1/ of 36 Thread 🧵
Who is "America's Sheriff"?
Wayne Ivey. Thats him in the photo hosting his weekly 'Wheel of Fugitives' show.
#January6thInsurrection
#CivilRights
#HoldThemAccountable
@TheJusticeDept @FBI @January6thCmte
2/ Wayne Ivey is most well known for his unabashed and unhinged support of Trump, and his 'Wheel of Fugitive' show which featured non-fugitives.
floridatoday.com/story/news/202…
3/ Wayne Ivey has also made headlines for hiding his budget, protecting cops who kill, vilifying political opponents, advancing racist causes, facilitating political corruption, and last but not least, telling everyone to "arm themselves".
foxnews.com/us/this-is-war…
4/ In 2019, a black veteran named #GregoryEdwards was killed by deputies inside of Brevard County Jail after suffering from a PTSD episode. After deputies were cleared of wrongdoing, Wayne Ivey refused to release the jail's video of the incident.
floridatoday.com/story/opinion/…
5/ This follows a pattern of secrecy. He cited unspecified 'security concerns' when sued to release his line item budget pending his request for 'emergency' funding...even before the pandemic hit.
veronews.com/2020/01/02/she…
6/ On top of denying wrongdoing by deputies in #GregoryEdwards death, he went on to vilify Edwards saying he fought like a "caged animal". The video shows a somewhat different story, but we'll get to that...
clickorlando.com/news/local/202…
7/ 2020 sparked a powerful new demand for accountability from police. Answering that demand, @floridatoday sued Wayne Ivey and BCSO for release of the #GregoryEdwardsVideo and won. It showed him being strapped in a chair and left to die inside the jail.
floridatoday.com/story/news/202…
8/ The Edwards story gets even worse, when later, his widow who is also a veteran, files a wrongful death lawsuit and is wrongfully charged in the accidental drowning of their baby in the backyard pool.
floridatoday.com/story/news/202…
9/ So, the Sheriff is bad, and there's much more further down, but it's the State Attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit who ultimately makes these charging decisions. Has politics colored over the rule of law here?
orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-…
10/ After going on what can only be described as an epic unchecked crime spree for years, the Seminole County Tax Collector was only investigated and charged after the Secret Service began to investigate his use of county servers for mining Bitcoin.
orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-pr…
11/ The 18th Judicial Circuit has a long history of mishandling cases which involve politics or race, it was the same district where George Zimmerman stalked and killed #TrayvonMartin and ultimately walked free.
abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimm…
12/ There's more bizarre and frightening stories about corruption and villainy in Florida's 18th Judicial Circuit than can be told in a single Twitter thread.
news-journalonline.com/story/news/sta…
13/ But back to Wayne Ivey. The Edwards case was a failure on his part to take responsibility for what happened on his watch, but his antics and influence go far beyond that, intentionally blurring the line between law enforcement and politics.
floridatoday.com/story/opinion/…
14/ Echoing back to the segregated south, his Sheriff's endorsement in Brevard's local Trumpublican dominated politics is considered to be a near-guarantee of winning election.
floridatoday.com/story/news/pol…
15/ Wayne Ivey likes to do publicly broadcast Facebook "perp walks", but there was no such perp walk for the husband of a County Commissioner he endorsed, when that husband was arrested for conspiracy, racketeering, extortion, and public corruption.
floridatoday.com/story/news/201…
16/ Lawyer, and Brevard County Commissioner Bryan Lober represented David Isnardi initially despite also sitting on the Commission with Isnardi's wife. The conflict of interests between Atty./client privilege, spouse rights, and Sunshine Law were ignored.
floridatoday.com/story/news/201…
17/ Bryan Lober made national headlines that same summer for his pattern of disgusting remarks.
florida.adl.org/news/florida-t…
18/ When confronted by community members at a commission meeting, Bryan Lober issued a non-apology and the entire commission(all republicans in a county with ~40% voters registered republican) refused to even censure him.
