Dumbass tweet of the day: Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd

From Polk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd:

If you go to a shelter for #Irma and you have a warrant, we'll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail https://t.co/Qj5GX9XQBi

— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) September 6, 2017

It’s hard to imagine a more pointlessly cruel and stupid thing to say as Florida stares down the barrel of the most dangerous hurricane in decades. This will obviously discourage anyone with an outstanding warrant (which can be for things as trivial as unpaid parking tickets) from seeking shelter in the area, which will not only put them in danger, but also the first responders who’ll be forced to rescue them. Sheriff Judd quite possibly just killed some people by warning/threatening them away from the only safe shelter around.

Additionally, I can’t help but marvel at the counter-productive stupidity of this tweet. If he wanted to catch as many supposed fugitives as possible, why announce his intentions publicly? The only rational explanation (if there can be one) is that he doesn’t really care about jailing people with outstanding warrants – he just wanted them to stay away from his precious shelters.

Then again, this is hardly the first time the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (and Judd in particular) got caught doing something dumb and reckless. It’s something of a trend with them.

(via @Popehat)