[cappyjon431]

Originally Posted by CarolSells

but in just a few minutes' time I was able to find these recent stories:

Villages resident arrested in Internet sex operation
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 8:02 am (Updated: September 8, 8:46 am A resident of The Villages found more than the “taboo couplings” he was allegedly seeking on the Internet, he ended up meeting a sheriff’s office detective who charged him with seeking to meet a minor for sex.
********* ********, 62, was arrested on Wednesday, Aug. 31, for reportedly trying to meet a man and his 14-year-old nephew for a sexual encounter, according to a sheriff’s office report.
**********was arrested at his home about 11:30 a.m. after admitting to a sheriff’s detective that he was the person they were communicating with on the Internet and telephone, according to sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Hofecker.

New Dangerous Trend Hits The Villages Sexting while walking
Last Wednesday, ******* *****, 87, a sexy, cougar resident of the ridiculously expensive condo neighborhood adjacent to Spanish Springs, was taking her morning walk while talking on her cell phone.She subsequently started sexting photos of her brand new cosmetic breast enhancements to Gary Gigolo, a 32-year-old-man with whom she had danced at Katy Belles. And now Mrs. Robinson may wind up at the same North Carolina prison where Bernie Madoff resides.
Note by me: This was not Mr. Midnight it was a cop).


Posted 11/8/2011 by Gracie:
The Daily Sun reported this morning that a man who lives on Heathrow Avenue in The Villages was arrested Saturday at his residence here for attempting to murder his wife with a large knife.

Just trying to help out Penn with his statistics here. Not saying that there are bunches.

Hardly "many" TV residents. At least it is an attempt to provide substantiation and for that you should be applauded. Lets examine these:
1) Sexual predator in September, nearly four months ago. Disturbing to say the least.

2)Sexting while walking? Satirical and not real news, but darned funny.

3) The attempted murder was disturbing. I remember it well--in fact, my wife actually treated the perp at the hospital before he was hauled off to jail (he was severely intoxicated when he was brought in--not downplaying it, it was a serious crime).

Bottom line, 2 serious incidents in the last four months for a community of 90,000. I still suggest that TV is not crawling with felons.

I suggest everyone look closely at Monday's police blotter and do a quick tally--how many crimes were committed for the week and of those, how many were TV residents. I feel pretty confident of what you will find.

[Pturner]

Originally Posted by PennBF

I honestly don't understand why some have a strong reluctance to set boundries and consequences? Accomplishing these does not mean there is fear or that it is because of being older although there may be a connection between life's experiences and recognizing when you are enabling future bad behavior or not setting boundries.
I have noted a host of reasons to avoid these when a resident commits a felony and in particular assult, robbery, etc. Some make "jokes", some blame the victium (e.g. age of fear), some try to bully by intimidating the writer into "shutting up", some mock the suggestions, and so on. All of these
avoid setting boundries or establishing community consequences for abusing
the privilege of using the terrific amenities we all enjoy.
I am not in fear as I have worked in some pretty sensitive areas/cities,
have traveled all over the world and in some "bad" areas. My age does not
dictate a fear but my age does recognize that without boudries and
consequences people have no reason to change. Avoiding the discussion
through the above attempts at "killing" an interchange of ideas is only a form of denial.

Hi PennBF,
Here's what I find confusing about your proposal. Wanting to mete out punishment of convicted criminals, and having the legal right to do so, is not the same thing. Neighborhoods, whether in TV or Anywhere Else USA, can wish all they want that they had the authority to punish criminals and restrict their activities. However, under our system of justice, punishment for crime is pretty much left to the courts.

Now, do I hope a judge locks the slammer (or psych-ward, if necessary) door and throws away the key to protect us from dangerous felons? You betcha.

Do I wish I could beat the crap out of felons myself?

See Girls' Posse.

[The Shadow]

Originally Posted by CarolSells

but in just a few minutes' time I was able to find these recent stories:

Villages resident arrested in Internet sex operation
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 8:02 am (Updated: September 8, 8:46 am A resident of The Villages found more than the “taboo couplings” he was allegedly seeking on the Internet, he ended up meeting a sheriff’s office detective who charged him with seeking to meet a minor for sex.
********* ********, 62, was arrested on Wednesday, Aug. 31, for reportedly trying to meet a man and his 14-year-old nephew for a sexual encounter, according to a sheriff’s office report.
**********was arrested at his home about 11:30 a.m. after admitting to a sheriff’s detective that he was the person they were communicating with on the Internet and telephone, according to sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Hofecker.

