That’s because the Chief was in violation of State Law.<\/p>\n
Florida police chief learns hard lesson, un-bans guns and ammo<\/a> by\u00a0Lee Williams<\/a><\/p>\n Donald C. Hagan, the Chief of the Okeechobee, Florida Police Department, doesn\u2019t appear to be enjoying his time on the national stage.<\/p>\n Hagan had to take some time off, his spokesman said Monday, because he is receiving personal attacks from across the country.\u00a0As reported Monday,<\/a>\u00a0Hagan rocketed to infamy for signing an illegal city ordinance that banned firearm and ammunition sales as well as firearm possession just days before Hurricane Helene made landfall.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chief is not in,\u201d a police receptionist said Tuesday morning. She directed calls to Okeechobee Police Major Bettye Taylor, who issued a statement Monday trying to clarify and explain her boss\u2019 actions. Instead, it only muddied the waters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Emergency Ordinance commenced immediately upon the declaration by the Police Chief and was thereafter terminated by the Police Chief on or about 9:51 pm on the same date it was issued. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Emergency Ordinance was terminated for two primary reasons. One is that, fortunately, Hurricane Helene did not have a substantial impact on the City and its residents. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Secondly, a provision prohibiting the sale of firearms and ammunition was inadvertently included in the Emergency Ordinance. Upon discovering this, the City and Police Chief acted expeditiously to terminate the Emergency Ordinance,\u201d Major Taylor wrote.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, the part of the ordinance that banned the sale of guns and ammunition and prohibited firearm possession in public by anyone other than law enforcement or members of the military, was \u201cinadvertently included\u201d in the ordinance.<\/p>\n As you can imagine, neither Major Taylor nor her boss returned calls or emails Tuesday seeking to clarify how or why they banned guns and ammo sales\u00a0inadvertently<\/em>.<\/p>\n In her statement, Taylor also sought to reassure the town\u2019s residents \u2014 as well as the legions of law-abiding gun owners who are following the story across the country \u2014 that the ban caused no harm.<\/p>\n \u201cAt no time did the City, or the Police Chief, contemplate, nor take any action, to prohibit, confiscate or otherwise regulate firearms or ammunition,\u201d she wrote.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This, however, is not exactly true. The ordinance the chief signed clearly prohibited the \u201csale of, or offer to sell, with or without compensation, any ammunition or gun or other firearm of any size or description. The intentional display, by or in any store or shop, of any ammunition or gun or other firearm of any size or description. The intentional possession in a public place of a firearm by any person, except a duly authorized law enforcement official or any person in military service acing in the official performance of their duty.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those are pretty strong prohibitions, which very clearly didn\u2019t make their way into the ordinance\u00a0inadvertently<\/em>. Also, they very clearly regulate arms and ammunition, regardless of how long the ordinance was in effect. What\u2019s also very clear is why the good major now wants to avoid even the appearance of regulating arms. Florida\u2019s powerful preemption statute allows only the state legislature to regulate arms. Any public official who violates the preemption statute can be removed from office and fined up to $5,000, which the statute requires them to pay personally.<\/p>\n Okeechobee Police spokesman, Detective Jarret Romanello, told local media Monday evening that city officials are reviewing the entire incident to determine how the \u201cmistake\u201d occurred, and that he looks forward to \u201cproviding more answers as soon as the review is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n Romanello also complained that most of the \u201cnoise\u201d directed at his boss was coming from folks who live outside city limits.<\/p>\n The police department\u2019s claim that its illegal ban was somehow inadvertent or mistaken is laughable. Chief Hagan signed the ordinance himself. Did he not read it? Did he fail to notice that he was prohibiting gun and ammunition sales and even firearm possession by his 5,432 residents when he signed the document?<\/p>\n The police chief, his major, his spokesman and the entire city council should admit the truth rather than hiding under their beds. There are a few national and statewide groups who may soon have a few questions of their own, which they\u2019ll likely pose under oath.<\/p>\n Despite all the blatant gaslighting, what happened is actually simple and easy to understand: Okeechobee Police Chief Donald C. Hagan banned firearm and ammunition sales as well as firearm possession as a major hurricane approached the state, which is inexcusable.<\/p>\n If Chief Hagan doesn\u2019t like the comments he\u2019s receiving, maybe he shouldn\u2019t have infringed upon his residents\u2019 civil rights. He will always be an example for any other public official who contemplates violating the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution as well as the Constitution of the State of Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That’s because the Chief was in violation of State Law. Florida police chief learns hard lesson, un-bans guns and ammo Okeechobee police chief receiving criticism from across the country. by\u00a0Lee Williams Donald C. Hagan, the Chief of the Okeechobee, Florida Police Department, doesn\u2019t appear to be enjoying his time on the national stage. Hagan had … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,50,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucraps","category-goobermint","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104783,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104773\/revisions\/104783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOkeechobee police chief receiving criticism from across the country.<\/p>\nTakeaways<\/strong><\/h4>\n