Dennis Ward, State’s Attorney for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
Ward is involved with the Keys Common Sense Conservatives committee.
He explained, “It’s a political action committee that I joined and formed with significant others in Monroe County that are public officials and people that do a lot of work for the county and various cities and organizations. We wanted to respond to some of these things that are being done and being said about the way the country is being run, and protests taking place in Monroe County, and some of the remarks that people have made about conservatives. So we put it together, and its first event is going to be July 13, at Ziggie’s in Islamorada, out front and inside the restaurant, and it’s a celebration of the fight, fight, fight, one year anniversary, Donald Trump survived the first assassination attempt on him, and we want to take an opportunity to thank God and the Lord that got the president through that and got him to the position that he’s in. So that that’ll be one o’clock in Islamorada. We’re going to have some discussions there. We’re going to have some Donald dogs and some Trump burgers. We’re going to have a contest for the best costume and the best decorative vehicle. There’ll be some guest speakers that’ll talk briefly about some of the issues that we’ve seen taking place. We planned this months ago, and in the interim, we’ve had these disgraceful protests about No Kings or whatever they want to say it is. It was during the 250th anniversary the United States Army that has been very instrumental in keeping America free, and to darken that day with these left wing political attacks was reprehensible. We’ll address things of that nature and other policies that the Trump administration has enacted. So many things have taken place, so many great things, the bombing of Iran and disabling their nuclear arms capabilities, just one thing after the other, and it’s just difficult to keep up with the president. He’s so active. What a difference from the guy before him.”
The day will highlight events that can sometimes be buried in the media.
Ward said liberals having “nothing to hang their hat on. I mean, what can they hang their hat on? Having men compete against women, having men in women’s locker rooms in high schools and colleges? I mean, that that didn’t work for them. As a matter of fact, the University of Pennsylvania just changed its policy. So it’s one thing after another, but there’s nothing that they can hang their hat, that people really support. So you take these matters up, and they get out there and protest, and that’s they’re right, sure. Go ahead. But we’re going to start responding to this.”
November 10 is the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps.
Ward said, “I guess they can go do another no King Day, but I don’t think the Marines will appreciate that. I guess they want to just keep attacking our military. I’m sure there were a bunch of them that don’t like what our military has done here recently, you saw their responses in the media on the Iran situation, these people just don’t get it. They took our people hostages. They’ve killed hundreds and hundreds of Americans, and yet these people go out and protest for us to not stand up for our own country. And it’s just depressing.”
Key West City Commissioners voted 6-1 to cease involvement with 287(g) program from ICE recently and another special meeting will be held on Monday.
Ward said, “I was over at a Florida Prosecuting Attorneys conference in Bonita Springs this week, and just got back the night before last and driving, leaving Bonita Springs and heading back, I took the scenic route, not the Alligator Alley, but the Tamiami Trail. That was Tuesday, and that was the day that the president was coming in, and the day before we had a meeting with the Attorney General, I didn’t know about this issue yet, and we discussed Alligator Alcatraz a little bit. Then driving back, I was right in the middle of protests, and saw the media and the protesters out there and read up on the issue, and I think it’s based on Florida Statute 908, I think. There’s some requirements for local governments and it seems like the whoever wrote up the resolution, I haven’t seen the final because I understand it changed a little bit than what the proposal was after the meeting or during the meeting, and it’s well written, and they kind of try and protect themselves over those issues, but I would think that if you look at some of the comments that the city commissioners made, it’s clear that they do not want to cooperate with ICE. What they did was they wrote out this resolution, but they said we’re not going to do this, we’re not going to do this, we’re going to cooperate, but as they made their pitch to their audience down there, I’m sure it was an audience that was well organized. They had some shirts on, and I don’t know who paid for those, but it’s interesting that they pandered to that audience there and there are so many conservatives in the Keys now, and I think there’s been a big change in the makeup politically in Key West, it’s not as liberal as it used to be, and I think it may be more conservative than it’s ever been, and there may be more conservatives than there are these liberals. So they pandered to that audience. They wrote their proposed resolution in a way that they think, I guess, it’s going to cover them. But when you pull the audios and the video and you listen to what at least three of the commissioners said, including the former police chief, it’s very indicative of how they feel and what their message is. So this guy, the attorney general, is not a dumb guy. I’ve done a couple battles with this guy already, and they’ve got some brilliant minds, just as much, maybe more than they have in Key West. They’ll follow the law, I hope. But I think the bump in the road for Key West is what they professed during that meeting. There’s one Commissioner that said after the meeting to, I think maybe the police chief that, well, if there’s any pushback from the state, we’ll just comply with the rules and we’ll move forward. It seems like that’s what’s happening. I think, with not only the City Police Department, but the county, they’re doing their job out there, and if they come across something with an immigration issue, they, and I think this is the part that the liberals down in Key West don’t like, is that they’ll notify immigration or ICE, and even if they take the person to jail, and Key West doesn’t do anything, the county still has to notify ICE that there’s immigration issues. I mean, we just arrested a woman from Poland, I think the other day that threatened my prosecutor, wants to blow up his house, and over 200 messages, harassing and threatening messages, and I’m just not going to put up with that when it comes to my prosecutors or when it comes to law enforcement or any public official. Look and see what happened up in Minnesota, and these people that are threatening our government employees, I’m just not going to tolerate it. But she’s got an immigration problem, and I don’t know how she was arrested before and released without a hold on immigration, but we insisted that there be a notification to Homeland Security or ICE, Border Patrol, and there is a hold on her. Hopefully she’ll be out of here.”
