Never ending story

Apology Demanded
Regarding "Sex Offenders May Face More Limits," May 23:

Russell Barnes, the police chief of Zephyrhills, must think Dade City is the scum of the Earth. His comments: "If we moved them all to Dade City that might be fine for us. But they have cars." How dare he point fingers at his neighboring city. ops:

Dade City is not another Tampa Palms, but we are a proud city. Apparently, Barnes has no common sense, or he never would have made such a public comment about a neighboring city. The cities should be working together to solve these problems and not just dump his problems on his neighbor.

An apology should be demanded by Barnes' mayor and the mayor of Dade City, whom I have called and pointed out this article to.

R.E. HOLLINGER

Dade City

I was driving with a friend and as we went down the expressway he turned and asked What stinks?.. I said Dade City. another 4 miles and the air cleared.


You can't fault a guy for calling them as he sees them. So before you ask for an apology look around and you'll see what he was talking about.

Obvisously by reading this statement, this is from a yankee, someone close to the chief or the chief himself. If you screw up, as you did chief, be a man and accept the consequences. Quit trying to cover up and act as if you did nothing wrong. Dade City is a great city. Oh by the way chief, stay out of our stink'in city, loser!!! :wink:

FYI,
Expressway = Yankee :shock:
Interstate = Floridian 8)

Sorry buddy been here since 1972.........Expressway.

and come on, trailors and trucks all over the place!!!

By the way this is all in good fun, Don't get upset. :lol:

I don't think he meant anything by it. I have been to Dade City and it's decent in areas. There are a lot of nice areas, rural areas will always attract people who want to get out of the city.

Your downtown is reviving and has a pretty nice atmosphere, between Dade city and Brooksville one of those will be a big city in another 10-15 years, and the center of things going on.

You shouldn't get upset about comments like that only because everyone has a different point of view, you should be proud of your area and desensitize yourself to criticism, it could be jealousy!!!! :wink:

Hey I have been here since a child and I say expressway too, so that's 3 people...guess that theory doesn't work

This is the very first time I have posted ANYTHING on the ZPD board, and I've never asked anyone else to, nor do I know who has posted anything on the ZPD board other than those who have identified themselves on the board. That's the truth.

Also, I promised that if I ever DID post anything, I would identify myself and as you see, I have done so. Anyone may call or ask me if this is really my post and I will confirm it.

Now that those points are out of the way, I'll address this string. I see some fun has been had at my expense and I certainly don't mind that, but I do want to correct the serious misconception that started this entire string.

Yes, the paper quoted me correctly. Out of context, but correctly nonetheless. However, even out of context I believe it is obvious that I certainly wasn't actually suggesting we move our sex offenders to Dade City or to ANY other specific place. I only mentioned Dade City because at 8 miles distance, it is the closest city to us. My point was that even if we moved our sex offenders there (or anywhere), OUR citizens might be happy about that, but since the offenders have cars and can still drive, that wouldn't really solve the problem our City Council is trying to solve with this ordinance they are considering. I also pointed out that even if their place of residence is restricted, they are still allowed to walk by the schools and daycares and use the parks where children play, unless they have specific restrictions as part of their probation or parole conditions.

THAT was my point and anyone who was there knows that and anyone reading the out-of-context quote should be able to see that as well. I find it somewhat disconcerting that one can go from board to board on this site and see numerous references to how bad the news folks take things out of context and twist things to get a certain bad spin on officers, but when you read something about a chief, it must be gospel.

I am sorry if the citizen whose newspaper letter appeared at the beginning misunderstood, but the mistake was his misunderstanding. He (or she), received a letter from my City Manager explaining the full context of the remark. Not surprisingly, I haven't heard any apologies from the citizen for what turned out to be a false accusation - but how many times in our careers has that ever happened to any of us?

Personally, for the record, I like Dade City and this whole area over here. I respect their Chief and their PD.

So now that the serious part of this string has been set straight, go ahead with the rest of it and have a good time. I, for the record, am a Florida native and call and Interstate an Interstate, but I call the VetEx or Suncoast Parkway an expressway, so it's obvious the theory has several exceptions. I hope those of you who qualify have a great Father's Day and a good week, and a great day and a good week to the rest of you too. Above all, be safe.

Russ Barnes, ZPD Chief

Let's get back to the subject at hand, the chief in zephyrhills sucks!

Well I for one applaud the Chief for replying. Good for you.

Some things can be misconstructed, and you taking the time to explain shows a good view of what is needed.

You won't please everyone l(ike the numbnuts above) but I say good going and the respect level has gone up dramatically in my eyes.

Remember one thing.... talk is cheap. Speak with the majority of his employees and you might think differently. One post from him (yeah, right) to convience you... you just fell into his trap like alot of other people, ie. city manager, council members, etc.. There was one previous council member that figured him out real quick by listening to the officers and watching and questioning him but she was seen as a s**t stir-er and ignored. The officers advised that they are still waiting for the city manager to follow-up on his promise from last year to check on the progress on how things are going. To this date I understand, it has not been done!

I will continue to monitor this forum and listen to the officers and I WILL post the truth.

Thanks