Judge Orders Protection for Neighborhood Crackheads !
Broward County Judge Julio E. Gonzalez Jr., Monday, ordered Court Protection for a Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods' known felons and crackheads.
In a move that stunned neighborhoods that have been under siege from street criminals over many years, Judge Gonzalez, acting under the request of the Broward Public Defenders Office, ordered local business man and neighborhood crime fighter, Stephen Sticht, to stay away from the areas' admitted drug addicts and suspected burglars.
According to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, some of the men he was ordered to stay away from had felony convictions for cocaine possession, prostitution, lewd and lascivious conduct, burglary and grand theft. The Judge also ordered Sticht to "surrender any weapons that he had to Law Enforcement". Sticht was accused by the felons of "posting wanted posters " of them, chasing them with a chainsaw, and threatening to kill them. Sticht denies all of the felons' allegations. Sticht says he used his chainsaw to decimate the "crackhead camp" that they had built along the RR tracks. Sticht's neighborhood, and those surrounding it, had experienced a marked increase in burgularies, (homes and cars), as well as many other crimes since the encampment arrived. City Officials had not been successful in eliminating it.
the brochure
On Tuesday night, at the Council of Civic Associations monthly meeting, (an advocacy group that fights for neighborhoods), Judge Gonzalez had operatives handing out his reelection brochures. Some in attendance, keenly aware of Gonzalez's ruling earlier in the day, were drawn to the last line of his brochure that claimed he was "devoted to family and community". One attendee was overheard asking, "is that the criminal community, or our community".
A formal hearing on the matter is tentatively scheduled for April 17th, where many in the affected neighborhoods hope that the Judge will decide that he is devoted to the law-abiding members of their neighborhoods, not the criminals.
In a move that stunned neighborhoods that have been under siege from street criminals over many years, Judge Gonzalez, acting under the request of the Broward Public Defenders Office, ordered local business man and neighborhood crime fighter, Stephen Sticht, to stay away from the areas' admitted drug addicts and suspected burglars.
According to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, some of the men he was ordered to stay away from had felony convictions for cocaine possession, prostitution, lewd and lascivious conduct, burglary and grand theft. The Judge also ordered Sticht to "surrender any weapons that he had to Law Enforcement". Sticht was accused by the felons of "posting wanted posters " of them, chasing them with a chainsaw, and threatening to kill them. Sticht denies all of the felons' allegations. Sticht says he used his chainsaw to decimate the "crackhead camp" that they had built along the RR tracks. Sticht's neighborhood, and those surrounding it, had experienced a marked increase in burgularies, (homes and cars), as well as many other crimes since the encampment arrived. City Officials had not been successful in eliminating it.
the brochure
On Tuesday night, at the Council of Civic Associations monthly meeting, (an advocacy group that fights for neighborhoods), Judge Gonzalez had operatives handing out his reelection brochures. Some in attendance, keenly aware of Gonzalez's ruling earlier in the day, were drawn to the last line of his brochure that claimed he was "devoted to family and community". One attendee was overheard asking, "is that the criminal community, or our community".
A formal hearing on the matter is tentatively scheduled for April 17th, where many in the affected neighborhoods hope that the Judge will decide that he is devoted to the law-abiding members of their neighborhoods, not the criminals.
To some Ft. Lauderdale is a world-class city, but to those of us who are long-time residents (1958 in my case), this place is our home and the character of each of our neighborhoods is the treasure that forms the underpinnings of our love for this town. One of the most important things for us to keep focused on is protecting the character and individuality of our neighbor-hoods. The only way we can do this is to root out the crooks and people who would physically hurt other people and other people's property in our neighborhoods. We need clean neighborhoods where average residents can feel safe to walk down the street. This is such a truism it almost doesn't need to be said. While I realize that there are two sides to every story, Judge Gonzalez needs to explain to our community why he has issued a ruling that seems at odds with the concept of preserving neighborhoods. While each of us is ready to respect the Judge's ruling as part and parcel of the rule of law, this does not alter the fact that the court, as part of our government, must be ready to justify such rulings. Failure of Judge Gonzalez to educate us why he ruled as he did will ultimately contribute to the loss of respect for the rule of law which seems to be running rampant in our society these days. In the long run the failure of judges to explain their rulings in a satisfactory manner will do more to undermine the integrity of our individual communities than the crooks and felons Mr. Sticht seeks to root out ever will.
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Never dreamed that a judge would stand up for "felons" or "crackheads" within our neighborhoods!
Totally absurd for damn sure.
