Greetings and salutations, Gainesville! We welcome you to this most August occasion by which we end our Summer circulation of the Alligator and prepare our inkstained (not really because everything’s digital nowadays) hands for the coming of our Fall semester. But before we go, we must leave our valued audience for our even more valued swimsuits and margaritas and leave you with this final summer edition of…Darts and Laurels.
Let us start this off with a tale which we can all hold in equal parts with contempt. Miami-based Carlisle Development Group was caught plundering millions-of-dollars worth of U.S. construction subsidies meant for constructing homes for the poor.
As if low-income families and individuals don’t have enough troubles to deal with, like putting food on the table, clothes on their children or staying off the line of homelessness, now they’ve got CEOs lining their pockets with what government support the poor are supposed to receive in the first place.
Such villainy is filth and its toleration shall not exist.
Matthew Greer and Lloyd Boggio your greed and unwholesome stench of devilry has earned you a dart.
James Amidei, Trevor Fitzgerald, Adam Crawford and Cody Hoppel, former Marion County deputies, resigned Monday for kicking and beating an arrested man back in August 2011. Deputy Jesse Terrell was fired as a result of the incident as well. Amidei and Fitzgerald, who were accused of a less active role in the act, pled guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law — a felony charge — on July 29. Yes, he was trafficking drugs, yes he was a criminal and yes, he was helpless upon the ground as you beat him following a peaceful arrest.
It’s that sort of behavior which gives our law officers a bad name, and we’ll award a dart to you all as you leave the profession.
Next up, Pope Francis, who’s already been mentioned in this vaulted section of the opinions section, is still a pretty cool guy. On Wednesday he took it upon his papal duties to warn against exclusionary treatment of divorced or remarried members of the church. Openly telling the Catholic world that the church should seek the salvation and good of all of God’s children is pretty damn compassionate and has surely lightened the burden upon many churchgoers who may feel ostracized by their fellow congregations due to their personal circumstances. It’s an endearing move and one we see fit to award a laurel for. Pope Francis you now have two laurels.
Lastly, Reddit, a damn popular community news site, has seen fit to formalize a new set of guidelines that aims to restrict and limit certain risque or possibly offensive content.
As a news organization, we are steadfast against the institution of most forms of censorship on an individual’s ability to practice free speech.
However, considering the fact the these new guidelines are quarantining communities like racist hate groups and subreddits surrounding the discussion of animated child pornography, we’re willing to make an exception on the matter. The fact that these new guidelines are evolving and developing in accordance to community discussion also softens the matter, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on you Reddit. In the meantime, these steps appear to be going in the right direction, and we’re willing to award you a laurel for cracking down on hate speech and child pornography.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 8/5/15]
Correction: This editorial has been updated to reflect a correction. In addition to the four Marion County deputies who resigned, deputy Jesse Terrell was also fired. Also, a clarification was added to denote that James Amidei and Trevor Fitzgerald, two of the deputies who resigned, pled guilty and were accused of a less-active role in the incident.
