A young homeless man faces a pretrial hearing tomorrow in a Tampa courtroom. Members of a local peace group are calling on people to pack the room to show support for Ashton Stotter. Jimmy Dunson is a volunteer with Tampa Food Not Bombs. “Stotter, he goes by “Compass,” he was a friend who we at… Read more »
Part of a major Tampa Bay cleanup effort scheduled for Saturday will be canceled because of a Donald Trump rally; the presumptive Republican nominee for president will speak at the Tampa Convention Center and it means that volunteer divers won’t be able to clean up a pier along Bayshore Boulevard. Tom Damico is environmental program coordinator… Read more »
This month a teenage skateboarder was slammed to the ground by Tampa Police, then handcuffed and taken away on charges of resisting arrest. The conduct of police is under review after the video went viral. The video (see video below) taken by another skater shows a Tampa police officer grabbing the 15-year-old Jay Huber by… Read more »
http://sound.wmnf.org/sound/wmnf_160516_110617_radioactivityM1_348.MP3 BY Rob Lorei We start Radioactivity Monday with the latest episode of Florida This Week, a news and public affairs show, hosted by Rob Lorei, that is broadcast on local PBS station WEDU on Friday Nights. This week’s panel of political experts and insiders discuss the biggest stories in Florida news and politics: A… Read more »
The mother of one of the three teenage girls killed after the car they were in crashed in a St. Petersburg pond while being followed by Pinellas Sheriff’s deputies will be represented by an attorney for the Uhuru movement. Yashica Clemmons, the mother of Dominique Battle, says she plans to sue the Pinellas Sheriff and… Read more »
The Tampa Police Chief answered questions Thursday morning from members of City Council about last month’s Department of Justice report that found police disproportionally stopped black bicyclists. The report concluded that despite evidence of “stark racial disparities” there was not racial discrimination because of “race-neutral motivations.” City Council member Lisa Montelione asked Chief Eric Ward how… Read more »
Last week the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that although the Tampa Police Department issued disproportionately more tickets to black bicyclists that it was not intentional and therefore not racial discrimination. That study was done by Justice’s COPS program – Community Oriented Policing Services. We played a summary from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District… Read more »
Representatives of the families of the three girls who died last month after the car they were in crashed into a pond want an outside investigation and for the Pinellas County Sheriff to resign. They plan a protest Friday and have a list of demands. The Sheriff’s Office has said deputies were not pursuing the girls in… Read more »
The Tampa Police Department issued disproportionately more citations and tickets to black bicycle riders – but it was not intentional racial discrimination; those are some of the conclusions of a Department of Justice report released Tuesday morning. It found 73 percent of bicycle stops in 2014 and the first eight months of 2015 involved black bicyclists, even… Read more »
Demonstrators gathered outside the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office in Ybor City Thursday afternoon, calling on Sheriff David Gee to reverse his decision to arrest minors caught with small amounts of marijuana instead of issuing them civil citations. The vigil was put together by The Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality, also known as HOPE, which is made-up of various religious groups through out the county…. Read more »
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is pushing for a county-wide transportation vote and for the city to use treated sewage water to augment drinking water supplies; those are two of the issues Buckhorn stressed during his State of the City address Tuesday morning. Listen to the full story here: “So we are pursuing, in my remaining… Read more »
It took fourteen contentious rounds of voting – and even accusations of a menacing gesture – but Tampa City Council now has a new chair: Mike Suarez. The vote matters because if Mayor Bob Buckhorn does not complete the remaining 3 years of his term the City Council chair becomes interim Mayor. The first thirteen… Read more »
On Monday in Tampa, The Hillsborough County Sheriffs office said in a letter recited at a meeting of interfaith congregations that it will not extend its civil citation program for misdemeanor marijuana possession to juveniles. At the annual Nehemiah action meeting for The Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality, an interfaith coalition of over 20… Read more »
On MidPoint we heard part of a conversation about privacy and terrorism between Noam Chomsky, Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowdon. Privacy, security and terrorism On Friday at the University of Arizona College of Behavioral Sciences in Tucson three well-known thinkers on issues like privacy and terrorism got together for the first time for a two-hour conversation. Well,… Read more »
Community groups concerned about police accountability want to add a strong police review process to the Tampa City Charter. In a press conference Wednesday morning at the headquarters of the Hillsborough NAACP, several groups unveiled a petition for a Civilian Investigative Panel that would have subpoena powers, a staff and a budget. Tampa City Council member… Read more »
Tampa City Council voted 6-to-1 Thursday afternoon to give police the discretion to issue a civil fine instead of an arrest if someone is caught with less than 20 grams of cannabis; the only no vote was from Charlie Miranda who is worried that much of the city’s crime is because of drug deals gone bad…. Read more »
The St. Petersburg City Council wants people caught with small amounts of marijuana to be fined rather than arrested for a misdemeanor. In case neither the state nor Pinellas County makes those changes to the law, Council has asked its legal staff to write an ordinance to give people caught with less than 20 grams… Read more »
Today on Radioactivity, we listen back to an interview from April with the family of Jason Westcott, a 29-year-old man shot dead by Tampa police last year during a police raid on his home in Seminole Heights. He was previously advised by the same police department to arm himself against a potential intruder after uncovering a… Read more »
On Monday an Ohio grand jury declined to indict the two officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in November 2014; Tuesday afternoon in St. Petersburg there’s a protest to support Tamir Rice and oppose police violence. It’s at Grand Central Station on Central Avenue at 34th Street from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. WMNF… Read more »
As the year 2015 comes to an end this week, we take time to review some of the top stories that had us talking this year. Gay marriage was legalized by the Supreme Court in June and COP 21 was signed in December. However, unfortunately in 2015 there was an increase in gun violence, police… Read more »
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