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This guy Julio E. Gonzalez Jr., is not a judge, he's a terrorist!.............. he needs to go! Lets go after his job and send a message to the rest of the Judges, mayor, council members, etc., that we are fed up and if they can't "get rid of crime............. we will get rid of them!" As far as I am concerned, this guy has committed "THE Unpardonable sin."
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OK, I will leave my ChainSaw Home.
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In an email to Public Defender Finkelstein (CC to C. Rodstrom and G. Gretsas) I wrote:
"It's a fact that substance abusers qualify for certain rights as handicapped persons. It's also a fact that neighborhoods that are handicapped by the presence and activities of criminals (whose rights the courts recognize) have no rights at all. Do you recognize this inequity?"
By the way, the only way you can get an email to Mr. Finkelstein is to go on his web site and write a comment there. So far I have not received a response.
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Being a property owner in Middle River Terrace for 9 years, I am tired of criminals and drug users being given the "above the law" treatment! If these 5 gentlemen are homeless, there are shelters available to them, not my backyard. Judge Gonzalez, when was the last time you had to deal with this in your neighborhood?
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Finally, after being in a quandry all of these years in the election booth, asking myself why I didn't make more of an effort to research the Judges I am about to choose from, your blog has provided me with some very useful information Tim.
I now know what Judge I will NOT vote for!!!!! Perhaps if we send these individuals over to the Judge's neighborhood to live in, he might see the situation from another perspective!!!! Thanks to people like Tim Smith and Steve who have the guts to stand and fight to bring some peace to their neighborhoods in a time when most others look to someone else to do it for them!!!!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95YJobyC8g
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Has the whole world gone crazy or what? If these crackheads were in some kind of danger with regard to Sticht why didn't they get to a phone and call the police? If they were in such danger why don't the police records show ANY calls about Sticht from these men? Did the police receive any calls about gun shots? Did anyone out and about on the streets besides these men witness Sticht running after them with a knife? This sounds like a conspiracy to me!
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This is crazy . We need to demand more protection from Criminals. Someone from Progresso Village Association mentioned to me that the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic association should have a public safety town hall meeting and let residents express there concerns of what is happening in our Neighborhoods. I agree, and maybe some ideas may come from that meeting. We need to work together. Have all the leaders there and lets have a public discussion before someone gets hurt. It has become a Public safety and Public relations problem to us and the rest of the country. Do we want to be known for this type of problem? If left alone, it could hurt property values even more City wide and this is hurting Tourist income as well. In my view, just note we may national headlines for killing the homeless guy in the park and recently the killing of the Gay youth and now we have residents fighting back with a chainsaw what will happen next ?
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Unbelievable that this jerk is on the bench.
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Is this judge for real??? Did his brochure say commited to the community?? What community. Its quite obvious that this judge does not live in our community.If he did he would have had another chain saw to help the guy that had enough courage to dismantle the crack hotel! So does that mean that we have to live with these bums..where are our rights????? Gimme a break judge and walk the community before you do another stupid thing!!! To all the crime fighters of Middle River Terr, Lake Ridge and Victoria Park keep up the good work!!!!! Power to the people of the neighborhoods.
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We, as a community, would like to have certain expectations of the court system that it will right a wrong and rectify a situation, and that the judges will be just and honorable, and that is what we expect. We are appalled when a judge gets arrested for smoking pot in a public park, or gets arrested for running through the halls of a hotel drunk and half naked during a convention or when O. J. Simpson walked out of the courtroom a free man. How can a system that we have always respected be so flawed? What has happened to our society and moreover to our judicial system when the property owners, the business people, the community volunteers and activists cries for help go unheard while the court is protecting the dregs of society? We have worked closely with the police to get these people off our streets, but the police can only arrest them, they cannot sentence them, so they look to the judges. We corral the judges at association meetings and at meetings held elsewhere, and they say their hands are tied and that we should look to the prosecutors. The prosecutors again say their hands are tied and we should look to the legislators, and the legislators are busy looking to get a blow job in a public mens room, so that pretty much completes the vicious circle of where we are supposed to look for relief to the drug and crime problems that plague our neighborhoods. Who will protect the taxpayers that actually pay the salaries of these judges that opt to protect felon lowlife cracksuckers? Maybe we need to meet at Blockbusters and rent a bunch of old Charles Bronson movies and figure it out from there. If the FEC would have come in and dismantled this makeshift homeless shelter which was sitting on its property, would they have been given a restraining order? If a boy scout troop doing a community service clean-up project had done the same, would the judge had acted in the same fashion? Yet when a citizen has exhausted every avenue of trying to get the area free of this human vermin to no avail, takes matters into his own hands to improve the condition, he is stopped by the very court that we have come to expect would hand out reasonable and fair justice. Something is very wrong here and I suspect that if we, as a group of “crime committee” members had taken on this project with a half dozen chainsaws, it might have been hailed as a community service. Perhaps, in the future, we need to make this a group endeavor, in order to accomplish our goals.
