Polk County Halloween Roundup
OK guys, I know it must feel like we’re picking on Polk County, Florida a lot, and that is for very good reason. It’s because we are. Polk County has become notorious for their sex offender stings. Whether it’s setting up fake online profiles on adult dating sites to bait and switch naive men or announcing the results of aggressive compliance checks, it’s an absolute guarantee that Sheriff Grady Judd is going to hold a monthly press conference to tout all the “sex crimes” he busted and shame all the “sex predators” he kept away from the poor defenseless children of Polk County.
For once, I would like to read a story where Judd rescued an actual abducted child or busted an actual sex trafficking ring, but I can’t seem to find any. Solve a real sex crime and not a manufactured one, and then I say hold two press conferences. Throw yourself a parade! But until that happens, we’ll continue to call out the shenanigans.
[SIDE NOTE: Today, the Palm Beach Post called out Judd as having “laser-like focus on TV camera lights highlight his tough-guy act”, so apparently we’re not the only ones to notice.]
So last month, in advance of Halloween, we we posted a satirical story called Polk County Pick Em where we challenged our membership to predict whether Judd would do another sting by Halloween, what it would be called, how many people would be busted and whether the catch would include a Disney worker, teacher, etc. Impressively (and I do use the term sarcastically), we didn’t even have to wait until Halloween, because before their detectives could log out of the Grindr account, Judd held another press conference and we had to post Polk County Pick Em II
As Halloween just passed, I know many of you were waiting to see what Shady Grady would come up with for the holiday, so here goes…
The headline in Patch.com (a news site also notorious for their “spooky” sex offender stories around Halloween) reads, “14 Sex Offenders, Predators Arrested In Polk County On Halloween“. Scary, yes, 14 “sex offenders, predators” arrested on Halloween, but I don’t think 14 is reflective of Judd’s best work and it could just be that people can’t take this seriously anymore because they know these are not sex crimes.
What is scary, however, is the sub-heading on that Patch story. “Polk County detectives spent 176 hours conducting 990 compliance checks.” 176 hours, huh? So just out of curiosity, I went on GlassDoor.com to see what a Polk County detective makes and their detectives earn a respectable $40/hr. $40 x 176 = $7,040.
Again, had they spent seven thousand, or even seven million dollars and rescued an abducted child from sex slavery, we would be in the front row of the parade, but the results were BS. The arrests were for drug possession (still illegal, but not necessary to call out “sex offenders and predators”) but mostly for technical violations of failing to register something like a vehicle tag. NONE were for actual sexual offenses! ZERO.
Now the County has to spend thousands more in taxpayer money prosecuting these guys and housing them in jail, followed by the months of probation, GPS monitoring, etc., etc… Is it really worthy of the headline and is it really worth even $7?
Why not spin the story another way? “Polk County detectives conducted 990 compliance checks and only arrested 1.4% for petty crimes. These people are incredibly compliant!” Or I have a better idea for Grady Judd. Take your detectives out to a really nice happy hour, buy them a couple rounds of shots on the taxpayers, and call it a DUI operation!
I was just reading a comment that Elon Musk said about a new feature on Twitter. “The community notes feature is awesome. Our goal is to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation,” Musk said.
This could be a powerful tool for us because Twitter now adds “context” notes when they are rated highly enough by Twitter users. This means we can conceivable bring the truth about these stings and the sex offender laws to light using Twitter’s new feature.
As someone who was punished over an entrapment case, I too am very vocal about police who do not actually do their jobs. Some would rather create false crimes from a non-crime scenario and call themselves “super cops”. The fact that they make such a mockery of the system, they are too dangerous to keep their positions. I could say other things, but I will keep it civil.
Phillip, what was your punishment? Were you able to fight it to get a lesser sentence because of entrapment? Going through the same thing with a friend currently.
Yeah, it’s difficult to not notice Judd. He so blatantly and obviuously desires constant media attention. It’s a bit disturbing really. To be honest, if I lived in or owned property in Polk I would be so angry that this man continuously causes my area to appear to be a cess pool of crime that only he can control. I feel like it is detrimental to proprty values and the overall reputation of the county as a whole. It’s too bad that the citizenry doesn’t seem to understand all this bad publicity does to their community outlook.
Polk voters love Grady Judd. > 95% of the vote in every election since 2008. So popular that no one even bothers to run against him any more. I assume he’ll remain in this position for as long as he chooses. And voter feedback tells him that whatever he’s doing is working, at least politically.
Is it these fake stings that make him so popular with Polk voters, or is it something else?
Any Polk voters on this forum, what is it that you like so much about him? Or are you among the 5% who don’t?
I live here and can’t stand him!
I would love to see a real news outlet do a real interview to him live! and ask him.. Mr Judd.. from those 990 compliance checks how many did you arrest a for a new crime? What would he say? He will have to say .. None. And then the question will be: Mr Judd.. you are telling me you spent more than 7000 thousand dollars from the American people and save no one?
Jot, you can do that yourself by sending the high Sheriff a freedom of information act demand on that very question.
Makes me wonder what skeletons he has in his closet. Usually the case: some preacher or politician yelling about homosexuality or some such only to be caught up in a scandal. Those who yell the loudest are usually the most guilty.
Well not sure it is a skeleton in the closet but he married his wife when she was underage. I really can’t stand that guy
How do you know this?
I don’t know about that. According to what I found online, he met her when she was 17 and a cheerleader in high school. They are both the same age (68). They married in 1972 which would have made them both 18 years old.
One would think that with all the press releases Fudd, I mean Judd does, people would be wise enough not to fall for the BS stings he does.
As Jacob noted, Puke County loves Gravy Jugg. That tells you the composition of the character of most of the “good” people living there, rotten to the core. He will probably be the Sheriff until he passes away. I feel sorry for those registered citizens and innocent bystanders living under such a yoke of oppression. If not for the Silver Moon drive-in theatre, I would never set foot or tire in Puke County again.
If they are mislead into thinking this guy finds 10 missing children a week, of course they love him. If I was an oncologist who went around holding press conferences telling people “I cured 100 cancer patients in a 4 week period” I would be given sainthood, but if it turns out that the 100 cancer patients were cured from a splinter, that would be very misleading.