Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa
Take it from a retired Florida deputy sheriff. Trespass warnings are issued by the property owner or an authorized representative, not by law enforcement. Law enforcement officers are sometimes present to prevent the offender from violence or to document the issuing of the warning. It would be just as lawful if the warning is done in the presence of a witness or if it is videotaped.
No Trespassing signs are effective for immediate arrest without an earlier trespass warning being issued.
Also, if they choose to do so the developers can go ahead an install No Trespassing signs.
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The representative will have no authority to just randomly stop anyone on the path. A representative has no law enforcement authority, none. If this is started I can see a major problem. If the developer wants to protect the paths from unlawful use then he will need to gate them off, or make sure there is a way to identify a village resident so a representative can call law enforcement. If any one other then a law officer approaches an individual in an aggressive manner in this state they take their life in their own hands. I doubt the developer would like to see a story in the paper about an altercation on the Cart Paths in the paper. You also have vendors in the Villages renting carts for people to use on the paths. On one of the first go around on this gate closing were people talking about a girls bachelorette party who rented carts to do a bar hopping party in the villages. The bottom line is the requested crossing is from public accessed property to public accessed property over a state highway. The State and the County will make the decision as to whether the crossing will be allowed. After that it will be up to The Villages as to what to do about their Cart Paths. I do understand the difference between your golf cart path types. I would imagine with all this hoopla about this I would make an educated bet that the person who put up the styrofoam wall would never do it again. Everything was quite and peaceful until that event. Everyone does know that there are people that have access cards that are not villagers as there are people that have remotes to Stonecrest that do not live in Stonecrest. The ability to cross or not to cross makes no difference to me . But if there are people that need access to the medical facilities via Golf Cart then they should have it and we should all go along with our business. There are far more important items to take care of in life.