Brian’s Letter on Fugitive’s Unnecessary Death
Letter-to-the-Editor
Hernando Today, Tampa Tribune
September 17, 2009
Brooksville, Florida
TRAGEDY AND TRAVESTY
Dear Editor:
Reporter Tony Holt’s recent articles of September 11 and 12, 2009, St. Petersburg Times, on the fugitive who drowned in Hunter’s Lake (Spring Hill, Hernando County) recently, trying to escape pursuing sheriff deputies from both Pasco and Hernando counties, was nothing less than a tragedy and a travesty at the same time. I live on the edge of the lake and may have seen that person that very day as I viewed a fisherman in a small boat in the afternoon.
Little Man Rayford, the 35-year old career criminal, according to the reports, had an extensive criminal background, but nothing that seemed to indicate were crimes of major violence. Yet the sheriffs departments, of both counties, labeled him as “one of the most wanted fugitives,” and they also said he was “armed and dangerous.”
The two law enforcement agencies apparently sent a cadre of officers, helicopters and canines, but no boats, to pursue Rayburn on Hunter’s Lake, based on a telephone tip. There were warrants for his arrest for previous escapes from police, parole violations and also his not appearing in court. The “fugitive’s” apparent panic in a fleeing kayak, its subsequent overturning into the lake waters, and his resulting drowning appear to be the direct result of the sheriffs vast presence and intimidating threats on the water’s edge.
What, in God’s name, requires law enforcement authorities, to use such force for a person with such mild-level violations? And if the sheriffs offices created such a force at the water’s edge, why were they not prepared with a boat to send out to rescue the fugitive upon his overturning in the deep waters? The sheriffs’ departments are directly responsible for overreacting in its pursuit of a non-violent criminal and being unprepared to take life-saving actions at a location that required such positioning. Law enforcement should be held accountable for the unnecessary pursuit, causing death of a citizen whose major criminal offenses were of low-level non-violent criminal activities.
The immediate question is, does not the two sheriff’s departments have more important law enforcement activities, and less expensive actions (i.e. use of a helicopter) to perform, unless they thrive on the adrenaline rush of pursuing car chases and low-level, non-violent drug dealers.
One cannot blame Mr. Rayford’s family for criticizing the police for making Littleman Rayford out to be more dangerous than he was, and for failing to attempt to try and save him, especially after the police were the one’s who caused the mishap to occur in the first place.
We have not seen the end of the Little Man Rayford action. I fully expect, and hope, for the Rayford family’s sake, that they take this abusive law enforcement action to court as a criminal offense in its own right, and a violation of a person’s rights, whether the individual be a law-abiding citizen, or even a criminal or a prisoner, in our so-called civil society.
Brian Moore, Spring Hill, Florida
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