New Dangerous Trend Hits The Villages Sexting while walking
Last Wednesday, ******* *****, 87, a sexy, cougar resident of the ridiculously expensive condo neighborhood adjacent to Spanish Springs, was taking her morning walk while talking on her cell phone.She subsequently started sexting photos of her brand new cosmetic breast enhancements to Gary Gigolo, a 32-year-old-man with whom she had danced at Katy Belles. And now Mrs. Robinson may wind up at the same North Carolina prison where Bernie Madoff resides.
Note by me: This was not Mr. Midnight it was a cop).


Posted 11/8/2011 by Gracie:
The Daily Sun reported this morning that a man who lives on Heathrow Avenue in The Villages was arrested Saturday at his residence here for attempting to murder his wife with a large knife.

Just trying to help out Penn with his statistics here. Not saying that there are bunches.

but in just a few minutes' time I was able to find these recent stories:

Morse is charged with:

* Possession of a bull elk taken in 2006 in Yellowstone County in violation of conditions of an outfitter-sponsored license.

* Killing a bull elk in Yellowstone County in 2007 when he did not have a valid Montana elk license.

* Helping his daughter, Kelsea, kill a wild turkey, for which neither had a license, in the spring of 2007.

* Helping his daughter hunt, shoot and track a bull elk, for which neither had a valid license, in 2008 in Yellowstone County.

MLissa Morse is charged with killing a mule deer buck in Big Horn County in November 2008 without a license. Maximum penalty for the misdemeanor is a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

Rainey faces charges of:

* Hunting elk in Big Horn County without a license in September 2008, a misdemeanor.

* Possession of two bull elk and four mule deer killed on two consecutive days in November 2008 in Big Horn County and for which Rainey did not have legal licenses. Because the value of the animals exceeds $1,000, Rainey is charged with a felony.

* Two misdemeanor charges of waste of game in Big Horn County in September 2009. Rainey is accused of killing two elk, then removing only the head from one elk and allowing the meat from both carcasses to rot.

The combined maximum penalties for the charges against Rainey total $53,000 in fines and 6.5 years in prison.

Powell is accused of illegal possession of two bull elk and four mule deer killed in Big Horn County in November 2008. The combined value of the animals exceeds $1,000, so Powell is charged with a felony. The crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Duncan is charged in Lewis and Clark County with two felony counts of tampering with public records and a misdemeanor count of purchasing a Montana resident hunting license while he was a resident of Utah. The charges accuse him of buying Montana resident licenses in Helena using his parents' Cut Bank address, though he has lived in Utah since 1998.

The felony charges accuse Duncan of falsifying required outfitter license documents, applications for hunting licenses and client logs.

Total penalties for Duncan could include $101,000 in fines and 20.5 years in prison.

In February, another defendant, Richard E. Staton of Wildwood, admitted to three misdemeanor hunting violations and was fined $1,000. Staton is former Florida game warden a former Wolf Mountain Ranch employee.

Kelsea Morris admitted in May she hunted elk and turkey without the proper licenses. She received six-months deferred jail sentences on both charges, and was ordered to pay $2,095 in fines, court costs and restitution.

A felony charge of illegally possessing game animals was dismissed in June against another defendant in the case. District Judge Susan Watters cited insufficient evidence against Toby Lee Griffith, an employee of the M Square Ranch.

Just trying to help out Penn with his statistics here. Not saying that there are bunches.

http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/...112morseupdate

[Mikeod]

It's important to remember that an arrest for a felony is not the same as a conviction for a felony. What is reported in the police blotter or on other media mentioned is an arrest, not a conviction.

[PennBF]

Being charged and being convicted are seriously different. Thus, I tried to speak to conviction in most of my references. Of course it does not make sense to continue to feed this thread as it has reached the point of less than thoughtful inputs. There was a point where it was mentioned they did not see large numbers in the paper. Of course they would not see a large number in any single edition. It is the accumulative numbers that count. Either this was to intentionally mislead the reader and distort the point or just not seeing the larger picture? As they say, "you make the call"???

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by CarolSells

but in just a few minutes' time I was able to find these recent stories:

Villages resident arrested in Internet sex operation
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 8:02 am (Updated: September 8, 8:46 am A resident of The Villages found more than the “taboo couplings” he was allegedly seeking on the Internet, he ended up meeting a sheriff’s office detective who charged him with seeking to meet a minor for sex.
********* ********, 62, was arrested on Wednesday, Aug. 31, for reportedly trying to meet a man and his 14-year-old nephew for a sexual encounter, according to a sheriff’s office report.
**********was arrested at his home about 11:30 a.m. after admitting to a sheriff’s detective that he was the person they were communicating with on the Internet and telephone, according to sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Hofecker.

