By First Coast News (On Your Side)
A feud between Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and local antiviolence coalition ICARE continues as the organization responds to Waters’ declaration that he will no longer accept invitations to their meetings.
A public back-and-forth began between the group and Waters last week. Monday, ICARE took to the front steps of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and called for Waters to meet with them to talk about violence in the city.
Waters said he was not available to address the group at the press conference but released a statement to the public the next day. In the statement*, Waters said he doesn’t plan on attending future meetings because of what happened at the 2023 Nehemiah Action Assembly hosted by ICARE.
“That event did not provide an environment for constructive conversation but rather was a staged display in which I was not permitted to fully answer questions beyond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses. The theatrics of this event were compounded by how I was systemically booed by the crowd on command by ICARE leaders and not permitted to hold a microphone, seemingly to prevent me from responding beyond one-word replies,” Waters said in the statement.
But ICARE decided they would still extend Waters an invite to the 2024 Nehemiah Action Assembly Monday, April 15. They sent the invitation publicly, asking Waters to join faith leaders at the gathering to discuss curbing violence in Jacksonville.
In the invitation, they said Jacksonville was “the most violent city” in Florida and they wanted to discuss expanding “proven strategies” in the city to “stop street groups and gangs.”
When asked if Waters would be attending, public information officers with JSO repeatedly forwarded his original statement.
ICARE responds to sheriff’s remarks
ICARE then released its own statement** in response and shared it with First Coast News.
The statement was attributed to ICARE co-presidents Monsignor James Boddie and Father Keith Oglesby, Vice President Hazzan Jesse Holzer, Treasurer Geneva Pittman and Secretary Rev. Adam Gray.
They began their letter with a request for a meeting with the sheriff next week. They also offered to adjust Monday’s assembly to suit Waters’ schedule. He did not agree to negotiate this with them.
In the statement, ICARE fired back at claims made by Waters. “We never permit booing of any official,” they wrote, saying if this did happen, they would excuse whoever did it. “You were not ‘systemically booed by the crowd on command by the ICARE leaders,'” the statement continued. “That statement is inflammatory and inaccurate. You also gave responses that included more than ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to the questions we provided. Again, this claim is false.”
ICARE also said that they always hold the microphone for all guests, including “sheriffs, state attorneys, superintendents and mayors,” going on to say, “When we attended your town hall last summer, we respected your rules and wrote down our questions to be read by a member of your team. When you come to our meetings, we hope you can respect our policies in the same way.”
An ICARE representative told First Coast News ICARE had requested meetings with Waters “dozens of times.”
JSO Public Information Officer Allyn Kelly said: “Currently, the Sheriff does not have any appointments scheduled with ICARE personnel. He has met them and answered their questions on previous occasions.” She again attached Waters’ statement from last week.
The two parties have also disagreed on a program called the National Network for Safe Communities. During its press conference last Monday, ICARE requested this program be continued and further funded.
Waters said JSO will not re-contract with the National Network for Safe Communities, whom the agency contracted and shared a “close working relationship” with since 2016.
Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey told First Coast News last week that while JSO no longer has a contract with the National Network for Safe Communities, they are still working partners, adding that JSO even hosted a Group Violence Intervention Conference with the organization in November.
In fact, the National Network for Safe Communities regards our agency’s Group Violence Intervention as one of the model programs,” Waters said. “The National Network for Safe Communities requested that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office host their yearly conference to share with twenty-five jurisdictions how we implement effective GVI programming.”
New laws on civilian oversight
The fragmenting of community groups and the Sheriff’s Office comes at a time when civilian oversight of police is being diminished in Florida.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis outlawed police citizen review boards Friday during a visit to St. Johns County. This law ostensibly blocks citizens from overseeing police investigations.
Waters has said in the past that he is against citizen review boards.
This all comes in the wake of a JSO officer’s arrest for sex crimes with a 17-year-old March 28. Officer Josue Garriga had been involved in several violent incidents, including the shooting death of FAMU student Jamee Johnson and the arrest of Le’Keian Woods, who was left with a swollen and bloody face.
The community had been raising concerns about Garriga since these incidents, which date back to 2019, but he was active in the field until his arrest.
View the original story here.
