Based Ron DeSantis Removes Woke Florida Prosecutor

[MiddleRoad]

Who knew the hill the left would be craven to die on would be Sex changes for children

If anyone is dying on a hill it is Republicans. See the abortion initiative in Kansas last week. The mainstream isn't buying exaggerations and lies from people like you.

Puberty blockers as well as top or bottom surgery for minors is immoral. Please stop trying to push it. It’s gross.

[Perlen vor den Schweinen]

Call me when “based” Round DeSantis sees his own feet. He’s in no shape to fix Florida or the country.

much less in shape to take care of America's obesity epidemic............. and his own

[Leading Political Consultant Ma Anand Sheela]

The level of ignorance here is very disappointing. It certainly shows a need to improve civics education in the United States.

The resources for the police, prosecutors and judges are simply not enough to enforce every crime committed.  If there were no scarce resources, there would be police officers on every street making sure that nobody jaywalked.

So, the issue becomes one of who decides what to enforce, or one of prosecutorial discretion. 

This is an excellent point and I'm happy to adjust my view of this kind of situation because of it, so thanks. I suppose the issue is more that American prosecutors behave like—and are—political figures in general than that they exercise this discretion for their own ideological or moral reasons in particular (which I'm sure police boards etc. do in Canada as well).

Frank is correct that it's absolutely necessary for prosecutors to exercise discretion, otherwise nothing would get done because the legal system just doesn't and can't have the capacity. The ideal would of course be for said discretion to be exercised in such a way as for it to always be clear to the hypothetical genuinely interested observer why the prosecutor took the course of action they did, and for this to both occur without undue pressure towards a particular outcome and reflect a reasonably consistent set of standards broadly shared by the community - and herein lies the problem. The logic of American politics at the moment is such that the legal system is in real danger of one day just not having a Hartian rule of recognition anymore, at least for a while.

[T'Chenka]

Puberty blockers for minors is immoral.

This seems like a troll bait comment, but to respond to it seriously, a lot of people disagree with you and aren't going to stop pushing for it just because you disagree with them.

[MiddleRoad]

Puberty blockers for minors is immoral.

This seems like a troll bait comment, but to respond to it seriously, a lot of people disagree with you and aren't going to stop pushing for it just because you disagree with them.

It is not a troll comment, and you are seeing growing backlash toward it. Why can’t you leave kids bodies alone? Why do you want children to make life altering decisions and get irreversible surgeries? Stop putting kids under the knife

[T'Chenka]

Puberty blockers for minors is immoral.

This seems like a troll bait comment, but to respond to it seriously, a lot of people disagree with you and aren't going to stop pushing for it just because you disagree with them.

It is not a troll comment, and you are seeing growing backlash toward it. Why can’t you leave kids bodies alone? Why do you want children to make life altering decisions and get irreversible surgeries? Stop putting kids under the knife

Puberty blockers aren't surgeries. Also, almost nobody is pushing for surgeries for kids. Seems like you have difficulties with reading comprehension and reality comprehension.

[MiddleRoad]

Puberty blockers for minors is immoral.

This seems like a troll bait comment, but to respond to it seriously, a lot of people disagree with you and aren't going to stop pushing for it just because you disagree with them.

It is not a troll comment, and you are seeing growing backlash toward it. Why can’t you leave kids bodies alone? Why do you want children to make life altering decisions and get irreversible surgeries? Stop putting kids under the knife

Puberty blockers aren't surgeries. Also, almost nobody is pushing for surgeries for kids. Seems like you have difficulties with reading comprehension and reality comprehension.

Puberty blockers themselves do harm. A young kid isn’t old enough to even comprehend what they do, or the long term effects. Again, stop treating kids’ bodies like your own personal science project

[Progressive Pessimist]

Can we officially retire the word "based" from our collective vocabulary after this thread?

[Benjamin Frank]

The level of ignorance here is very disappointing. It certainly shows a need to improve civics education in the United States.

The resources for the police, prosecutors and judges are simply not enough to enforce every crime committed.  If there were no scarce resources, there would be police officers on every street making sure that nobody jaywalked.

So, the issue becomes one of who decides what to enforce, or one of prosecutorial discretion.  