Watch video:
fb.watch/8E9rCf7fu1/
19/ Back to Wayne Ivey. In 2019, he supervised a sham criminal investigation into 'harassment' because of an online page made posed as Bryan Lober and depicted Lober and State Rep. Randy Fine as lovebugs. When questioned about his attendance at the sham press conference:
20/ Randy Fine is associated with all kinds things, primarily casinos. Him and others in Brevard have been a prominent part of the vicious attacks on public schools over mask ordinances, trans kids, and #CRT both locally and across the state.
21/ Randy Fine shares office space with County Commissioner John Tobia who recently proposed a gerrymandered map for redistricting the county commission districts. Randy Fine was recently named vice chair for Florida's redistricting committee.
22/ David Isnardi was formerly a top campaign person for Randy Fine, along many others who were implicated in the racketeering scandal which took place in Commissioners Tobia and Isnardi's districts.
thespacecoastrocket.com/graphic-detail…
23/ David Isnardi's Racketeering case was ultimately moved outside of Brevard county, where Isnardi had adjudication of guilt withheld, received probation, and some jail farm days for what can only be described as stunning public corruption and felonies.
floridatoday.com/story/news/201…
24/ "There's more???" Yeah, lots. In 2020 a deputy who fired shots into a vehicle, killing two teenagers was found innocent of wrongdoing. Archer said his decision not to prosecute was based on reports from the FDLE and Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-…
25/ Attorney Benjamin Crump files civil rights lawsuit against Wayne Ivey and BCSO citing a "culture of reckless disregard".
usatoday.com/story/news/nat…
26/ Never missing an opportunity to vilify people when it suits him, Wayne Ivey takes to his favorite platform, Facebook, to publicize the third teenager and only surviving witness from inside the car that was shot, being arrested multiple times.
floridatoday.com/story/news/202…
27/ Our Congressman, Bill Posey is a nutjob who peddles in racist conspiracy theories. After Trump lost, he began using tax payer resources to advance an unfounded election fraud conspiracy involving Venezuela. He was also a #Birther, pretending Obama wasn't born in U.S.
28/ Rep. Bill Posey has utter contempt for law enforcement and the truth, and just like Wayne Ivey, he thinks trump is the greatest!
Link to whole unedited video:
fb.watch/8Ecr6X4ZcA/
29/ Sheriff Ivey's call for everyone to "arm yourselves" has been followed by an uptick in homicides in Brevard County. Where we once ranked very low, we are now about 50% above the national average.
floridatoday.com/story/news/202…
30/ Brevard had the highest per-capita drug overdose death rate in Florida from 2015-2019. There's been speculation about the County's reporting previously mislabeling overdose deaths as 'natural causes'.
247wallst.com/special-report…
31/ With all this crime in Sheriff Wayne Ivey's county, his approach to getting tough on criminals was to potentially violate the Hatch Act last year, when he stood "shoulder to shoulder" with criminal Donald Trump on a tarmac in Tampa.
spacecoastdaily.com/2020/07/watch-…
32/ "Sheriff Wayne Ivey: The Hatch Act"
link.medium.com/zqlqGiabjkb
33 / Wayne Ivey has, among other things, a tattoo of "Molon Labe" on his arm. This is a popular trope and gang symbol among white supremacists and anti-government radicals which means "come and take them" referring to guns.
34/ So, small wonder that such debasement and harassment of a local school board member would go almost completely unaddressed so far by local law enforcement.
35/ Brevard County is #1!
...for insurrectionists. Seriously.
thespacecoastrocket.com/brevard-county…
36/ And probably #1 for election rigging too.
"How Republicans Cheat In Florida"
link.medium.com/quLQIxCjvib
37/ (I'll just keep going)
Here's an excellent piece by Pro-Publica that really explores the racial tension in small towns in the confederate south.
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