A Sportscaster Was Arrested For Tearing The Word "Plantation" Off A Sign At His Gated Florida Commun

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BuzzFeed News

A Sportscaster Was Arrested For Tearing The Word "Plantation" Off A Sign At His Gated Florida Community
Warner Wolf, who called baseball, local sports, and the Olympics, often complained about the name of Classics Plantation Estates.



Tom Namako
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on February 9, 2019, at 3:25 p.m. ET

Longtime sportscaster Warner Wolf was charged with a felony for allegedly ripping the letters for the word "Plantation" off the sign outside his gated Naples, Florida community, according to records from the Collier County sheriff's office.

Wolf — who popularized the term "let's go to the tape" — "has been a vocal critic of the name 'plantation' at board meetings and Wolf wanted the word 'plantation' removed from the sign," the sheriff's report said.

Wolf, 81, was arrested after surveillance video showed someone who looked like him remove the letters spelling "plantation" on both sides of a sign "with a tool."



. . .

Then, on December 13, Wolf drove up to the vehicle gate in a black Toyota SUV near the sign and handed the letters to the guard, "with instructions to gove the broken letters to the property manager," the sheriff's records said.


Read more: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomnamako/warner-wolf-plantation-sign-florida-sportscaster-arrested

[RockRaven]

1. They charged an 81 year old man who pried some letter off of a sign with A FELONY...

Thank goodness Florida prosecutors are there to keep the public safe from this dangerous menace.

[Lochloosa]

4. It's the cost of the damages that make it a felony.

[RockRaven]

5. Prosecutors are not automatons. Laws define what they can do, not what they must do.

If nobody in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems exercise discretion, there is no point in using human beings instead of robots and computers.

[Lochloosa]

7. He broke the law. And that sign would cost well over 1000 to replace.

Penalties for Criminal Mischief

The penalties for criminal mischief in Florida will vary according to the amount of damage caused to the subject property in the course of the offense.
Where the property damage is valued at $200 or less, the person commits a second degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail.
Where the property damage is greater than $200 but less than $1,000, the offense is a first degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in jail.
Where the amount of damage to the property exceeds $1,000, the offense is a third degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment.


http://www.husseinandwebber.com/crimes/property-crimes/criminal-mischief/

[metalbot]

15. They aren't...

...but this is pretty normal. You charge people for what they did, and let them plead down to something reasonable (in this case, likely a misdemeanor that will be dismissed after a period of time). Every plea deal is by definition prosecutorial discretion, and that's how most cases are resolved.

I'm fully prepared to be irate if he's convicted of a felony for this, but the charging is pretty normal.

[Honeycombe8]

16. I think the charges mean that the property owner pressed charges...

and wouldn't accept a simple recompense for the damage, or maybe the man refused to pay for it.

He knew they'd know it was him. So I don't know what he thought he was accomplishing, once he failed to change the board's mind.

I also don't know why he moved to a place with that name, if he doesn't like it. Or if the name was changed after he bought there.

[Hoyt]

2. Agree with him. Moved last year. One house I really liked was off "Jim Crow" Road. I said no way am

I living off that road. I'm sure it is named for someone legitimate, but dang.

[TeamPooka]

8. I'm sure it is not named for someone real

[SunSeeker]

3. WTF? This is a civil action for damages, at best, not a felony!

What fucking DA charged it as a felony?!

[LiberalLovinLug]

13. Make an example out of the "n-word lover"

[Honeycombe8]

17. It's a felony if the damages exceed a certain amount.

You know, like there is petty theft, then grand larceny (a felony), etc.

[SunSeeker]

18. DAs usually show discretion in situations like this. This is insane.

The DA is abusing his or her office if he is popping an 81 year old for a felony for knocking letters off a sign.

[McKim]

6. Great Statement

He made a great statement. Hope he stays out of jail. We have to wipe out these names and ideas. It is way past time. Well done!

[MuseRider]

28. Agreed! n/t

[TeamPooka]

9. #FreeWarner!

[paleotn]

11. A felony?! There's people out there with machine guns and you're arresting him?

Reason number 1,268 why I hate gated communities and most of the people who live in them.

