There's a bit of a brouhaha brewing between West Palm Beach Police Chief Vincent Demasi and Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
Apparently, Demasi made some comments a few days ago that prosecutors aren't doing a good enough job keeping career criminals off the streets.
Aronberg saw them as fightin' words, and fired back by calling Demasi's comments "irresponsible."
LAW ENFORCEMENT BEEF!
Aronberg addressed the comments in a news conference Tuesday, adding that Demasi's comment "denigrates both our office and his own."
Demasi made the comments while talking about Moses McCray, a Boynton Beach criminal with a long rap sheet who was shot by police last week after he tried to run over officers with his car twice, and pointed a weapon at them.
McCray, who was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in critical condition after that incident, has been arrested more than 30 times since 1998.
Demasi's beef comes from what he says is Aronberg's office's routine handling of a perpetual criminal, calling it the most frustrating thing he's ever had to deal with in his career.
Aronberg defended his office by saying that they have sent McCray to the slammer twice, and that the other times he's been released was due to poor cooperation from potential witnesses and even some of McCray's victims.
Now, McCray is facing ggravated assault charges. But Demasi says he should have also been tagged with an attempted murder charge.
Aronberg says they've done nothing with McCray as of yet, because he hasn't been formally arrested or charged.
"I'm disappointed by Chief Demasi's false attacks on the people of this office," Aronberg said in his presser Tuesday. "He's entitled to his own opinions, but he's not entitled to his own facts ... As a police chief who claims to have 40 years of experience, Mr. Demasi should know better than that."
The two have not spoken since last week.
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