A similar letter with a similar tone by the same author was recently posted on Facebook. It was sent to the Gainesville Sun and reprimanded the University of Florida Police Department for something that was allegedly stated by them at the O'Connell Center to incoming students. The statement was never directly heard by the author, Mr. Thompson. His response was quite belligerent toward UPD. As a retired law enforcement officer, I personally contacted Chief Linda Stump and Capt. Bart Knowles of UPD and gave them a heads up about the letter posted on Facebook and (possibly) soon to be published in the Sun. The letter was very aggressive and certainly didn't speak for me. I also asked the same question.......do the Board members approve letters written on behalf of our Club by our cycling advocate? Does he have free reign to write whatever he wants, about anyone or any situation he perceives to be adversarial toward biking? I don't believe a single Board member responded even though all this took place on the GCC Facebook page. Fortunately I don't believe the letter was ever published by the Sun. So what does the Club leadership have to say?

Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad

From: Pete Miner <pete.miner1@gmail.com>;
To: Rob Robins <rhrobins@flmnh.ufl.edu>;
Cc: GCCMail <gccmail@gccfla.org>; jtexconsult@gmail.com <jtexconsult@gmail.com>;
Subject: Re: GCCMail: In Today's Gainesville Sun
Sent: Fri, Sep 6, 2013 12:55:14 PM

No doubt! You just can't tell an entire city, "No more Mr. Nice Guy."
 
And by the way, always.....be nice.


On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 8:48 AM, Rob Robins <rhrobins@flmnh.ufl.edu> wrote:

As a Gainesville Cycling Club member-in-good-standing, I would like to know if the GCC board approved today’s letter to the editor of The Gainesville Sun, wherein Advocacy Director of the GCC, James Thompson, writing as advocacy director of the GCC, made the following assertion:

 

“Cyclists are done playing nice in this community, where we have tolerated untruths and emotional appeals from the car-only crowd.”

 

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130906/OPINION02/130909804/1077/opinion?Title=Letters-to-the-Editor-for-Sept-6-2013

 

Purposefully antagonizing so-called “emotional” motorists with innuendo and implied threats is to serve what end?? I feel very strongly that this is a wholly inappropriate stance for the GCC to be taking.

 

Did the board approve this message? Assuming no – certain actions on the part of the board should follow. In my humble opinion, the first should be beseeching The Sun to run a statement authored by the full board, including Mr. Thompson, that condemns the above and makes clear our position on promoting cycling and improvements to bicycle infrastructure.

 

The second should be reminding Mr. Thompson, as I hope this letter does, that when he tags his LTE’s “Advocacy Director of the Gainesville Cycling Club” he speaks for all of us and should therefore actually speak with our representatives on the board prior to making new pronouncements.

 

Sincerely,


Rob Robins

Gainesville, FL

 

 

 

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