Gainesville has recently been afflicted with dorm-room robberies, downtown homicides and unfortunate traffic-accident casualties. In times like these, I would expect our tax dollars to be used wisely to protect us from recurrences. Instead, what did our honorable law enforcement officials choose to do? They responded to mounting pressure by creating a multi-agency narcotics unit, which, according to Gainesville Police Chief Norman Botsford, is the most important unit.
As an innocent bystander, I beg to differ. I want protection from violent crime - not secondhand marijuana smoke. The government is here to serve and protect, not search and detain while heinous crimes go unsolved. Distorted priorities like this are the reason our recent ,5.4 million addition to the Alachua County jail is already overcrowded. And they wonder why we're paranoid.
