I Do Not Like Electing Sheriffs And Judges

I believe that when you elect sheriffs and judges you don’t get justice but you get politics. They are not going to do what is right but rather what will get them elected.

Florida sheriff outs and endangers trans women arrested for sex work
NCTE Blog
By: Joanna Cifredo
January 4, 2016

In a most recent sting operation dubbed “Operation Naughty Not Nice” the Polk County Sherriff’s Department, in conjunction with Lakeland Police Department, held a five-day-long undercover investigation in December focusing on individuals who allegedly advertised prostitution services in online ads. During the operation undercover detectives responded to ads posted online and arrested a total of 95 suspects, including sex workers, their clients, and others who were arrested for related offenses.

Of the 50 charged with prostitution 4 were specifically identified as "a transgender," "a transvestite," or "transsexual." In addition to outing the trans status of these individuals, the news release repeatedly misgendered the individuals and published their birth names on the Sherriff’s website.

Despite not having been convicted of a crime, many of these suspect’s places of work, previous legal history and whether they were on public assistance and how much were reported. Although these efforts could have been utilized to focus on individuals coercive situations (e.g. human trafficking), instead the investigation and subsequent reporting of this operation specifically sought out private information about each suspect in an attempt to publically shame them with little-to-no-regard for their rights, circumstances of the incident, or injury to the party.

It is not that they published the arrest data but that they felt they had to include the fact that she is trans. Also why did they include the fact that she is receiving government assistance?

30.  ███████, DOB ███████, of ███████; charged with: Prostitution. She told detectives she is transsexual, a waitress at ███████, and receives $194/month in gov’t assistance. She has several previous arrests for ███████, ███████, ███████, ███████, ███████, ███████, ███████ (███████) and a current warrant for her arrest from ███████.

███████, DOB ███████, of ███████; charged with Prostitution. He is a transgender and solicited an undercover male detective to engage in sexual activity in exchange for money. He was driven to the location by another transgender, ███████. He told detectives he is a cosmetologist and receives $188/month in gov’t assistance. He has one previous arrest for ███████ (███████).

Here in Connecticut they publish arrests and the person who was arrested address but they do not include the fact that they are trans or that they are getting government assistance.

I believe that the only reason why they did the press release was to embarrass and punish those who were arrested, and to gain publicity for the sheriff.