[Sneederbunk]

12. Who made him live there?

[jpak]

14. The Devil

[csziggy]

19. That's my question! Was that the name when he moved in?

If it was, and he objected to the name, why did he move into (buy into) that development? Or was named/re-named after he was committed?

Why didn't he try to enlist other residents into his campaign to remove"plantation" from the name? If he did try and could not then obviously it didn't bother enough of the residents to carry the vote.

ETA - OK, the land for the subdivision was purchased in 2003 and the name was already listed as Classics Plantation Estates. SO that was the name when he purchased it. If he objected to the name so strenuously, why did he buy into that particular subdivision?! (https://www.collierclerk.com/corpublicaccess/document/view/2825526)

[forgotmylogin]

20. I wonder how old the actual sign is?

I mean...maybe he got woke and it started to offend him after a number of years. People can change. People have to or there's no hope. Maybe there wasn't such a prominent sign at the beginning, and driving past it every day built up into the rage we're all capable of with inanimate objects when we've had enough.

[csziggy]

22. On both Google Street View and Google Earth Pro it was up in May 2011

So it has been there a while. I guess the man just got woken enough to object - good for him.

I live just south of the heart of South Georgia plantation country. If I tried to remove "plantation" from every sign it would take the rest of my life. But this are is different - the plantations that existed after the Civil War were bought out by Northerners. Most have been converted to hunting plantations - not ideal but they do preserve the environment. The history was recorded in a book called "From Cotton to Quail" by Clifton Paisley. Paisley also wrote "The Red Hills of Florida, 1528-1865" about this area that covers from prehistory to the Civil War. He was given access to some of the plantation records which are normally not public. For people interested in Leon County and North Florida both books are fascinating.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

21. Or why did his sensitivity or compassion change through the years?

Some former racists have been known to change. A certain governor of Virginia, for example. Or, a former president of the U.S. (LBJ).

Maybe this guy woke up to the implication of "plantation".

And, perhaps the name of the state "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" should be officially shortened to its common name.

[csziggy]

23. Plantation is just a word for a large holding, generally agricultural

plantation
[plan-tey-shuh n]

noun
1. a usually large farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country, on which cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar cane, or the like is cultivated, usually by resident laborers.
2. a group of planted trees or plants.
History/Historical .

1. a colony or new settlement.
2. the establishment of a colony or new settlement.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/plantation

Not all plantations involved slavery. Just because the American South has tainted the word does not mean it should never be used at all, ever.

As I said in my other message I live where there were and still are "plantations." Since the Civil War those plantations have changed from cotton growing, slave holding entities to hunting preserves that keep this area forested with good land management. So "plantation" does not simply have the connotation of the image of Tara in "Gone with the Wind" - in this area it is much more complicated.

And as someone with ancestors who were among the earliest settlers of Rhode Island I think they should retain the original name with the original meaning.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. Understood, but the meaning of "plantation" seems to have evolved, ...

... and not in a good way. Gone with the Wind's "Tara" may have played a part.

The definition you quoted uses the words "resident laborers". Tara had its share of those, right? Perhaps the plantations of Rhode Island had them.

https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/jcbexhibit/Pages/exhibSlavery.html

Not to imply anything about your ancestors. Most people didn't own slaves, due to their beliefs, or because they didn't have the money, weren't large landowners.

[csziggy]

25. I understand but maybe it's time to let it evolve further

As for my ancestors - I have ones from both North and South. The ones that lived in Rhode Island went there because they did not believe the same as the people in Massachusetts where they were originally from. They went to Rhode Island for religious freedom as taught by Roger Williams.

On the other hand, I have Southern ancestors who were unrepentent slave owners. One was a Baptist minister who left the church in South Carolina where he was ordained because they outlawed slave ownership by ministers and officers of the church. He was a complete asshole and taught the men who formed the Alabama Baptist Convention which led to the creation of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Some of my Southern ancestors came in as indentured servants but were quick to become slave owners as soon as they were released from that obligation.

I've had to face this since I helped my mother research her family history in the 1960s. It's not something I am proud of but these are facts that cannot be denied.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. Was it not already named that when he moved in?

Couldn't he simply have bought a home elsewhere?

[Blues Heron]

27. They went to the video tape lol