Would Ward’s office be involved with any kind of enforcement?
He said, “If you look at what happened in Fort Myers, they, they stood up and they challenged this thing, and the Attorney General sent them basically the same type of notification, and they blamed their vote on the city attorney not informing them properly. They unanimously decided to support 287(g), so I think it’s probably going to end up that way. The Attorney General has a ton of attorneys. I’m still a little bit down, but I don’t foresee anything that my office will do. But the attorney general, if he calls and there’s violations of Florida Statutes, we’ll take a look at them too, and then we’ll coordinate with his office and see what we can do to resolve this thing. I mean, it’s not going to be pleasing to everybody and you can see on social media that they’re people saying, stay strong, Key West, fight the government and the laws on our side. Okay, well, then if you want to expend taxpayer dollars on that, and I just don’t get it. I think the whole thing that started this, from what I’m hearing, is electronic bicycles. Day after day you kept reading about electronic bicycles on the sidewalks, on Roosevelt, they’re going to run people over. Well, there is a serious problem with electronic bicycles and my theory is that these illegal immigrants that the liberals in Key West are supporting do not have driver’s licenses, which a lot of them drive cars, which is why our uninsured motorist is up and we spend hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars in the state of Florida dealing with these issues in court and our jails. So now these people have gone to electronic bicycles, and they’ve become a hazard, and people started complaining about them, and when the Key West Police Department started enforcing these things, there were immigration issues, and one thing led to another, and the liberals, they went ballistic and called special meetings and whatever they do and bought T shirts and colored their hair purple and said we’re not going to put up with this.”
A homicide case may be concluding.
Ward said, “I think we’re going to conclude a long time homicide case up here. Maybe we did this past week. I think I was out of town. An illegal immigrant that murdered an elderly woman cut her throat, set her house on fire. He’s been in jail for the past maybe five or six years, and we came to an agreement. We had some witness problems. He pled no contest to the murder charge, and he’s going to finish his sentence here, I think, the end of this month, and he’ll be deported back to Cuba. So I mean, just this whole issue coming up, and my prosecutors being threatened and people being murdered, these are illegal aliens that are in the Florida Keys, and I’m sure that the libs are going to say, well, we’re just concerned about the ones that aren’t getting due process and everybody, even though they’re here illegally, they’re good. People are working. They’re not causing any problem. They should remain here. But how do you do that? Just let anybody that wants to come in, and then, I guess it’s like a test case. Okay, well, as long as you don’t get into any trouble, you can stay here. I mean, what country does that?”
There’s also a man out of Oakland Park who has been charged with felony count of boating under the influence manslaughter and six misdemeanors related to the death of the young woman from North Carolina.
Ward said, “That’s a shame. I mean, they had just left a bar. They had been at a bar, and they crashed into this guy’s sailboat, and one of their passengers was killed in that particular boat crash, and one of the people on the boat that crashed into the sailboat jumped onto the sailboat and assaulted and battered an elderly gentleman on the sailboat. We resolved that portion of the case already, and it’ll take a couple of years to get to a resolution with this, with depositions and discovery. We’ll see how that goes. I see where they signed into law a new boating statute that’s going to be stricter on boating accidents and leaving the scenes. That came about because of the boating accident just north of the Keys where a young lady was killed and another young lady was brain damaged. A lot of publicity on that, on the investigation, or lack of investigation by FWC, and that one’s still playing out, but there’s some new laws coming out on the books regarding boating, and we’ll see how they impact us down here.”