In most places here in Canada, there is a police board chaired by the mayor and various appointed civilians that works in concert with the police and the prosecutors to decide what laws to focus on.

In the United States, this discretion mostly seems to be placed with the elected offices. In Florida, that is the county sheriff along with the state's attorney. (The state's attorney is an elected position and in called in most states either the district attorney or the county prosecutor.) Obviously it's best when the county sheriff and the district attorney work together.

Although a mandate and not a law, this really is no different than when the Los Angeles County Sheriff told his officers to not enforce mask mandates. While this county sheriff did not say 'I oppose mask mandates, so I refuse to enforce them', but instead said 'this is too low a priority for the officers available', the point is the same: some authority has to have discretion to decide what laws to focus on enforcing in their jurisdiction.

What this really is from DeathSantis is an attack on local governments. Hopefully the people in this county will resent having their local control taken away from them and help vote out this authoritarian fascist.

1. There is a difference between not prosecuting some cases due to time constraints  which then forces you to prioritize which ones you will prosecute vs which ones you dont. You better have receipts proving you didnt have the time to prosecute the other ones as well

2. Most Mask Mandates were implemented by executive orders and executive agencies and not legislation


So yes if Andrew Warren was smart he probably could have not really enforced this thanks to point number 1 but that point is very different then I will not enforce the law due to my own political beliefs.

1.Every jurisdiction faces this issue and has to prioritize the type of cases to focus on. Have you ever got a ticket for jaywalking?  "better have the receipts"? That's absurd. Do you think the police and prosecutors are just sitting on their asses since if they don't enforce abortion laws? Most police are already overburdened with harrassing minorities and poor people. Just kidding.

2.When a district attorney is elected, the people of the county don't vote for an automaton, they vote for somebody to use their discretion in deciding what to prosecute (even if many of them mistakenly think that every law is enforced, most district attorneys get elected stating what laws they want to focus on enforcing.) If the people of this county disagree with this state's attorney not enforcing abortion laws, the people of the county can vote him out. It's interesting how often right wingers otherwise argue:

A.the will of the voters should not be overturned except by the electorate.
B.the best governments are local governments because they are closest to the people.

If DeathSantis doesn't like counties electing local officials, he should submit a law to remove local and county governments and have their duties handled at the state level.

DeFacto, this is already what many 'red states' are doing to their 'blues cities and counties.'

 This is not what Andrew Warren did as he straight up said he would not enforce the law cause he disagreed with it . He didn’t say we don’t have time to do , but openly said he would not enforce laws he disagrees with .

This is prosecutorial discretion. The district attorney/county prosecutor/state's attorney has broad discretion to decide which laws to focus on enforcing and which laws to ignore.

Here in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, for instance, possession of small amounts of hard drugs aren't prosecuted. Unfortunately, the police still take drugs from people if they catch them and the sale of small amounts of hard drugs (often from one friend to another) is still prosecuted if the police catch the act.

However, in Greater Vancouver, but not necessarily in most of the rest of Canada, possession of small amounts of hard drugs is defacto legal.

Let's be honest here though. If this state's attorney had decided to play the game and said that "I have no problem in principle with prosecuting over abortion, but the office just doesn't have the resources to do so", do you honestly think DeathSantis would have not still fired him?

[Ferguson97]

Puberty blockers themselves do harm. A young kid isn’t old enough to even comprehend what they do, or the long term effects. Again, stop treating kids’ bodies like your own personal science project

You genuinely have no clue what you’re talking about.

Puberty blockers are easily reversible and do not harm anyone.

A tween is more than old enough to understand that they’re in the wrong body and what the implications of puberty blockers are. If you think that a minor isn’t old enough to decide if they’re trans or not, then let them use the blockers until they’re 18. Then they can make the decision themselves, without being burdened with going through the wrong puberty.

And a “ban on puberty blockers for minors” is a de facto ban on puberty blockers entirely, since most people are finished with puberty by 18.

Banning puberty blockers or HRT for minors is evil.

[DrScholl]

Who knew the hill the left would be craven to die on would be Sex changes for children

If anyone is dying on a hill it is Republicans. See the abortion initiative in Kansas last week. The mainstream isn't buying exaggerations and lies from people like you.

Puberty blockers as well as top or bottom surgery for minors is immoral. Please stop trying to push it. It’s gross.