New Dangerous Trend Hits The Villages Sexting while walking
Last Wednesday, ******* *****, 87, a sexy, cougar resident of the ridiculously expensive condo neighborhood adjacent to Spanish Springs, was taking her morning walk while talking on her cell phone.She subsequently started sexting photos of her brand new cosmetic breast enhancements to Gary Gigolo, a 32-year-old-man with whom she had danced at Katy Belles. And now Mrs. Robinson may wind up at the same North Carolina prison where Bernie Madoff resides.
Note by me: This was not Mr. Midnight it was a cop).


Posted 11/8/2011 by Gracie:
The Daily Sun reported this morning that a man who lives on Heathrow Avenue in The Villages was arrested Saturday at his residence here for attempting to murder his wife with a large knife.

Just trying to help out Penn with his statistics here. Not saying that there are bunches.

The guy with the knife did not go after his wife with it but had it in his hand when police came...I believe I heard that he was drunk or mentally ill. ANYWAY, bkcunningham who is a REAL journalist corrected my post, if I remember correctly.

The gigolo/mrs. robinson was some satirical stuff as previously stated.

I don't understand how ANYONE who lives here could say this place is seriously in need of reform because of the criminals who live here. This is one of the safest communities that I have ever lived in, if not the safest, and you have to go far to beat West Chester, Ohio.

PennF. You know I think the world of you, but do you live here? Carol my sweet girl from Cincinnati, I have forgotten if you said you you live here.

I think that if anyone has spent any length of time here that they would have to agree that this is a place that you can walk about day or night with out a lot of fear of being mugged or attacked. I saw women joggers with their lights on in the middle of the night on running down Morse last year when we took our visiting grandson to the hospital for an asthma attack. I was really surprised at that, not one but two and not running together.

I am NOT in denial. No place is 100 percent safe, but comparitively I bet it is one of the safest areas in the whole country. We are NOT working. We are watching. We aren't bumbling old fools, we are savvy people with good heads on our shoulders. We are one mega community watch and boy we sure can report things. AND we sure as hell can speculate about things and work rumors into facts in a very short time too.

[PennBF]

Graciegirl..It goes without saying that we have a great respect for you and your points of view expressed in TOTV. You are a terrific contributor.
Having said this I want to clarify some of the comments I have made on this subject. Regarding your question..yes we have lived in The Village for a few year and I feel confident in saying that we have alway felt safe and secure in our Village. It is not that The Village's are not safe as that would be an incorrect perception of our community. It is probably one of the few
places where a woman could go walking at midnight and be relatively safe.
My point is and has been that we have some people who commit felonies and suffer no consequence's from the community. If you are a felon in Florida you lose your civil rights for 5 years and must apply if you want them restored. They are not automatically restored. In The Villages you can assult someon, (family or otherwise), you can commit a serious robbery, get 3 DWI's, some of these against children, seniors or police officer which automatically raises the bar to "aggravated" which is a higher degree of felony and there are no
community consequences. They can continue to experience the privilege's
of The Villages and after being convicted continue to hide their bad behavior from their neighbors, etc. This only enable's the person to feel that much more entitled and continue the anti social behavior. I am not sure if it would be legal to restrict them from having the "privileges" of The Villages. My
point was why not see if they can be removed until their Florida civil rights have been restored?
I continue to be amazed that some actually feel this is unfair, that the victium is the felon and the privileges are an entitlement? These are the kind of thoughts that cause addiction to continue since there are no consequences for the abuses. Some have tried to bully this free speech and that is a mystery to me. Why they do this is for each to decide. Based on this I have no more interest in continuing providing the suggestion. Not becasue of the bullies but because few understand the basis for my opinion and/or I am providing a forum for some to give power to the felon. Therefore I am wasting my time and also giving power to those that want to protect the felon.

[paulandjean]

How would you know who is a felon. Who would do the checking? Would everyone be checked? Would villagers have do a fingerprint background check like I had to do every few years before I retired from teaching.Seems like a few "rights " could be violated here.

[Bogie Shooter]

Opinion hasn't changed................still a wacky idea.

[PennBF]

Like I say..there are some who like to make the felon the victium or run scared. Why would anyone not like the idea? Maybe believe it is not possible to implement or too costly, etc. but to be a wasteland of positive thought is sad. I believe some are afraid. This is what some felons play on. I have seen it where they rely on the peron(s) being afraid and will not try to hold them
responsible. This is how they continue to operate. Fear is a terrible thing..

