Open letter to Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods speaks during a County Commission workshop in Ocala on March 21, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette file photo]
When your officers put on a badge and step out into the community, they’re entrusted with tremendous power. They bear the responsibility to protect and even take human lives. And we expect them to be accountable to the citizens they protect.
Likewise, when you were elected, we entrusted you with an even greater responsibility — to lead, to listen and to answer to the community you serve.
We live in a moment where too many of our public officials (locally and nationally) think becoming an internet influencer is part of the reason we hired them. All of us have been part of a decades-long process that has disrupted the symbiotic (and often antagonistic) relationship between journalism and public officials. A cacophony of social media voices has emerged out of the decline of newspapers and the fragmentation of traditional media.
For public officials and business leaders, what’s the benefit of submitting to an adversarial press when you can issue a press release and post a YouTube video and bypass the former gatekeepers? Why bother having your message filtered through the intermediary of traditional news media that has lost much of its audience? (Especially when the final product doesn’t always reflect how you’d like the frame the narrative.) And if you do talk to the press, why not limit it to the outlets you consider friendly?
Using direct channels to speak to the public is faster, unfiltered and unfettered. But a Facebook video also allows officials to sidestep difficult questions from well-prepared and sometimes adversarial questioners.
We see this nationally as well as locally on issues big and small. Why can’t rangers at Silver Springs State Park speak about the death of a baby manatee without approval from Tallahassee? Why did a city park ranger at Tuscawilla — during a friendly chat about an exotic goose — recoil when I shared with him that I contributed a weekly bird feature to the “Gazette?” (“If I talk to you, I’ll lose my job!”)
Answering to the professional press demands courage. Relying exclusively on one-way communication can become paternalistic and performative, ultimately to the detriment of our democracy.
Every citizen in a community delegates responsibilities by necessity. We are not all firefighters, doctors, plumbers, commissioners or police officers. As a citizen, I delegate the responsibilities of law enforcement to those I elect. In the same way, I delegate the responsibility of news gathering and reporting to those the experience and expertise I don’t have.
Answering to the press is answering to the community. And it requires courage.
Journalism has always had its failures, just like our government, just like our law enforcement. Journalists, too, are human and sometimes let their biases show. But their role in society is critical enough to a healthy democracy that it was protected in the first amendment. Like the three branches of government, the press provides a necessary check and balance on our elected officials that can’t be performed by every citizen individually.
I’ve got a day job. I don’t have the experience, temperament or resources to make (expensive!) FOIA requests, vet and interview sources, analyze data, fact-check articles and operate a newspaper. That’s why I support a local newspaper that is engaged in this necessary work.
When our elected officials demonize unflattering reporting as “fake news” or call journalists “the enemy of the people” they undermine an essential pillar of our democracy. When they ignore the phone calls and emails of journalists, they sidestep accountability.
In your recent video, you described the “compassion” and “love” of your employees and how they attend to the wellbeing of those who are incarcerated. That’s terrific and I’m sure it’s true. But there’s more to the story that needs to be addressed.
Why do inmates in your prison die at three times the rate of the national average? The jail has had multiple deaths deemed homicides by the medical examiner, yet no one is held accountable. Are they dying merely because the inmates tend to make “bad decisions?” Why was nurse Mary Coy, the one responsible for monitoring inmate healthcare, fired? Why has medical compliance reporting ceased?
When Jacob Oakie was jailed only for his addiction, why did your guards pepper spray him in the face while he was hours from death due because of meningitis in the jail’s infirmary and unable obey their commands? Why doesn’t Heart of Florida have medical care to identify those who are mentally ill at the jail to prevent them from getting injured by guards when they are not able to obey commands, such as in the case of Zachary Altom? What steps is the Marion County Sheriff’s Office taking to address these vulnerable folks, who like many others in the county jail are awaiting their day in court and have not been convicted of any crime?
Raising these questions and documenting this issue is not “tabloid news,” as you’ve called it, it’s accountability to the community. You expect your officers to face the public they serve with courage and integrity; will you do the same?
Alongside the “bad choices” made by inmates, there are other serious issues that affect the health and wellbeing of inmates. Florida consistently ranks near the bottom of the nation in mental health care spending and for health care for the poor. The safety net for the poorest members of our community is full of holes. These aren’t choices you’ve made, these are choices we’ve made as a state.
Maybe this is sufficient reason to explain the troubling statistics about our jail. If so, why not answer the concerns the “Gazette” has raised?
We don’t expect perfection from those who represent us, whether they’re public officials or the press. But we do expect transparency and accountability. Our community needs courageous and principled leadership. We also need a fair, free and fearless press. And we need you to answer the phone when they call.
Support community journalism
The first goal of the Ocala Gazette is to deliver trustworthy local journalism so corruption, misinformation and abuse are not hidden from the public or unchallenged.
