"VAGRANT WATCH" Hate Group Attempts Satire, Fails Miserably

Historic City News blog has published an odd May 14, 2019 article by WADE ROSS, a failed candidate for public office who "moderates" a vigilante hate group on Facebook, one that I have reported as such to Southern Poverty Law Center and Facebook.

WADE ROSS and his vicious vigilantes stalk the homeless with cameras, legally armed with weapons carry permits.

WADE ROSS and his fellow tedious termagant tortfeasors wrote school boards, discouraging St. Augustine tourism.

WADE ROSS never responded to my requests for the original, time-stamped, unaltered photos sent with his hate mail to school boards.

As mentioned in my March 20, 2019 Folio Weekly Magazine story, one of their members was arrested on Valentine's Day at the Lightner Museum and City Hall, charges later dismissed by State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA.

Here's the WADE ROSS feeble attempt at satire, from the May 14, 2019 Historic City News blog, sometimes referred to by locals as "Hater City News."

HCN is sometimes spot on, as on Sherif DAVID SHOAR, the Michelle O'Connell case and the misguided 91-93 Coquina Avenue purchase.

But it is often wrong, as in its boring predictable prejudices against former County Commissioner J. Kenneth Bryan, other African-Americans, and the homeless and other people different from MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN," as reflected in this dud:

May 14, 2019

Public Park located in South Davis Shores at 91-93 Coquina Avenue

Grand Opening Date – TBA

Wade Ross, Moderator
Vagrant Watch Group

It is with great pleasure that the St. Augustine Vagrant Watch Group announces to local Historic City News reporters that City Manager John Regan, Public Works Director Mike Cullam, and Commissioners Leanna Freeman, Nancy Sikes-Kline and others, have finally relented and purchased land for a safe zone and public park.

This public area will not only allow law enforcement to enforce public camping ordinances in the Historic City, but it will also be an area for the public to visit and enjoy.

The Property is located just across the Bridge of Lions in South Davis Shores at 91-93 Coquina Avenue. Plans for the Safe Zone and park and will include coquina benches, a picnic table, a historic kiosk, privacy fence, trash receptacles, etc. 

Commissioner Leanna Freeman said before the meeting, “I want people to have access to our beautiful views and marsh front and wildlife just in a passive way just so that when you’re strolling along you can walk up and see the marsh.

The St. Augustine Record

Former Vice Mayor Todd Neville, a property owner in Davis Shores, supported the purchase. He said the city’s vision plan makes livability a priority, and he said the city has promoted livability in a number of ways. 

The St. Augustine Record

City Manager John Regan who lives nearby said, “We can do very, very quick inexpensive improvements that would address the flooding that occurs when the tides are so high. What it does is it makes the property acquisition beneficial at two levels. One, it can provide the opportunity to deal with the flooding. And then, secondly, it conserves property on a high functioning wetland for the public benefit.” 

The St. Augustine Record

After more than two years of making requests of the City of St. Augustine, the St. Augustine Vagrant Watch Group would like to thank the Commission for creating this safe space for our homeless population and for providing a green space for all to enjoy. 

(Maps will be provided upon the completion of this project.)

(End of vicious vigilante's attempt at satire).

For those of us in the reality-based community, in the March 20, 2019 Folio Weekly Magazine editor Georgio Valentino and I described the Vagrant Watch group:

As draconian as Kahn’s ordinance is, local vigilantes want to go even further. Enter St. Augustine Vagrant Watch & St. Augustine Citizen Night Watch—two names for one Facebook group. Moderators Wade Ross and Evelyn Hammock were called as witnesses when Kahn pitched his ordinance in 2018. Ross, Hammock and other members remain active, harassing and gossiping about people downtown. Like Jacksonville’s unconstitutional ordinance, these vigilantes use the archaic term “vagrant” to smear the targets of their ire.

Some vagrant-watchers are more active than others. Hammock was arrested just before midnight Feb. 14, 2019. She was patrolling the grounds of the city-owned Lightner Museum and City Hall with a Ruger pistol (and a valid concealed-carry permit), apparently looking for sleeping homeless people to report or confront. The State Attorney has since dismissed the charges.

Why is Vagrant Watch so aggressive? Members believe that the St. Augustine Police Department isn’t enforcing Kahn’s ordinance as robustly as it should. SAPD Chief Barry Fox emphasizes empathy, social services, warnings and citations, not the mass arrest of homeless people for victimless crimes. As Lincolnville resident Mark Frazier said, “It’s time to solve our problems rather than try to arrest our way out of them.”

As a result, hardliners like Vagrant Watch are now accusing the city of being too merciful with people experiencing homelessness. St. Augustine is, after all, an internationally recognized “Compassionate City,” one of the first.

On Feb. 27, 2019, Vagrant Watch went so far as to appeal to scandal-ridden St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar, asking him to send deputies to make the arrests it claims SAPD will not. Shoar demurred.

One city lawman quipped that the vigilantes would “like to round up the homeless, put them on cattle cars and send them to concentration camps.”
As if on cue, a letter published in The St. Augustine Record on March 18 stated, "I think it is about time that county and city leaders, as well as the police department and Sheriff's Office, do their jobs and get rid of the homeless."

Ed Slavin & Giorgio Valentino, " First They Came for the Artists

Attorney Thomas Cushman defends constitutional rights of homeless in St. Augustine’s latest moral panic," Folio Weekly (March 20, 2019).