest. And I can tell you that not everyone of them was charged with Resisting Arrest.

Secondly, the bar manager told the deputies he did not want to press charges against Bonner for trespassing. Without the managements cooperation the deputies COULD NOT make an arrest for trespass (a misdemeanor by the way). If you don't believe me call the Sarasota State Attorney's Office for yourself. This applies to everyone, cops, private citizens, and yes even newspaper reporters.

Lets now define the word Discretion which is what every law enforcement officer in the nation has the ability to use. They teach this in the basic recruit academy.
Discretion: The power of a public official/employee (Police) to act and make decisions based on his/her judgement within the bounds of reason and the law. Simply put every law enforcement officer in the United States has the ability to decide if they are going to make an arrest or not.
Not everyone who breaks the law goes to SLAMMER (your words) as your article suggest. Given the same circumstances a non-cop (as you put it) would probably went home after the deputies called someone to give him a ride. That would have been the end of it for the NON-COP.
However Lt.Bonner is not a NON-COP. The deputies did their job and even documented what had happened in a report otherwise you would never had known about it and wrote your article (as oner sided as it is).
Lt. Bonner by now has been informed he will be investigated by his departments Internal Affairs Division. If he is found guilty by the IA division he will be faced with a disciplinary action that could range from suspension without pay to a dismissal. Would that satisfy you, probably not.

It's easy for you to sit in your office, behind the safety of your computer, and make conclusions to events that you were not a part of. The worst thing you have to worry about, as you sit in your cubicle, is getting a paper cut or thinking of new ways to bash law enforcement.
This is not the first time you have taken an oppotunity to use your newspaper as a sounding board which makes me wonder why you are so criticle of a profession you have never been a part of.

Your views are one sided and the people who read your paper only here what you have to say. They think what you write is the complete truth which is far from it.

Next time you decide to write a scathinmg article make sure you know a little about what you are talking about first. This article proves that you do not. Why don't you try walking a mile in our shoes before you write your next article.

PRINT THAT


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[CTFUUU]

KP, you're right on point, but you forgot about the part of "reasoning" with any intoxicated person. The old adage of "instant arsehole, just add alcohol", is so true. Some people become unreasonable when they drink, that goes for cops and private citizens. I can't tell you the amount of times I have tried to reason with a drunk in my 17yrs of LE, but I've always tried to take the best course of action, which I beleive those two Deputies did.
As far as the management not wanting to press charges, I'm sure Mr. Lyons thinks that the two Deputies who responded "talked the mgmt out of pressing charges"......WRONG! People who work in the bar/club industry work with unreasonable, intoxicated people all the time and it is on rare occasion that they choose to trespass any patron. They know that some people just "can't handle their liquor". I'm sure Mr. Lyons has witnessed this himself on at least one occasion, maybe at a party or club, where one of his friends or acquiantances became intoxicated and unreasonable. Was that friend or acquiantances actions "unruly" enough to warrant them being taken to jail?
I applaud the two Deputies who "did their job"! Now as far as the cops who call them "rats", shame on you for thinking that any cop is above the law or above scrutiny. Those cops did their job, this incident is on Lt. Bonner. If Bonner can't handle his liquor, then maybe he needs to stop drinking or keep his arse at home when he is drinking!

KP, you should email that to him, here is his address tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com

create a new email address through yahoo or hotmail so that he will not track you down and post made up things about you.

He needs to hear things like that, to help keep him in line.