Orange County Florida

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[–] 58 points 1 year ago (13 children)

“I signed the damn thing...,” Demings said. “I can’t let our entire board of county commissioners and myself be removed from office.” The Mayor described much anxiety filled the county administration building this week after the Attorney General’s threat...

Demings says that based on the county’s reading of the addendum, ICE can request that county corrections officers transport detainees. However, the Orange County Jail can deny a transport based on its operational ability. “If we have the capacity to transport, I highly doubt that there will be such a time in the near future,” Demings said....

County Attorney Jeff Newton says by the mayor signing the agreement with ICE, it puts the conflict in the proper forum—court—if there ever were to be litigation. The mayor made clear that his opinion on the ICE agreement has not changed since Wednesday. He still is against the federal government having the ability to take county corrections officers out of their jurisdiction to transport detainees. “What I’ve changed is the process by which we will continue to fight,” Demings said.

Maybe a better person would become a martyr and throw away their official levers of power, but for public comments by a politician in a MAGA-led state, these are probably about as good as you're likely to get.

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  • [–] 37 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Meh, if he quit people call him a coward and you get a replacement who is going to be further right wing. (Because you can't hire anyone who won't sign it). The county was damned because the state legislature isn't fighting it. In the end a state can maybe refuse, but counties don't have really any way to stop someone arresting them. Maybe the courts, but I assume a state/federal court would override the county.

    It is a bad sign that businesses aren't speaking up though (that I have seen). Orange county is Orlando, and part of Disney World is in it.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago

    I'm not saying he should quit and go home and start watching YouTube videos while the world around him collapses into fascism. I'm saying he should fight.

    Lots of federal employees did the "Okay, fire me then" game when Trump demanded various things from them. It still takes time, effort, and organization to fill the roles they left behind. It slows things down. You can sue the administration for their blatantly illegal attempt to remove you. You can show up with a megaphone outside the office, now yelling about how it's a power grab. You can do something other than just going along with it.

    This isn't even "just following orders," because he clearly knows it's wrong. But, he's still putting people on cattle cars, because they told him if he didn't, he'd lose his job. THE RIGHT ANSWER IN THAT SITUATION IS, EVEN IF NO OTHER OPTION IS AVAILABLE, TO LOSE YOUR FUCKING JOB.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Be like all the other people who resigned or got fired in protest of what our shit government was forcing them to do. The position just gets handed down to the closest marginally qualified person willing to be a lapdog and do whatever they're told.

    If the option you're presented with is to sign or be replaced and they have the authority to do it, then it's a shit option to let yourself get replaced when you know you're replacement would be willing to roll over on everything.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Yeah, to be clear, while I wish we lived in a country where resigning out of principal would have a good end result, I think it’s better this guy stays and does what he can, which looks like it will be slow-playing and finding every loophole he can until he gets sued.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    If replacing you is the better course, they would do that regardless of your choice. They can keep manufacturing worse and worse ultimatums. They don't just speed run that because there is a danger to unilaterally removing democratically elected officials and they'd rather officials just comply with their desires and maintain the veneer of peace and order. They're boiling frogs all across the nation while the leadership of various government and private institutions decides "it's just one capitulation to preserve my ability to resist later when the real crisis arrives".

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    You can't be replaced "just because". There are still some rules set in place.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Sure, but those rules can be trivially triggered by just introducing new ultimatums. If they want you out, they can manufacture new reasons endlessly until they decide you have failed.

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