[paulandjean]

Or you can look at it this way.Why just felons.Any lesser charge.If you where ever arrested.

[sparky]

Where have you guys been?? It was reported in the Sun. A guy drove up and pointed a gun at a woman in the parking lot. She ran. End of story. Too bad she wasn't packing a concealed weapon. One less scumbag!

[Pturner]

I'm still trying to get it, but I don't.

Originally Posted by PennBF

I am not sure if it would be legal to restrict them from having the "privileges" of The Villages. My
point was why not see if they can be removed until their Florida civil rights have been restored?

If you think someone should check to see if TV privileges can be revoked for convicted felons, why don't you check to see.

Originally Posted by PennBF

My point is and has been that we have some people who commit felonies and suffer no consequence's from the community.

But how does this differ from any other community? Can you give us an example of any community in the USA where neighbors or developers have the legal authority to keep felons from using neighborhood pools or parks or rec. facilities?

I know that special laws have been passed to restrict where sex offenders can live; but even then, special laws were required. Where ever the law does permit registered sex offenders to live, neither neighbors nor developers can tell them they can't live, the law be damned. Like it or hate it, we are a nation of laws.

Again, wishing we could mete out punishment of felons on our own and having the legal right to do so are two different things.

Originally Posted by PennBF

...to be a wasteland of positive thought is sad.

Um... what?

[cappyjon431]

Originally Posted by PennBF

Being charged and being convicted are seriously different. Thus, I tried to speak to conviction in most of my references. Of course it does not make sense to continue to feed this thread as it has reached the point of less than thoughtful inputs. There was a point where it was mentioned they did not see large numbers in the paper. Of course they would not see a large number in any single edition. It is the accumulative numbers that count. Either this was to intentionally mislead the reader and distort the point or just not seeing the larger picture? As they say, "you make the call"???

Penn, I want to apologize if during the course of our banter I came across as bullying, that was not my intention. you have probably been living in TV longer than I and perhaps you are privileged with more "inside" information than I. I have only been reading the Sun and the police blotter for the past six months and while I have not been tallying the arrests each week and how many of those arrested were TV residents, I do have a general impression that the large majority of those reportedly arrested live outside TV, but it is only my impression. Perhaps I am wrong.

Just for fun, we should take a look at the next several police blotters just to get a feel for how many TV residents are actually being arrested and for what they are being charged with. As pointed out by a previous poster, these are only arrests and not convictions. It's only logical to assume that without arrests there can't be convictions, but at least this can give us a rough idea.

I will say that I don't think I am in denial--I feel safe here but I also know that no place is perfect and that we should all be on guard no matter where we live.

I also think you should be applauded for thinking outside the box as far as coming up with consequences for bad behavior (illegal behavior) by TV residents. You should not feel like you are being attacked for coming up with possible solutions. It certainly beats the heck out of simply complaining about a problem. That being said, I have serious reservations about the legal and logistical requirements of implementing such a proposal. As far as I know, the government is primarily responsible for punishing criminals. Once you have communities or individuals doling out punishments you run the risk of unchecked abuse and it becomes a slippery slope. Logistically I envision a bureaucratic nightmare with background checks for all residents, a central committee for compiling all the records, administering punishments, determining the length of time residents should be denied amenity privileges, responding to resident appeals, etc. To be honest, I would prefer that my amenity fees be used to maintain and improve my amenities, not for administering a quasi-legal program to to dole out punishments to tV residents.

Just my $.02

[bkcunningham1]

TV encompasses three counties; Lake, Marion and Sumter. Lake County's population, according to the US Census Bureau, in 2010 was 297,052. The Villages is approximately 80,000 of this total. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement statistics, there were a total of 8,382 crimes committed in Lake County in 2010. Of these 8382 crimes, 1,194 were violent crimes; 7,188 were nonviolent. There are more stats from the FDLA and I'm providing the link if you are interested.

According to the US Census Bureau, in 2010, the population of Sumter County Florida was 93,420. The FDLA shows 1,121 crimes committed in Sumter County in 2010. Of these 205 were violent; 916 were nonviolent. More stats can be found below.

Marion County's population in 2010, according to the USCB, was 331,298. The FDLE shows 10,141 crimes in Marion County for 2010. Violent crimes accounted for 1,797 of this figure and 8,344 were nonviolent.

Crime stats Lake County: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/...c8/Lake10.aspx

Crime stats Sumter County: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/.../Sumter10.aspx

Crime stats entire state: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/...-Profiles.aspx