Nobody is pushing surgery for minors and puberty blockers are reversible. This isn't about pushing anything on anyone, it's about not using the laws to attack people for being transgender.

[DrScholl]

Eh…lots of laws are mostly symbolic and aren’t really being enforced.

Right. Can you imagine a prosecutor in Massachusetts prosecuting some for dancing to the Star Spangled Banner? That law is still on the books I think and if a prosecutor actually enforced it they'd be insane.

[MiddleRoad]

Puberty blockers themselves do harm. A young kid isn’t old enough to even comprehend what they do, or the long term effects. Again, stop treating kids’ bodies like your own personal science project

You genuinely have no clue what you’re talking about.

Puberty blockers are easily reversible and do not harm anyone.

A tween is more than old enough to understand that they’re in the wrong body and what the implications of puberty blockers are. If you think that a minor isn’t old enough to decide if they’re trans or not, then let them use the blockers until they’re 18. Then they can make the decision themselves, without being burdened with going through the wrong puberty.

And a “ban on puberty blockers for minors” is a de facto ban on puberty blockers entirely, since most people are finished with puberty by 18.

Banning puberty blockers or HRT for minors is evil.

A tween has no concept of long term consequences. Do you remember being 9, 10, or 11? I do. I didn’t know Jack about the world, much less my own body, much less the concept of the changes my body was undoing. Using kids as a science project for political ends is evil. I have no issue with an adult of 18 making their own decisions about their own bodies; that is their business, but leave the children be. Let them be kids and not political pawns.

[Ferguson97]

Do you remember being 9, 10, or 11?

Yes, and I remember knowing that without a doubt that I was a boy. Many trans people know that they’re in the wrong body by the time they’re this age.

Using kids as a science project for political ends is evil. […] leave the children be. Let them be kids and not political pawns.

You sound like a deranged conspiracy theorist. What are you even talking about?

[MiddleRoad]

Do you remember being 9, 10, or 11?

Yes, and I remember knowing that without a doubt that I was a boy. Many trans people know that they’re in the wrong body by the time they’re this age.

Using kids as a science project for political ends is evil. […] leave the children be. Let them be kids and not political pawns.

You sound like a deranged conspiracy theorist. What are you even talking about?

Let them decide that when they’re of an age to make life altering decisions. Unless you think a child is old enough to make other life altering decisions.

Again, at / after 18, I don’t care. Before 18, no puberty blockers, no surgeries. I hope at some point that it becomes illegal to do such to children.

[Ferguson97]

Let them decide that when they’re of an age to make life altering decisions. Unless you think a child is old enough to make other life altering decisions.

It depends, what other decisions are you talking about?

An abortion is a life-altering decision. Do you support forcing impregnated minors to give birth?

[MiddleRoad]

Let them decide that when they’re of an age to make life altering decisions. Unless you think a child is old enough to make other life altering decisions.

It depends, what other decisions are you talking about?

An abortion is a life-altering decision. Do you support forcing impregnated minors to give birth?

No, as a minor can’t give sexual consent. An abortion however is not the same as a puberty blocker. Nice try though.

[Fuzzy Bear]

In Florida, that discretion is entrusted to the state's attorney. The people of Hillsborough County have selected an individual to serve as state's attorney, because they trust him to use his discretion and judgment to determine when a particular set of circumstances requires a decision to prosecute. The approach to that discretion is the central issue in these elections — the entire reason they are elected is to ensure that decisions to prosecute or not prosecute align with community priorities. By all accounts, he enjoys broad popular support (he received roughly 125,000 more votes than DeSantis in the last election). If the people disagree with his priorities, they can vote him out.

Yup, my position is pretty much this x100.

Elected prosecutors should not have to justify their use of prosecutorial discretion to anyone except the voters.  Prosecutors must be allowed to act independently of government influence or interference. 

Ordinarily I would agree with these posts.  But when a prosecutor says he will not prosecute violators of a whole category of law, or a whole class of defendant, there comes a point where this rises to nonfeasance of office.  Florida's Constitution has given the Governor the power to suspend local officials for nonfeasance or malfeasance, and especially when the nonfeasance or malfeasance is motivated by purely political considerations.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Good that he is gone but I would rather this prosecutor be removed via impeachment recall than this way.