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Essentially abandoned by the city and it's employees, a neighborhood must create its own version of "Homeland Security"! Especially when you are dealing with "multiple Crimes" within one overall problem. Look to other communities with similar problems, and seek enlightenment.
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Looks at Gonzalez community involvment. Dont look hard ebcause there is none listed. Says a lot that a Dade lawyer comes up here to become Judge and does nothing in the community.
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Forget this judge Gonzalez, he only did what any judge would do without hearing both sides to the story. What is unattractive is the fact that because they have these temporary restraining orders against me they feel right at home running around on 13th street and the FEC railroad tracks as if they have a free reign to do so. It is a travesty of justice that the Fort Lauderdale Police department have people like James E. Brown on their side as a confidential informant. And just you try to get someone to actually say they do! Not going to happen. But next time you drive by the Sunshine Food and Drug Market or 815 NE 13th street just look at the criminals/crackheads/male hustlers sitting on the steps. They are the guys who make your daughter's fiance ask "what kind of a neighborhood do you live in?" Well this is our neighborhood, and we deserve a lot more reaction from our police and our city. Let me tell you, it is only going to get worse before it gets better at this point in time. Do you think the mayor could even take a little bit longer time to email me except to say he is going to send my emails to the city manager. Ha! I have never even heard from our wonderful city manager. Let's do what we have to. Call the police, email the city Fathers/Mothers and tell them how we feel. This isn't the sixties with all the heroin users and being all "peace, love and understanding". These are difficult times and "WE" need to be aware and be PROACTIVE! If you see someone who doesn't belong, you are usually correct. Call the police. Get them out there. That is PROACTIVE, taking an action before you lose your G.P.S. and have a broken window to repair or your house is broken into for someone to take your belongings so they can buy a few crackrocks. Let us all be more involved in our neighborhoods and take them back!!!
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Ok, so I moved into the house I live in back in 1996. The neighborhood seemed ok, not too bad. I own a dog and we go for walks in the morning and the evening. I have seen some pretty crazy things out here on the streets of my neighborhood. Mostly things pertaining to Crack Cocaine. Different things like prostitutes both male and female out on NE 13th Street, crackheads who buy crack cocaine out in front of the Sunshine Food Market then make their way back to the FEC (Florida East Coast) railroad tracks to smoke what they just bought. I’ve found many crackpipes, condoms, pornographic magazines and dirty soiled clothes. I’ve also found purses, backpacks and other items that were probably stolen and dumped after being gone through. Most of these bags and purses were stolen. I have been seeing these things go on for 12 years or more. Not much has changed around here although it does have it’s ups and downs. In the last 2 years, mostly since Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma came through, we went without streetlights for a long period of time. During these darkened times the Crack Cocaine dealers were quite rampant in the areas of NE 13th Street and Dixie Highway. They found a new group of Crack buyers and they were made up of a lot of the people that traveled to South Florida to get work fixing up damage done by the 2 hurricanes. Unfortunately a lot of the people coming here for work already had addiction problems. Finding crack right out on NE 13th Street only added to their problems. After Hurricane Wilma I had 2 bikes stolen from my property. One of the bikes was found right around the corner from my house on the FEC railroad tracks. A few days later 3 crackheads went into a neighbor’s carport and left with 6 tool boxes. I went after one of the guys and held him for the police. The police went down to the tracks where they found the tools and one of the other crackhead thieves. They were arrested and back out on the streets in under a week.
Around this time I started attending the “Neighborhood Crime Meetings”. At the first one I attended I brought along crackpipes and chore boy scouring pads (which are used as filters inside the crackpipes) plus pictures of the filthy conditions where the crackheads hang out near the FEC tracks. I met with Major Frank Adderly who seemed concerned at what I was telling him. Soon I was in contact with an officer from FLPD’s Homeless Outreach Program. Her name is Officer Monica Ferrer and she made great strides to help with the clean up the conditions on the “tracks”. She took pictures of the people she would find on the tracks and if they were there again they were charged with trespassing. I think she made 15 or so arrests in about a week. I was given her cell phone number and would call her if I saw people on the tracks. Needless to say Officer Ferrer was promoted and was no longer in the area of NE 13th Street and the FEC railroad tracks. It was amazing how quickly the conditions deteriorated when she wasn’t presen
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