The clamor to Save Our Schools has all but drowned out the Sheriff's pleas for additional dollars over in Brevard County.
When 10,000 people show up to face six legislators, that tends to take precedent in the news coverage.
Earlier this week, the Frog connected the dots regarding the absurdity of Bob Allen's bathroom escapade to the almost comical fact that his fall from grace somehow escaped Florida's ever growing list of felonies.
That list is one reason the state's jails and prisons are overcrowded. And it's also the punchline.
Judge O.H. Eaton, who is on the bench of the 18th Judicial Circuit for Brevard and Seminole counties, said laws that make low-level crimes into felonies need to be reviewed."We have seen cases where someone steals $3 worth of meat from the supermarket, but because it's a third offense, it's a felony," he said.
Eaton said too many low-level felonies have diminished probation officers' ability to supervise dangerous felons.
"Reduction of many of the Level 1 offenses to misdemeanors would go a long way to reduce the felony criminal caseload," he said, citing crimes such as molesting a crab trap, poaching an alligator, possessing a still and failing to return rented equipment.
A review of third degree felonies and any resulting roll-back would cause the Republican majority holed up in Florida state's legislature for God knows how long to look soft on crime.
How's that for a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation?
Serves them right.
